“Pandemic, Sea and Man in Greece” – A “Time Capsule” of the effects of the coronavirus on the marine environment

A time capsule” of the effects of the pandemic on the marine environment aspires to be the publication entitled “Pandemic, Sea and Man in Greece” which was presented in the evening at an event in Thessaloniki.

This is a collective work, which was published by the Athanasios K. Laskaridis Foundation and the Cooperation Network for the Marine Environment, to convey the first estimates from the new data brought about by the pandemic and to be a basis for reference and comparison with any future pandemics .

“Pandemics are areas in human history that have had more victims than wars,” said the executive director of the Public Benefit Foundation, Angeliki Kosmopoulou, when presenting the publication, speaking of a “time capsule” with information useful for researchers in the future.

Wipes and masks

Citing data from a survey of 59 beaches in Greece and 83 underwater cleanups from June 2021 to March 2022, Professor of Geological and Environmental Oceanography at the Geology Department of the University of Patras, dean of the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Patras, George Papatheodorou, noted that 1.04% of the waste was related to coronavirus-related items, such as masks and gloves.

“The percentage may seem small, but it is waste that did not exist in the palette of pollution. In addition, of the total waste, single-use plastics made up 17.2%, of which the largest percentage concerned the caps and rings of plastic bottles,” explained Mr. Papatheodorou.

Sevasti-Sofia Anthopoulou, director of the Lambrakis Foundation, spoke about environmental education during the pandemic, stressing that teachers were not able to apply it experientially, but theoretically. However, those teachers who deal with the subject, continued to have the same interest, proceeding during the period of quarantine, in distance training.

For 100,000 tons of plastic waste linked to the pandemic in 2021, the president of the Ecological Recycling Company, Filippos Kyrkitsos, spoke, adding that the solution is to reduce the use – for example with multi-purpose masks – as the specific waste, due to its infectious nature , do not enter recycling systems. The undivided support and cooperation of the Ministry of Macedonia Thrace for environmental issues was expressed by the Deputy Minister of the Interior of Macedonia Thrace, Stavros Kalafatis, mentioning the cleaning of Thermaikos Gulf with the special detergent vessel “Alkippi”, which is implemented in collaboration with the Deputy Minister of Environment and Energy, Giorgos Amyras.

Organizations such as the University of Patras, the Athens University of Economics, the University of the Aegean, ELKETHE, the Ecological Recycling Society, HELMEPA, EEPP, the Lambraki Foundation, iSea, the Public Welfare Athanasios K. Laskaridis Foundation as well as the oceanographer François Galgani and the marine ecologist and filmmaker Philippe-Yves Cousteau.

RES-EMP

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