I am currently in Athens, where the number one topic is the recent massive forest fires at Parnitha. Emotions are still running high as the city realises that it has lost a treasure that it used to take for granted. Meanwhile, about 100 wildfires were reported all over the country just on the 18th of July due to the typical Australian seasonal combination of high summer temperatures, dry flora and strong winds, combined with typical Greek arsonists/developers and brainless littering with flammable materials. Climate change will only make fires more frequent in the years to come, as our climate becomes less temperate and more North African.
Much of the public debate has focused on apportioning responsibility. A Kathimerini poll indicated that Greeks believe that environmental law enforcement simply does not happen. Most daily newspapers are protesting about administrative incompetence and corruption. However, I think that the public debate is, to a certain extent, missing the forest for the trees; we must be more introspective than simple finger-pointing.
I believe that our main problem is that Greeks collectively place little economic value on common goods, like the environment. One can see this everywhere; merely drive for an hour on any provincial road and you will see at least one driver in front of you carelessly throw rubbish out of the window.
In managing our shared environmental wealth, I think that the state focuses a lot on punishment for environmental law violations, the "stick", and forgets about incentives, "the carrot". Rewarding maintenance of the environment by the private, in addition to the state, sector could prove more successful than more, largely unenforceable legislation. The Athens metropolitan park (the decommissioned old international airport) can be the symbolic starting point.
"Not my problem"
The way we build, drive and live in Greece betrays how little value we place on environmental resources in our collective mind.
Check out these Google Earth photos from the same altitude (about 12 km), comparing the centres of Athens and three other large cities at approximately the same latitude: Rome, Washington DC and San Fransisco. The lack of green/park space in Athens is striking. The Technical Chamber of Greece estimates that Athens has only 2.5 square metres of public green space, compared with an international average of 10. Salonika is not too different.
Our concrete cities suggest an antagonistic relationship with the environment. This is understandable historically as most of our cities grew during the country's economic development period, as developing countries usually place growth before the environment. However, there is clear economic value to investing in our environment because the Greek economy is now based on services and tourism, rather than industry. Pristine and thriving national parks, clean beaches and greener cities would help the efforts of our tourism industry to position itself in the higher end of the market and fully escape the low-margin package tourist end. Investment in Greece's natural wealth would make the country a more attractive destination, complementing the country's archaeological wealth, and could help market areas that currently get less peak season tourist traffic, like Epirus and Thrace.
Tourism constitutes a big part of our GDP - 14.3% in 2004, according to Wikipedia. Attracting higher-quality tourism is critical for the economy. Therefore, we all stand to gain from sustainable development.
Growing green
There has been an upside from the Parnitha disaster: awareness among urban Athenians. There is an opportunity for the government now to use the momentum of the public opinion to put in place a modern and bold incentive-centred regulatory framework for "environmental assets".
The Hellenikon Metropolitan Park can be an effective project to showcase how such a framework would function. The 530-hectare piece of land was released in 2001 with the transfer of the international airport to Spata. Since then, the land has laid largely idle, and the park is expected to be completed around 2013.
There's a great opportunity to turn this space into a Central Park for Athens. Yet the implementation of this public work has proceeded at a snail's pace amidst wrangling between the state, municipalities and developers. In view of current public awareness on environmental issues and with elections looming, the government stands to gain a great deal by speeding up the execution of this project.
In addition, I also think that the government should seriously consider (if it's not already doing so) making a bold policy step. Construction, management and protection of the park should be competitively tendered to a private, limited and public entity under a long-term public utility business model and license, like the Spata airport, possibly regulated under an RPI-X framework. Additional revenue streams for such a company could include revenues from dining and entertainment areas and CO2 credits: I estimate that at a mere €65,000 per year at current (low) CO2 prices, but the price could very likely rise significantly by 2014. Such a radical business model could help demonstrate to the public that there could be alternative ways to preserve our environmental wealth and could be scaled up at a national level to cover larger parks.
Our government could start viewing natural resources as assets similar to infrastructure - roads, utilities, airports - from a business and administrative perspective. Like the rest of our country's public assets, our forests, parks, lakes and beaches are a pillar of competitiveness for our national product and require maintenance and investment. Deregulation and liberalisation have a part to play here, and the government stands to gain a lot by this approach. Only a proactive Greek government can provide solid regulatory frameworks to solve the current environmental crisis, and riding the current wave of public opinion in doing so could reward Mr Karamanlis in the next election.
A terrifying disaster is taking place right now in Greece. The entire country is in flames. The BBC currently reports 43 dead, burnt alive in their cars and houses, and the pictures are terrifying. The government has declared a state of emergency, requesting international help and France has dispatched two planes to support the Greek fire service.
