Environmental Issues in Greece

                  

Garbage in the streets of Thessaloniki
Courtesy of ReportageOnline

                 I think, morally, yes we have an obligation to protect our planet, if we are really talking about environmental matters. Do we really want to leave behind for our children a planet where they have to wear a mask to walk out the door because our air is so polluted it causes major sickness? Do we really want to have to buy bottled water forever because our own tap/spring water is so contaminated it’s undrinkable? I know there are places around the world already experiencing this kind of thing (places like Japan for example) but we have to be a little more proactive about it.

Video depicting environmental issues in Athens, Greece

            With that being said, I also think there are some things that are unavoidable when it comes to reducing air pollution or greenhouse gases. For example, modern transportation is too ingratiated in our society to just reduce. Yes, there are ways we can reduce (taking a bus, riding a bike), but most of that is concentrated in cities. There are places out in more suburban areas where driving your car is an absolute necessity. You can’t just get rid of your only mode of transportation. Your boss won’t take the excuse that you couldn’t get to work because you are trying to reduce the amount of pollutants you release into the air.

            My country, Greece, Athens is the problem child of the country. It’s own air pollution hospitalizes hundreds of Athenians because of the dense air pollution. According to The International Business Times, this is because of the declining economy. Oil prices are tripling, so people are looking to other sources of fuel to stay warm. This causes the people to turn to sources such as wood, which is cheap, but it releases harmful particulates into the air. This is causing the air pollution to increase by about 30%, which causes more and more hospitalizations of its people.

            Greece’s government is making somewhat of an attempt to combat these problems. The government has a limit to how many cars can enter into the major cities at one time, especially on days with high pollution levels. And on May 31, 2002, the entire EU went into the Kyoto Protocol, which a treaty enforcing countries to control the number of greenhouse gases and pollutants the country emits. However, Greece was taken out of the protocol in 2008 for failing to meet the standards set by the protocol, and for giving false numbers without any data to back them up. A United Nations committee decided to reinstate Greece after a 15-month suspension, but this doesn’t necessarily mean Greece has learned its lesson.

            Currently, an environmental group called Callisto is working in Greece to reduce its pollutants and emissions. Run by a team of scientists, Callisto is based in a port city of Greece where they work to petition the government and its people to take a more proactive stance of reducing harmful emissions and pollutants. They also study the behavior of its native creatures, such as the bear and the wolf, and what the harmful environment does to its animals.