The Climate Change Conference in Bali

As we were able to see following the Bali Climate Conference, the Nobel Peace Prize is the most political of all Nobel Prizes. Awarding it in 2007 to Al Gore, a man who comes from the country that does the least for the protection of the environment, was widely interpreted as indirect criticism of the former G.W. Bush administration. Bush’s constant refusal to sign the Kyoto Protocol, as well as his refusal to commit to gas restrictions, reflected very negatively on the country that is the planet’s biggest contaminator.

On the other hand, the small Greek representation in Bali, made its impact in the international forum. While American inactivity and indifference triggered a lot of negative press, the combination of Greek tardiness and outspokenness also brought about an unfavorable press reaction. For starters, the Greek commission arrived a week late to the 15-day summit in Bali, with no proposals in hand. Despite their lack of proposals, the Greek representatives still protested against almost every proposal, supporting their oppositional stance with ridiculous reasoning.

Environmental Policy-making in Greece

The environmental policies produced in our country are poor, at best. Our personal experiences can probably testify to that fact quite accurately. Everyday, I drive near Kifissos river, a body of water that has been covered and blocked on its larger part, and has been used as a dumping place for all kinds of industrial waste.

Every August, Attica and substantial parts of the countryside are left without forests due to the lethal combination of arson, dry vegetation, and strong winds. Rather than the government enforcing that the National Conservatory of Parnitha be restored, the once-lush region has been claimed by the local casino. Similarly, the oil spills off the coast of Santorini, as a result of various naval “accidents” leave the Aegean smelly and contaminated as marine life dies slowly. The list goes on...
 

Don’t you miss the shadows of tall trees, their delicious fruits, and the clean blue sea? Don’t you miss the the fresh air, and the clear starry night sky? I want my kids and my grandkids to grow up in a world as beautiful as it was when I was young.

Doing nothing is the same as taking a hostile stance against the environment. The environment is not a political issue; it’s an ethical one. We have to act. But what can we do?


Put words into actions

• 
Turning around this crisis, demands huge amounts of energy, with intervention at all levels. Governments might not be helping as much as they should, but in the end, it’s our way of living, our attitudes of consumption that are responsible for this mess. It’s not the state’s fault. It our fault. In the end, it’s in our hands to change things. How? 

• Stop driving your cars, or at least reduce the amount of time you spend driving them. Learn to carpool. Try taking the public transportation. The 400.000.000 cars that exist in the world today belong to a mere 8% of the human population. If you own a car, you are largely to blame for this crisis, not the car-less farmers of southeast Asia whose rice fields are disappearing in the face of the rising sea levels. Cars, apart from using valuable resources like petrol and then filling our lungs with dust particles from the surfaces of roads, cause a whopping 50-90% of air pollution in industrial countries through their gas emissions.

• Air transportation is another major pollutant. If you can reach a destination by land or sea, go for that alternative instead.
• Seek out the blue trash cans, the ones used for recycling. Recycling has not yet caught on in Greece. People through their regular trash into the blue dumpsters all the time. This needs to change. Remember that you can recycle paper (magazines, newspapers, etc), metal, and glass. There is no need for such materials to end up in a landfill or in one of our rivers, when they can simply be reused.
• Avoid single use items (cardboard plates, plastic glasses, aluminum foil, plastic wrap, etc). Avoid plastic supermarket bags. Instead, opt for reusable items.
• Use energy saving bulbs, and opt for laptops instead of desktops. Laptops consume 68% less energy than your average desktop.
• When purchasing food, be aware of what you are choosing. Opt for the environmentally friendly alternatives- products produced on sustainable farms, free range chickens, etc. Just put thought into what you purchase.