Wet, wet, wet

Rodia, an important eel-fishing place

Little Egrets on the way to Salaora Island

Some Dalmatian Pelicans chilling in Logarou lagoon

More beauty...

Just got back from Amvrakikos Gulf, another Natura 2000 and Important Bird Area site, where i had some work in the amazing wetlands. My friend Dimitris of the Rodia Wetland Center was kind enough to take me for a ride in his motorboat around the huge lagoon. Although there is a Management Agency, in which I partake, supervising and protecting these very important, massive, ecosystems of western Greece, the Ministry of Environment is still refusing to officially designate the protected area with proper legislation and funding. The area suffers from a lot of illegal activities such as poaching, hunting, dumping, building etc.

ΟΧΙ ΣΤΗΝ ΕΚΤΡΟΠΗ ΤΟΥ ΑΧΕΛΩΟΥ

Παρασκευή 2 Νοεμβρίου, 12.00, ΟΛΟΙ θα είμαστε στα Προπύλαια, ενάντια στο μεγαλύτερο και πιο καταστροφικό τεχνικό έργο διαχείρισης υδατικών πόρων της χώρας μας.

Elections 2007 - Campaigning

It's funny how politicians talk about their environmental consciousness and then all of a sudden you see flyers with their lovely face decorating the streets of the city (this politician in particular was also Mayor of Athens!)

Πυρκαγιές & Πολιτική (Burning down the house - Part 2)

(source: NASA August 25th 2007)

Havent had a chance to blog these last few days, been super busy at work (and super depressed), due to the horror we've all been witnessing with the fires all over the country that are still out of control after so many days. We gave out a press release yesterday, published in allmost every newspaper, regarding the things the Hellenic Society for the Protection of Environment & Cultural Heritage is asking from the Greek government, here it is (unfortunately only in Greek - for now):

1. Την δημιουργία χωριστού Υπουργείου Περιβάλλοντος, ανεξάρτητου από τα Δημόσια Έργα, με ρόλο συντονιστή της κυβερνητικής πολιτικής για το περιβάλλον, με ευρείες αρμοδιότητες και με θέση στην Κυβερνητική Επιτροπή. Η σύζευξη με τα Δημόσια Έργα, που δεν υπάρχει σε καμιά άλλη χώρα-μέλος της Ευρωπαϊκής Ένωσης, αποτελεί πλέον προσβολή και στο περιβάλλον και στη νοημοσύνη των πολιτών.
2. Άμεση απόσυρση της πρότασης τροποποίησης του δασοπροστατευτικού Άρθρου 24 του Συντάγματος, άρθρου που αρχικά υιοθετήθηκε το 1975 από τους αείμνηστους Κωνσταντίνο Καραμανλή και Κωνσταντίνο Τσάτσο και μόνο η παρατεταμένη συζήτηση για τροποποίηση του Άρθρου 24 έχει αναπόφευκτα αποστείλει τραγικά λανθασμένα μηνύματα σε κάθε άκρη της ελληνικής γης για την αποφασιστικότητα με την οποία η πολιτική ηγεσία θα προστατεύσει όλον τον δασικό πλούτο της χώρας (το ίδιο έκανε η εξαγγελία για την αναστολή κατεδάφισης αυθαιρέτων μέσα σε δάση, που ευτυχώς –προς το παρόν τουλάχιστον- ματαιώθηκε).
3. Την παραδειγματική τιμωρία οποιωνδήποτε αποδεδειγμένων εμπρηστών. Την πλήρη στελέχωση των Δασικών Υπηρεσιών και της Πυροσβεστικής Υπηρεσίας, την σημαντική αύξηση επένδυσης σε αποτελεσματικά μέτρα πυρόσβεσης, την εκπαίδευση και συμμετοχή του στρατού στην αντιμετώπιση των πυρκαγιών και την ενθάρρυνση της συνεισφοράς των ΜΚΟ και εθελοντών στην προστασία των δασών.
4. Την ταχύτατη κατάρτιση του Δασολογίου. Αποτελεί Συνταγματική Επιταγή που για πολλά χρόνια τώρα δεν εκπληρώθηκε από αμέλεια της διοίκησης και από έλλειψη της αναγκαίας πολιτικής βούλησης. Ζητούμε άμεση δέσμευση ότι το Δασολόγιο και οι Δασικοί Χάρτες, βασικά εργαλεία προστασίας του δασικού μας πλούτου, θα έχουν συμπληρωθεί μέσα στους επόμενους έξι μήνες.
5. Την κατάργηση οποιασδήποτε ευχέρειας της Διοίκησης να νομιμοποιεί, να αγνοεί και να αμελεί αυθαίρετα εντός ή εκτός σχεδίου ή εντός δασών. Να τηρηθεί και στην πράξη η αναμενόμενη κήρυξη όλων των καμένων εκτάσεων ως αναδασωτέων.
6. Την αύξηση ελεύθερων χώρων και του ποσοστού πρασίνου στις πόλεις που έχασαν γειτονικούς πνεύμονες πρασίνου, με στόχο την αναβάθμιση της ποιότητας του αέρα – η Αθήνα και η Θεσσαλονίκη θεωρούνται εν προκειμένω από τις πιο επιβαρημένες Ευρωπαϊκές πόλεις.

Άλλωστε η μείωση δασοκάλυψης έχει αρνητικές συνέπειες και για την ποιότητα του αέρα, οπότε πρέπει να μειωθούν οι εκπομπές αντίστοιχα από άλλες δραστηριότητες. Ως εκ τούτου ζητούμε:

7. Την επέκταση και ενίσχυση των μέσων μαζικής μεταφοράς – μετρό, τραμ, σιδηρόδρομοι – που δεν αυξάνουν τις εκπομπές, ως μερικό αντιστάθμισμα στην μείωση της δασοκάλυψης. Ζητούμε παράλληλα οικονομικά μέτρα ενθάρρυνσης της απόσυρσης των παλαιοτέρων αυτοκινήτων και την αποτελεσματικότερη φορολόγηση της κυκλοφορίας συμβατικών Ι.Χ. στα κέντρα των μεγαλουπόλεων.
8. Την τροποποίηση του Γενικού Οικοδομικού Κανονισμού ώστε να ενταχθούν σ’ αυτόν οι αρχές του βιοκλιματικού σχεδιασμού που πρέπει να εφαρμοσθούν και στην ανοικοδόμηση των τραγικά κατεστραμμένων χωριών. Ζητούμε επίσης να ενσωματωθεί στο Εθνικό Δίκαιο η Κοινοτική Οδηγία 2002/91 που αφορά την ενεργειακή απόδοση των κτιρίων και να εφαρμοσθεί πλήρως κατά την επόμενη τετραετία. Σημειωτέον ότι τα κτίρια είναι υπεύθυνα για το 40% των εκπομπών, η μείωση των οποίων αποτελεί πλέον επιτακτική ανάγκη.
9. Την άμεση εφαρμογή της Ευρωπαϊκής Οδηγίας για την ελάχιστη φορολόγηση καυσίμων με κριτήρια περιβαλλοντικού κόστους ώστε να επιβαρύνεται η χρήση των ορυκτών καυσίμων που αυξάνουν τις εκπομπές, όπως του λιγνίτη και του λιθάνθρακα.
10. Να μην επιτρέπεται, και πολύ περισσότερο να μην επιδοτείται, η κατασκευή συγκροτημάτων δευτέρων κατοικιών εάν προηγουμένως δεν έχουν μελετηθεί, αντιμετωπισθεί επιτυχώς και συζητηθεί δημόσια η αναπόφευκτη αύξηση κατανάλωσης νερού και ενέργειας που επιφέρουν. Οι επιστήμονες αναμένουν σοβαρή μείωση βροχοπτώσεων και αύξηση της μέσης θερμοκρασίας κατά τις επόμενες δεκαετίες, κάτι που όμως το πρόσφατο σχέδιο Κοινής Υπουργικής Απόφασης για το Χωροταξικό του τουρισμού δεν λαμβάνει υπόψη. Ζητούμε την απόσυρσή του για να επανεκτιμηθούν οι συνέπειες μιας πολιτικής που θα αύξανε την πίεση στους υδατικούς πόρους και στις εκπομπές, υποβαθμίζοντας συνάμα και για πάντα τις ακτές της χώρας.

Burning down the house

We are all watching as the last haven of our capital city is being burned to the ground. The fire began Wednesday afternoon 15 km away from the National Park of Parnitha (a NATURA 2000 site) and reached it yesterday afternoon. There is ash flying all over the city, and the smell is just so scary. There are way too many questions the government and the local authorities will have to answer to.
How timely this is, if one thinks of the Greek government's plan to amend article 24 of the constitution by inserting an innocuous passage which will allow development in order to meet "public needs", aka opening the door for uncontrolled development in forest areas. This along with the absence of a national cadastre, a forestry inventory and the recently proposed Spatial Planning Framework for Tourism, make all of us working in the environmental field all the more angry and suspicious of our country's "leaders".

More Bush bull on ANWR

The coastal plains of ANWR's 1002 area (photo: USGS)

Here we go again. Bush aims to open up ANWR, specifically area 1002 (see January 8th post), to oil and gas leasing by 2009, according to the administration's proposed 2008 Budget released yesterday. I wonder if he's ever even bothered to read the report "Cumulative Environmental Effects of Oil and Gas Activities on Alaska's North Slope", published by the National Research Council in 2003.

2007 wishes for ANWR and the bears

ANWR map from http://arctic.fws.gov/shademap.htm

Finally the political momentum may be going the other way, at least ever since 2000 when Bush called for opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) during his presidential campaign and the House of Representatives repeatedly passed bills in favour.
Legislation introduced in the House last Friday by the Democratic Party, would make the oil-rich 1.2 million-acre coastal strip of the ANWR a permanently protected wilderness and end repeated efforts to open the area east of the Prudhoe oil field (1002 Area on map) to energy companies.
The efforts on ANWR are coinciding with the Department of the Interior’s decision, on December 27 2006, to propose listing polar bears as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, in response to a suit filed in 2005 by three green groups.
Retreating ice in the Arctic and how it affects polar bears has been described as the “canary in the coal mine” in terms of climate change. It has already led to starvation, cannibalism, and drowning among the world's 20,000 to 25,000 polar bears (4,700 of which live in Alaska and spend part of the year in Canada and Russia). Check out the PBI’s pages for more on the research carried out
It looks like 2007 may actually turn out to be the International Polar Year.

Climate Truth in Chaos?

Photos from the I Count - Stop Climate Chaos event where 25,000 packed into an unseasonably sunny Trafalgar Square.

I was reading today Mike Hulme’s article on BBC Online, where he talks about how the rhetoric of climate change catastrophe is in danger of tipping society onto a negative, depressive and reactionary trajectory.

He argues, on the occasion of the massive Stop Climate Chaos event last month in London, and I quote, that the increasing use of the word “catastrophic”, "chaotic", "irreversible", "rapid" - has altered the public discourse around climate change and that it is not is not the language of science. Its not just campaigners anymore, but politicians and scientists too, that are actively ignoring the careful hedging which surrounds science's predictions? Catastrophic language will not be visible in the next assessment by the IPCC and the current scenarios of future climate change are significant enough without having to invoke society into behavioral change.

But isn’t that what we scientists should try to invoke?

I mean, shouldn’t we try and convince people, by publicly presenting scientific evidence (because most people today, that have no climate scientific background for example will never read the IPCC report or visit the CRU or Tyndall Center’s websites), that they have to alter some of their daily behaviors? To try sustainable living, in order to contribute less to climate change from a household point of view – because everything starts from there.

For example, we can conserve energy at home via energy efficient appliances, or seek alternative means of transport (public transport, carpooling etc) - to go to work, or try recycling; composting; use of renewable electricity and so many other simple measures one can take and turn them into a habit for them and their kids.

Now the industrial sector is a whole different ballgame, simple arguments are not enough because there is serious money involved. They need either massive incentives or penalties in order to comply with emissions reductions legislation etc.

So don’t get me wrong, I’ve had the utmost respect for Mike Hulme and his work ever since I started studying climate change, but I think we do have to be militant to some degree about climate change, now the line where it turns into a soap-opera is thin, but maybe we shouldn’t be so judgmental of the climate campaigners or NGOs and join them instead.

Athens green spaces: degradation instead of regeneration

For every citizen of Athens there are only 2-3 m2 of green space*, the lowest percentage in all of the EU Member States.
But how is this possible, in a beautiful city that has been endowed with quite a number of green areas?

The reason is that very simply the Greek State itself has decided in the recent years to irreversibly degrade them, either by transferring them to private individuals, or with land use changes, or even uncontrolled commercial exploitation by Local Authority Organizations etc. All this, with the pretence that this is happening for the common public good.

Some shocking examples:

• The transfer of 5000 m2 from the Pedion tou Areos to the Panellinios gymnastics club (with very dodgy legal doings) that also entailed plans to cut down lots of trees and illegal building.
• The siting of the Metro station and the Contemporary Art Museum in the Rizari Park area (original area 115000 m2 – now only 50000 m2), that was mysteriously handed over from the Greek State to the Goulandris family.
• The expansion of the Athens Concert Hall (Megaron) at the expense of the Eleftherias Park.
• The transfer of a large part of the Nea Philadelphia Park to the AEK football club.
  
• Many illegal actions, like new buildings and destruction of existing greenhouses within the Syngrou Estate

And the list just goes on and on.
We are losing these priceless “lungs” of our city and apart from the local NGOs like the WWF and some, not many, concerned citizens, nobody else seems to give a damn.

*According to the Ministry of Environment, February 2004, there are 3,55 m2 for each citizen, that is the figure when adding the green on the traffic islands, the lawn on Attiki Odos and Ymittos Circular, but without considering the serious reductions in green space that occurred during their construction (e.g. Ymittos)

References/ useful links for further reading:

The WWFs assessment of Athens green spaces

Open Spaces Observatory

Climate Change Denial Overload

I'm in the process of putting together a presentation regarding paleoclimate evidence (proxy records etc.) for climate change and I've been reading for a few weeks now the various related blog posts and environmental news commentaries. In the beginning I was shocked at the mere stupidity of those leading the arguments (mostly in the US) on how invalid anthropogenic warming is and so on. I read so much stuff from so many different sources, with loads of great rebuttals (see the Gristmill's "How to talk to a climate skeptic" guide!) and even some name calling (!) (see Peiser vs Oreskes, Gray vs Trenberth etc).

But what's really making me furious instead of laughing at these guys anymore, is statements and manipulations by people like:

1) Mike Morano, communications director of Oklahoma Senator and Environment Committee Chair Jim Inhofe (hear the live audio recording of Morano vs Revkin, Blakemore and Fagin at the Society of Environmental Journalists Conference here - a very kind contribution of da lovely DeSmogBlog)

2) Tom Harris, leading the latest perversion by public discourse by public relations professionals - Canada's Natural Resources Stewardship Project (NRSP - or aka Not Really Science People or Not Really Serious People! once again brava SmogBlog!). I quote him: "Gore (talking about An Inconvenient Truth)repeatedly labels carbon dioxide (CO2) as “global warming pollution” when, in reality, it is no more pollution than is oxygen. CO2 is plant food, an ingredient essential for photosynthesis without which Earth would be a lifeless, frozen ice ball....The hypothesis that human release of CO2 is a major contributor to global warming is just that – an unproven hypothesis, against which evidence is increasingly mounting."

3) and the tip of the iceberg, Republican pollster Frank Luntz, a guy who has made a career of massaging language to his clients advantage. Check out his now infamous enviro-speak memo to the Republican party, where he advises the following:
"The three words Americans are looking for in an environmental policy, they are (sic) 'safer,' 'cleaner,' and 'healthier."
"If you must use the economic argument, stress that you are seeking 'a fair balance' between the environment and the economy."

Ouff, angry and tired as well...

Bush on Global Warming

I’d choose Will Farrell over George Bush for president at any given moment. Wouldn’t you?

Cartoonists vs. Republicans on Climate Change

Tom Toles cartoon for the Washington Post

I was very happy to see Tom Toles' August 27th's post. Since many people are still not convinced by the vast amount of scientific evidence proving anthropogenic climate change, then maybe some cartoonists are helping us out with this, since they are kind of "preaching to the choir" as someone once said. Oh and please remember to rock the vote this coming November!

Neverending stories

I was going through some of my really old CD's and I stumbled upon Buffalo Springfield's first album. It felt kind of weird listening to the classic "For What It's Worth" because despite the fact that this song was written way back in 1966, during the Sunset Strip riots, it could be written for times like ours, see Israel - Lebanon conflict:

"There's somethin' happenin' here; what it is ain't exactly clear
There's a man with a gun over there tellin' me I got to beware
Think it's time we stop, children, what's that sound? Everybody look what's goin' down..."

Just click on the title and download for your listening pleasure - and remember to rock on.