84 Posts in Environment

The highest temperature deviations were observed in the region of Thessaly, the islands of the northern Aegean and in Crete, where the median monthly rates were more 2.5C higher than the normal levels for the time of year. For Thessaly, the Peloponnese, the islands of the Aegean and Crete, it was the hottest November in the last 15 years, while for Central Greece it was the second hottest (+2.1C). It is worth noting that the European record for highest November temperature was recorded in Sisi on Crete, where the maximum temperature reached 35.1C on November 4th. For Athens, the average monthly deviation of maximum temperatures was +2.2C, with 27 of the 30 days of November being warmer than normal for the time of year.

The project is the result of a collaboration among SNFCC, the Natural Gas - Hellenic Energy Company and Petros Petropoulos AEBE, official importer of Jaguar, Range Rover, Defender and Discovery. In the first stage of the project, 24 charging points are availble at SNFCC's car park building, including two chargers for people with special needs. The project is expected to be completed in 2024 with 50 charging points in total, all up to 22kW (AC). This new service operates on a 24-hour basis and is provided free of charge to SNFCC visitors for one year. Visitors can also get the chance to spend one weekend per month testing the capabilities of Range Rover's plug-in hybrid vehicles, in a joint effort to raise public awareness of the green transition. At the press briefing, SNFCC General Director Dimitris Protopsaltou noted that "with sustainability and social awareness of green mobility as common ground, this collaboration certifies that the SNFCC is a model of public space and public-private partnership. We are delighted that today we join forces with two valuable partners who respect and actively honor the mission of the SNFCC." Natural Gas - Hellenic Energy Company General Director Yannis Mitropoulos said that this collaboration "confirms our company's commitment to adopting initiatives in the direction of innovation and sustainability", and that "we are steadily investing on the development of services that contribute to the penetration of electromobility in our country and the improvement of energy efficiency." Finally, Michael H. Economakis, Executive Chairman of Petros Petropoulos AEBE and President of the Hellenic Recycling Recovery Company noted that "Petros Petropoulos AEBE is actively participating in one more outstanding initiative, demonstrating in practice its commitment to achieving a series of goals that contribute to sustainable development. This is evidenced also by other initiatives such as the listing of the Company in the Athens Stock Exchange's Environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) Index, and the development of "Ecoshift" Project - supported by the Recovery Fund - which aims to promote solutions for sustainable urban development."

A local farmer spotted the body of the young animal near Xino Nero and informed the forestry service. It had been shot in the abdomen and chest. The cub was only a few months old and had not been separated from its mother. Fresh traces of an adult animal, likely the cub’s mother, were found nearby.  Environmental organizations Arktouros and Kallisto described the killing as another serious crime against biodiversity, noting that a year ago three more bears were killed in the same area by persons unknown. The two organizations are participants in an EU-funded project “LIFE Bear-Smart Corridors,” an international collaboration between the Netherlands, Italy and Greece that aims to conserve brown bear populations in Central Italy and Greece, by maintaining and ensuring important corridors of movement and connections between bear populations and the creation of “smart communities of coexistence” of humans and bears. The brown bear is protected under Greek and EU legislation. The brown bear is protected under Greek and EU legislation.

In a statement, the company said that the trees being removed from Exarchia Square will be kept at the City of Athens’ plant nurseries until they can be replanted at a different location near the park where they are now. It added that under the terms of the contract for the construction of the Line 4 extension of the Athens metro, the company has committed to planting at least 2,000 trees in the areas that will be affected by the work, including Exarchia, where residents clashed with police on Monday and Tuesday while trying to stop crews from cutting down the trees on the square.             The company also stressed the long-term environmental and social benefits of the project, saying that once the extension is completed, the metro will serve an additional 340,000 commuters a day, leading to 53,000 fewer cars circulating on the city’s streets.

The drought in central and eastern Macedonia and especially in the region of Thrace was classed as medium and in some locations extreme. Mild drought conditions prevailed in parts of the central and eastern Peloponnese, eastern Central Greece (including Attica), central and southern Evia as well as in some islands of the Aegean. Additionally, conditions of mild drought were observed in some parts of central and western Macedonia. Conditions of mild or medium drought were recorded in 38 percent of Greece's territory in October 2023, the Athens National Observatory's meteo.gr service reported on Tuesday. The drought in central and eastern Macedonia and especially in the region of Thrace was classed as medium and in some locations extreme. Mild drought conditions prevailed in parts of the central and eastern Peloponnese, eastern Central Greece (including Attica), central and southern Evia as well as in some islands of the Aegean. Additionally, conditions of mild drought were observed in some parts of central and western Macedonia.

The young bear, named "Glika" (Sweetness) at the Arcturos Wildlife Veterinary Hospital where she was taken for treatment, made a full recovery and was released back into the wild a few days ago. According to the organisation's announcement, "when the door of the transportation cage was opened, Glika rushed out and disappeared into the forest".    

The region under exploration, inclusive of the Hellenic Trench, is vital for these species already endangered by pollution, fishing, and ship collisions. Although current project safeguards restrict winter explorations to minimize breeding disturbances, the continuous presence of marine mammals amplifies concerns. In 2019, Greece awarded exploration rights in the seabed areas south and southwest of Crete to an international consortium, with smaller projects progressing further north. This year witnessed ExxonMobil and Greece’s Helleniq Energy concluding a three-month seismic seabed survey in these blocks, with the Greek government hinting at initial exploratory drilling by 2025. Despite assurances of adherence to stringent environmental standards, the sonic blasts from seismic surveys, known to be harmful to sound-sensitive marine species, along with the noise from drilling and extraction activities, pose significant threats. The report from Greenpeace Greece, the University of Exeter, and the Athens-based Pelagos Cetacean Research Institute highlighted the presence of at least five cetacean species during winter 2022, aligning with similar findings from summer research, thereby underlining the year-round threat the drilling project presents to these marine inhabitants. Greenpeace has strongly recommended the cancellation of all offshore drilling permits to safeguard marine life and contribute to the broader fight against the climate crisis, as the project aims to exploit undersea fossil fuels despite the associated environmental repercussions.

Once thriving, the number of vultures on the east Mediterranean island is the smallest in Europe as accidental poisoning or changing farming techniques have left them short of food. Fourteen vultures from Spain were released into the hills north of the city of Limassol on Friday, bringing the vulture population now to “about” 29. Project coordinators BirdLife, the island’s Game Service, the Vulture Conservation Foundation and Terra Cypria released 15 griffons into the wild last year. Of those, 11 have survived. Conservationists have in the past made several attempts to boost the vulture population, including importing birds from Crete. Surveys have shown that without timely intervention to address the causes of vulture deaths the birds could become extinct on the island within 15 years, the organisations said. “Losing a vulture is frequent, and that is something that is particularly worrying,” conservationists said in a statement.               Considered a natural garbage disposal unit, vultures feed off dead animal carcasses, which is an effective way to prevent the spread of disease. But they can die if they feed off a carcass which had itself been poisoned – the fox, considered a threat by some farmers to livestock, is frequently targeted. The use of poisonous baits in Cyprus is illegal but is known to occur. A number of the birds were fitted with satellite trackers a day before their release on Thursday to monitor their movements. All vultures released in the past year were donated by the Extremadura region of Spain, which hosts 90-95% of Europe’s vulture population. Another 15 vultures will arrive and be released next year.

The Athens Democracy Forum, an event backed by the United Nations, wrapped up in the Greek capital Friday with attention focused on the impact that rising temperatures and extreme weather could have on democratic stability. Princeton University climate scientist Michael Oppenheimer warned that authorities globally are responding too slowly to damage caused by weather disasters despite a rise in their frequency. “As time goes on and on, the interval for recovery is shrinking,” said Oppenheimer, a professor of geosciences and international affairs and director at the Center for Policy Research on Energy and the Environment at Princeton. “We’re in a situation where the services that governments provide – and one of the key services is protection of life and limb – are not happening the way they should. And to my mind, this is just another pressure that’s going to happen on democracy,” he said. The three-day Athens event gathered leading academics as well as politicians and community project managers and took place as national authorities have struggled to cope with widespread flooding in central Greece, weeks after the country suffered its worst wildfire on record. Rising global temperatures and an acceleration of migration in parts of the world have sustained concerns that governments in the upcoming decades could turn more autocratic to retain control of increasingly scarce resources and deal with civil unrest. In the long term, that would be a bad idea, argued Ann Florini, a fellow at the New America Political Reform Program, part of a U.S.-based think tank. “Autocracy is the worst possible response to the climate emergency, because what you need is a lot of local empowerment,” Florini said. “They may be very good at building a big solar power industry … but the idea that an autocracy is going to have the information systems and the flexibility and the resilience to deal with the climate emergency for the next several generations to me is self-evidently ludicrous.” Only open societies, she insisted, could foster the systemic transformations in energy, agriculture, and water systems required due to their far-reaching ecological impact. Daniel Lindvall, a senior researcher with the Department of Earth Sciences at Sweden’s Uppsala University, said democratic governments needed to share the benefits of renewable energy with people at a local level. “If you build a wind farm and part of the benefits and profits are going back to the local communities, then you will have people supporting it instead of protesting against” it, he said. “All the benefits of energy independence would then sap the power from autocratic regimes like Putin’s (Russia) and Saudi Arabia.” The Athens Democracy Forum, is organized by the New York Times newspaper, the Kofi Annan Foundation, the City of Athens, and the United Nations Democracy Fund.  

"All my memories are here. Now it is all totally destroyed. We have thrown out everything away," Kostis told Reuters. Storm Daniel, Greece's most intense since records began in 1930, swept through Thessaly for three days this month, killing 16 people - among them two from Metamorfosi - flooding cities and villages and turning the region into an inland sea. Hundreds of residents were airlifted or pulled out of flooded homes in lifeboats, crops were washed away and tens of thousands of animals drowned. Weeks later, the water has turned into mud, revealing the devastation in villages such as Metamorfosi, which had nearly disappeared beneath the water. Like Kostis, the more than 300 residents of the village are primarily farmers occupied mainly with cotton cultivation, as well as some corn and livestock. Most of them have found shelter in relatives' homes or by renting accommodation in nearby villages that did not flood. "Now, no one lives in the village. Everyone has left. They all come during the day, they clean, they throw things away, they wash the houses, and then they leave again," Kostis said. In the empty streets of Metamorfosi, which in Greek means transfiguration, piles of residents' belongings, framed paintings, furniture, blankets and carpets, are the only spot of colour in the mud. The cemetery and buildings including the Church of the Transfiguration of Sotiros, a religious site visited by thousands of pilgrims each year, have suffered heavy damage. The storm's impact on Metamorfosi was so emblematic of the devastation that Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis showed pictures of the submerged village when he met EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Sept. 12 to request more aid from the European Union. Kostis said the village had been hit by a flood in 1994, but then residents had been able to return three months later. This time, it might take longer, he said. "With 4 meters of water, it will be a bit difficult to come back until spring,” he said.  

The bill to revive ailing environments – which aims to restore nature on 20% of EU land and sea – is facing a backlash from the parliament’s largest faction, the conservative European People’s Party, which has called for its rejection. New Democracy is a member party of the EPP. The EPP’s opposition to the proposal drafted by the European Commission has centred on concerns that the law would damage the livelihoods of farmers and endanger food security – assertions that thousands of scientists have rejected.   In a tight committee vote, 44 lawmakers backed the law and 44 opposed it, meaning it failed to win majority support. The bill faces a full parliamentary vote on July 11, where failure to garner a majority would kill off the proposal. “We are already on the edge of doing too much. The Green Deal is a good thing, but we are about to overstretch it,” EPP lawmaker Peter Liese said, referring to the EU’s overall package of policies to tackle climate change. Other lawmakers defended the bill, which Brussels says is crucial to reversing the decline of Europe’s natural habitats, 81% of which are classed as being in poor health. “We’re ensuring food security and the undeniable improvement of nature for the benefit of farmers, livestock raisers and fishermen,” said Cesar Luena, parliament’s lead negotiator on the law.   The political clash comes ahead of EU parliament elections next year – with some lawmakers accusing the EPP of blocking the law to court votes, which the group has denied. Supporters from other parliamentary groups said they would try to club together to find a compromise deal ahead of next month’s vote. Officials in the parliament said they expect a close vote. The law has also faced criticism from governments including Ireland and Belgium, with the latter warning that the EU is saddling industries with too much regulation. Despite that, EU countries agreed a position on the nature bill last week – weakening some targets and seeking more EU money to support farmers in restoring nature, but supporting the measure’s overall objectives.   (Photo: More than 185 million birds migrate through Greece this time of year on their way from Africa to Northern Europe. About 30 million stop on islands and rocky formations in the Aegean and Ionian seas to rest before they continue their journey. As they make their way across the Mediterranean Sea, migratory birds can cover a distance of up to 2,800 kilometers without stopping. Speaking ahead of World Migratory Bird Day on Saturday, experts are warning about the need to protect these birds from threats such as habitat loss, pollution and illegal killing. [RON MACDONALD/HELLENIC ORNITHOLOGICAL SOCIETY ARCHIVE] )

The fires, spurred by a sweltering heat wave that blanketed the country, triggered a huge evacuation of residents and tourists on the island last weekend as forests burned for a week. As wildfires scorched the land, tourist and residents worked to extinguish fires by seaside resorts. By Friday, temperatures eased somewhat, and calmer winds helped firefighters contain the blazes. But the damage was already done. An inland nature reserve was damaged. The deserted island has been promised state support. Fires have been raging across Greece, including outside the capital Athens and in Rhodes, fueled by three consecutive heat waves. Five people have died in the fires, including two firefighter pilots. Temperatures pushed 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit). Climate change is making the world hotter and is charged this year by the natural and cyclical El Nino event, which warms the Pacific. The Mediterranean – from Spain to Turkey to North Africa — has withered under record-breaking temperatures over the summer. July is the hottest month globally ever recorded, and it’s likely 2023 will be the hottest year.