We are accepting greater responsibility for the state of the environment. That is the message of a survey carried out by the Hellenic Society for the Protection of the Environment and Cultural Heritage (Elliniki Etairia), which found that ecological issues are the most pressing of all social concerns in the country.
Having conducted similar telephone polls in 2001 and 2005, the Elliniki Etairia has been able to chart the growing awareness of environmental issues. Some 2,000 people nationwide were asked to rank a number of social issues in order of priority. The result was that an overwhelming majority placed the protection of the natural environment first, followed closely by environmental pollution.
The participants had not been told that the survey would concentrate on environmental matters.
Asked to rate their interest in environmental issues, 43 percent of those surveyed said they were "very interested", compared to 31 percent in 2005. The next category down - "quite a lot" - also registered an increase (44 compared to 43 percent).
Only 2 percent of people said they were not at all interested. Even more revealing, some 41 percent said that people's actions are to blame for environmental problems, with 27 percent and 14 percent blaming the government and business, respectively.
Coming only months after the devastating fires of the Peloponnese and Evia, it was unsurprising that there was a significant rise in concern over the destruction of forestland. Less predictable was a similar rise (9 percent) in attention given to the quality and quantity of groundwater sources, perhaps a reflection of cases such as the heavily-polluted Asopos River north of Athens where local residents have been exposed to carcinogenic hexavalent chromium in their drinking water.
Elsewhere, the growing acceptance of global warming was registered in the interest given to climate change (up from 6.5 percent in 2001 to 20.6 percent today). Another sign of the times was the mention of pesticides for the first time in the survey's history.
The question of building outside of town planning regulations was also raised, with only 10 percent answering that they did not want the abolition of the 1928 law allowing the practice. And more than half of those who took part in the interview said they were in favour of a separate environment ministry.
The survey, which was made public on January 23, was also presented to the parliament's environmental committee on the same day.
"The results of the poll show that Greeks are becoming more and more concerned about the environment," said the committee's president, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who has stated in the past that he also is in favour separating the environment and town planning ministries from the public works ministry. "Among the most important findings is that people now feel that they share a large degree of the responsibility for the state of the environment. The great challenge for the state is to heed the message of the people and to work together for a viable environment."