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Writing in The Economist's Voice, Christophe Chamley and Brian Pinto set out a number of reasons against the bailouts which have been offered to Greece and Ireland by the International Monetary Fund and the European Central bank.¹ Their main concerns were focused on high risks surrounding privately held bond spreads, or the threat of debt restructuring, otherwise known as a default. The emergence of serious concerns about the state of Spanish, Italian and even American debt levels in the summer of 2011 has created an uncertain economic future globally.

Over the summer of 2007, Greek forest wild fires made international news. In June, the flames consumed a large part of the Mt Parnitha's National Park, close to Athens, sending thousands of Athenians out into an unprecedented demonstration, demanding immediate protective measures and tougher legislation. By early September, the blazing infernos around the country had destroyed 670,000 acres of forest, olive groves and farmland while the death toll stood at 77 people.

The events of the summer of 2011 have affected the international financial sector immeasurably, with concerns about defaults in Spain and Italy, and the United States. The United States was further rocked by a downgrading of its triple A status by the rating agency Standards and Poor. In the preceding weeks, news that a deal had been reached which would provide the second bailout for Greece was greeted with relief across the financial world. However, the fiscal crisis which had threatened the very future of the Eurozone was not addressed by this intervention. In Ireland, the news that interest rates for their bailout would be reduced with a longer time for payback was also seen as welcome, allowing for a domestic budget that would not be so austere as to prohibit growth. However, both Greece and Ireland remain peripheral nations in the ongoing fiscal crisis which has destabilised the global financial sector. A political solution to this fiscal crisis appears beyond the capabilities of elected officials who are caught between populist electoral concerns about austerity measures and a neo-liberal fixation with credit related growth, the basis of which underpins ‘the casino capitalism’ of the global investment markets.

Dr. Liam Leonard is a lecturer in Sociology, Criminology, Human Rights and Environmental Politics at the Institute of Technology, Sligo, Ireland. He is the series editor for the Advances in Ecopolitics Book Series. He is the author of a number of books and articles in the areas of sociology, politics, environmentalism and criminology. His list of recent internationally published books includes: The Environmental Movement in Ireland, the Transition to Sustainable Living and Practice, Environmental Movements and Waste Infrastructure, Global Ecological Politics, and Sustainable Justice and the Community. He is the founder and editor of the Journal of Social Criminology (CRIMSOC).

Dr. Kieran Allen is a senior lecturer at the School of Sociology, University College Dublin. His research interests include Contemporary Irish Society; Marxist Theory; Globalisation; Work and Industry and Max Weber. He has published numerous books, book chapters and journal articles.

To plan environmental policies it is important to identify factors influencing their effective implementation. Regarding Greek environmental policy, several factors have been underlined in the literature influencing its implementation. These include, among others, the structure of state mechanisms, the existence of clientelistic networks, the weak civil society and specific characteristics of political culture (Bromley, 1997; Lekakis, 1995; Spanou, 1998). In the recent literature the social capital of a community has also been recognized as having a significant influence during the implementation of all stages of environmental policy (Jones, Sophoulis, Iosifides, Botetzagias, & Evangelinos 2009).