Where the Argonauts Sailed: Battling Climate Change and Plastic Pollution on Greece’s Fragile Coast

The place the Argonauts sailed, a brand new battle begins on Greece’s coast

The European Atmosphere Company’s newest report on Europe’s efforts to take care of local weather change confidently cites Southern Europe because the continent’s ‘hotspot’. So Michael Mitsikos, Mayor of South Pelion, Magnesia, Greece, is actually on the sharp finish of the battle in opposition to world warming. After I referred to as upon him in late June in his mayoral workplace in Argalasti, a bustling agricultural city midway down the peninsula, the surface temperature was effectively over 80 levels Fahrenheit (26.7°C). The forecast for the weekend predicted highs into the 90s.

The EEA report runs to over 300 pages. Utilizing my iPhone, I picked out just a few highlights from the manager abstract. “Europe is the quickest warming continent on the planet,” I learn aloud. “Excessive warmth, as soon as comparatively uncommon, is turning into extra frequent whereas precipitation patterns are altering. Latest years have seen catastrophic floods in a number of areas…” “They obtained that final bit proper, didn’t they?” Mitsikos replied.

We each recalled the extraordinary storm that hit the Pelion peninsula in early September 2023. My spouse and I’ve had a home in Pelion for the reason that flip of the century. We’ve returned yr after yr, having fun with the seashores and mountains, the ever present olive timber and, above all, the individuals who dwell within the well-known mountain and coastal villages. However Storm Daniel, in 24 hours of strong destruction, swept all earlier than it. Homes and automobiles washed into the ocean; coastal resorts have been mangled past recognition.

Since then, rebuilding has proceeded apace. Seaside companies have reopened. Bridges and roads have been repaired. Mitsikos has labored his socks off. After I first met him some years in the past, he was sceptical about world warming. I doubt if even at the moment he would admit there’s a clear-cut correlation between local weather change and the havoc wrought by Storm Daniel. However regardless of the exact causes, he actually accepts the necessity for central authorities to “help susceptible areas in collaboration with the EU and different companies”.

One aspect of the Pelion peninsula faces the Aegean. The opposite – the place my spouse and I dwell – appears onto the Pagasitic Gulf. On a transparent day, we will have breakfast on our terrace, gazing throughout the Gulf to the distant mountains, together with Mount Parnassus, house of the gods.

Volos – on the head of the Gulf and solely an hour’s drive from Argalasti – could also be Greece’s seventh-largest metropolis, however to me it is going to all the time be the traditional Pagasae, the place from which Jason and the Argonauts set sail throughout the wine-dark sea looking for the Golden Fleece.

I bear in mind taking place to the waterfront village of Milina the morning after Storm Daniel. The Gulf was filled with particles, its pristine waters horribly polluted. “We have now labored along with the federal government, with native authorities, with enterprise and the native individuals to place issues straight since then,” he advised me in his workplace.

“Will you carry again dolphins in abundance too?” I requested. Lately, sightings of dolphins from our terrace are few and much between. “We’ll strive,” Mitsikos promised.

In November 2022, simply 10 months earlier than Storm Daniel had achieved its worst, Mitsikos addressed a World Coastal Discussion board assembly in Geneva geared toward mobilising worldwide help for the safety of wetlands and coastal ecosystems. I used to be there. I heard him. He invited colleagues from all over the world to come back to South Pelion, to the little coastal village of Kala Nera, to debate methods through which coasts and wetlands – together with marshes and tidal flats – could be higher protected.

“Is that invitation nonetheless on the desk?” I requested him. “After all it’s,” he mentioned.

In the present day, one of many key points – within the Mediterranean and elsewhere – is the battle in opposition to plastic air pollution alongside coasts and within the sea. South Pelion just isn’t immune. Tragically, efforts to achieve a global settlement seem like faltering, regardless of new proof suggesting doable hyperlinks between microplastics and human well being that make the difficulty extra pressing than ever.

After leaving Mitsikos’ workplace, an thought occurred to me. Mitsikos mentioned his invitation to a gathering in Kala Nera was nonetheless open. Maybe he may invite the CEOs of Greece’s primary plastic producers to come back there too. The intention could be to achieve, at a minimal, an settlement between Greek producers (others too?) to quickly section out the manufacturing – and maybe additionally the import – of plastic bottles, even earlier than a global or EU-level treaty is in place.

They might name it the Kala Nera Concordat or one thing alongside these strains. If a significant dedication to cut back plastic waste may start anyplace, why not right here, on this as soon as battered however nonetheless stunning stretch of Greek coast? Even restricted unilateral measures by the South Pelion Mayoralty may very well be legally defensible and have an incredible sensible and symbolic affect.

Stanley Johnson is a number one environmentalist, award-winning writer and former Member of the European Parliament (MEP). Father of former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Stanley has helped form main environmental insurance policies in Europe and championed world conservation efforts. He stays a robust voice on sustainability, local weather change and worldwide affairs. He’s additionally a distinguished and prolific writer, with greater than 25 books to his identify spanning environmental safety and world conservation, fiction, and memoir.