Forest of Halkidiki Greece

By Liliana Usvat
Blog 211-365

I was visiting Greece and while in Thessaloniki we were invited by a group of young people to tste the products of the area cheese tomatoes to see what they will loose because of an Canadian company wants to destroy to find and extract Gold.

It was a cry for help from people of Greece, country that i fell in love with while visiting it, to stop the destruction of the land of Halkidiki.

I felt for the cause so I decided to write about this in my Blog.

The destruction of Halkidiki has begun.
 
Since mid -June 2012 the Canradian company Eldorado Gold together with the construction company Aktor  with the blessing of the Greek State started razing the ancient forest in Skouries to turn into a huge open - pit mine.

The pharaonic project will turn Halkidiki into a wasteland and drain every single drop of water.

Poverty is not having water to drink.
Wounds of the past means total destruction in the future.

The "investment" planned by Hellas Gold ( 95% owned by Canadian company Eldorado Gold and 5% by Aktor) is a barbaric intervention in a small densely populated region with a rich natural and cultural environment.

The Scale of future plans is massive 33 millions tons were excavated in the past 2500 years with the plans is to extract 380 millions tons in the next 25 years, until the last metal is removed from the ground.

All mining activities and installations are located on an active seismic faultline which has already caused earthquakes of magnitude 7 on the Richter scale.

The upcoming disaster is of biblical proportions. In addition to the existing underground metal mining activities the plan is to develop a series of new open pit mines as well as a metallurgy complex. The processing of raw ore to produce pure metals is the most polluting industrial activity in the world.

What the independent scientific institution say?

Forest

• The region ancient fores will incur permanent and irreversible damage, destroying the landscape and its biodiversity.

Water:  

• Draining of mountain aquifers will cause the water table to drop by 600m causing desertification. 
• Surface and ground water will be contaminated with sulphuric acid, heavy metals as a result of mine drainage.
• The intensity of dangerousness of floods will increase.
• Deep mining in Olympiada will cause salinization of underground aquifer.

Soil

• The pollution from heavy metals carried in water will contaminate the soil, flora, fauna and crops, even at a big distance from mining activities.

Atmosphere

• The atmosphere will be contaminated with airborne particles and heavy metals in particular arsenic. 3116tons of dust per hour will be generated by Skouries mine alone. This toxic dust will travel over large distances, in a similar way to the sand dust from Sahara Desert.

Health,

Contamination of the environment and food chain with heavy metals ( lead, cadmium, mercury, arsenic, copper) will cause disease such as affection of the nervous system of children, anemia, kidney failure, gastroenteritis, nephritis, liver failure, hepatitis, cirrhosis, jaundice cancer

Conclusion

And all of this so few thousands of people maximum to make a profit. Is it worth it?
And you may ask why the health of the planet, the existence of the forest and people is less important that the profit of few?

• It is possible that these massive environmental destructions to be made because some companies that make the fesability study spend the majority of money taken from investors for these studies and let the investor hope that in the future they will make money while in the end the environment suffer? For them ( the investors) they invest in Gold.
•  It is also possible that because of the level of math education in Canada these studies to have massive math errors?
•  It is also possible that the profit would not be there and the investors would loose all the money because their money were used for the fesability study and the result was not fully understood by investors?

Links

http://antigoldgr.org/en/tag/halkidiki/page/6/

http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/content/protesters-greece-clash-police-over-gold-mine-again

Tree Meditation

by Liliana Usvat
Blog 210 -365

Do you have a tree? If not Plant one.
Did you ever Planted a tree? If not do it.
Do you see trees on daily basis? If not go to a park or just plant one.

This  meditation will help to align your energies with the earth’s energies so that you feel calm, refreshed and at peace. It begins with awareness on the out breath which helps to keep you focused in the present moment.

 The meditation itself is done as visualization, but you could do it outdoors sitting with your back against a tree. Trees and plants have their own energy fields and you can absorb this energy in a positive and revitalizing way for your whole being.

If you are standing, imagine your feet growing roots; if you are sitting, imagine the roots coming out of your legs and your bottom and heading down into the soil.

With each out-breath, your roots grow and reach deeper into the soil. Also feel stress and tension flow out of your roots with each out-breath. Keep focusing and extending your roots.

With each in-breath, feel yourself pulling cool, earthy, grounding energy from the soil and Mother Earth. Feel that energy move slowly from your feet and legs up through your “trunk,” down your “limbs” and into every cell in your body.  When your body is full of this grounding energy, feel it begin to exit through the top of your head.

Now that you have grounded, imagine your arms are limbs and are reaching toward the sky, toward the sun, the source of energy that nourishes green plants and life on earth. 
With each out-breath, your branches reach further into the sky.  Release tension and stress.  Feel your branches growing.

With each in-breath, breathe in the light, warm, energizing sunlight, allowing it to flow down from your “branches” and “trunk” to each part of your body and into each cell.
Feel the energies of earth and sky mixing within you.  When you are full of this vitality, let the energy seep down and out of your roots.

Feel how grounded, calm, and centered you are, but also energized, focused, and with broader perspective.

When you feel complete with this experience, slowly increase your breathing, feel yourself return to your body, stretch, and open your eyes.

Medicinal Trees Camphor (Cinnamomum camphora )

By Liliana Usvat
Blog 209-365

The camphor tree--scientifically known as Cinnamomum camphora--features glossy evergreen leaves and pale yellow flowers in the spring.

In both China and Japan, the evergreen camphor tree grows to great size. An extractive of its bark, camphor acts as a counterirritant when included in ointments for relieving muscle pain.

The camphor tree is a dense broadleaved evergreen that is capable of growing 50-150 ft (15.2-45.7 m) tall and spreading twice that wide with a trunk up to 15 ft (4.6 m) in diameter, though the largest U.S. specimens are only half that size and those in the Caribbean are even smaller

Camphor laurel contains volatile chemical compounds in all plant parts, and the wood and leaves are steam distilled for the essential oils. Camphor laurel has six different chemical variants called chemotypes, which are camphor, linalool, 1,8-cineole, nerolidol, safrole, or borneol.


Culture
Camphor prefers fertile sandy soil. It will tolerate a pH anywhere in the range of 4.3 to 8. The roots are very sensitive to disturbance. They may extend far from the trunk of the tree, and can readily be identified by their characteristic odor.
Light: Camphor will grow in full sun or partial shade.

Propagation Reforestation

Camphor seed does not remain viable for long and should be planted in the greenhouse as soon as it ripens. Remove the fruit pulp first. At 68ºF (20ºC), germination will take 1-6 months. Cuttings of semiripe side shoots can be rooted in a warm humid place in midsummer. Pieces 2-3 in (5.1-7.6 cm) long with a heel work best.

Camphor is a prolific seed producer that apparently does not have serious predators or diseases outside its native range. Seedlings and root sprouts are abundant near mature trees, but individual trees pop up far from seed sources. In Florida, camphor trees appear in undisturbed mesic hardwood forests, upland pine woods, and scrubs, as well as in the vacant lots and fencerows where it is more commonly observed.

Medicinal Use
 

Camphor is used in medicine internally for its calming influence in hysteria, nervousness and neuralgia, and for serious diarrhoea

Camphor is widely planted as a shade tree, screen, or windbreak. In China and Japan, it is grown commercially for its medicinal oil. Camphor oil has a strong penetrating fragrance, a pungent bitter flavor, and feels cool on the skin like menthol, though it also has irritating qualities as well as a numbing effect. Camphor has been used to treat ailments ranging from

• parasitic infections to
•  toothaches. 
• Scientific evidence has confirmed that chemicals in the plant have value in antiseptics and
• medications for treating diarrhea, 
• inflammation,
•  itching, and
•  nervous conditions. 
• it has been proved valuable as an excitant in cases of heart failure
• externally as a counter-irritant in rheumatisms, 
• sprains bronchitis, 
•  and sometimes in conjunction with menthol and phenol for heart failure; 
• it is often given hypodermically, 3 to 5 grains dissolved in 20 to 30 minims of sterile Olive oil - the effect will last about two hours. 
• In nervous diseases it may be given in substance or in capsules or in spirit; dose 2 to 5 grains.
•  Its great value is in colds, 
• chills, and in all 
• inflammatory complaints;
•  it relieves irritation of the sexual organs.

 Other Usges

• Camphor is also used in perfumes. 
• Camphor is a white crystalline substance, obtained from the tree Cinnamomum camphora. Camphor has been used for many centuries as a culinary spice,
•  a component of incense, 
• and as a medicine. 
• Camphor is also an insect repellent and a flea-killing substance.