Speech of Prof. Th. Lekkas, Chairman of Global NEST at the opening of the Athens meeting

'Olympics: the City and the Environment'  22-23 January 1998

 Ladies and Gentlemen,

 I would like to welcome you to this two-day meeting on 'Olympics, the City and the Environment'. Greece and more specifically the City of Athens, was honored with the organization of the Olympic Games of the year 2004, following the successful efforts of the Candidature Committee. Today's meeting is organized by Global NEST, in cooperation with the International Institute of Environmental Research and the daily newspaper ELEFTHEROTYPIA.

Allow me to make a brief presentation of Global NEST. Global NEST - NEST is the acronym for 'Network for Environmental Science and Technology' - is a global association, a global movement which was founded in September 1997, in Lesvos, by a group of scientists from all over the world. Our common concern about environmental issues and the way Governments, International Organizations and information managers treat them led us to the creation of this ambitious global network. This network was founded in such a way that through the use of information and communication technology it will eventually be able to formulate ideas and policies at both global and local level, circumventing today's information channels It is our belief that environmental issues could find ways of solution through policies based on scientific data. This data might be compiled through and international scientific dialogue, which leads us to the conviction that, hopefully, such a network can play an important role. In our declaration we have mentioned the aims and the tools we are going to use, in order to achieve these aims. Our approach does not discriminate between accusers and defendants. It is a fact that our environment has suffered serious damages due to the technological development applied nowadays to all stages of production, transport, telecommunications and urban development. In order to meet here, today, we used excessively our environmental resources, far more than the planet's natural balance would allow us; there is no other way, however.

This is our civilization towards the end of the 20th century. 

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Dear members of Global NEST,

We seek a new civilization, a new culture. A culture which, in all its expressions, will respect and understand nature, cooperating harmoniously with it. This is our long-term goal, and as long as it takes it, we are going to serve this worthy goal. An aspect of this far-reaching goal is the recent proposal and debate about sustainability. We have to bear in mind, though, all the complex and difficult issues we have to face, i.e. the expansion of farming to the expense of natural ecosystems, the abuse of agrochemical substances, the almost exclusive use of fossil fuel, our main energy production means, which is the main cause for environmental pollution, the increase in transports and movement in general, that are energy consuming activities. Several products, nowadays, are based on synthetic chemistry and have created a new environment for the living world, unknown till today. This means that the earth's delicate biochemical balance is frequently overturned, destroying systems that are the product of long geological processes. We live through the age of the barbaric application of technology. We will need a lot of time, in order to give solutions friendly to the environment. All future policies should be based on the vision of an economy respecting the environment. The changes we seek are of a historical character. They cannot be carried out without the international cooperation of the scientists, without the profound knowledge on which changes do we consider necessary, or of the first priority. It is a fact, however, that on our planet, development and technology have created the environmental problems, as well as the geopolitical framework, at a time when we witness serious unbalanced development in different parts of the earth. Unfortunately, we try to solve them using the same technology and development we have known all these years in a way that more damage of the environment is to be expected. Taking into consideration all these facts we realize how important it is to mobilize globally and in a coordinated way our forces, because the reversal of these dynamics is, indeed, a very difficult matter. We need perhaps changes that we are not yet able to conceive. We aspire to join forces with all those scientists who are involved in environmental issues, trying to implement an environment friendly vision for the future. Our daily practice should obey to this line of thought, because this is our commitment.

I mentioned briefly some guidelines, issues for communication and dialogue. These are the basic principles of the Global NEST. In future meetings we will deal with more specialized issues. We have an all increasing number of scientists and academics participating in Global NEST, from all over the world. We prepare the publication of an English-speaking scientific bulletin, as well. The Olympic Games is an international event, calling for international cooperation at its best. Today's meeting aims at the discussion of the best possible options, in relation to the creation of the Olympic Games infrastructure, so as to promote the environmental dimension of these projects. One could further ask for the improvement of our city's environment, and the search for complementary measures, in the same direction.

The presentations we are going to listen to focus, among other, on the experience of those cities which have already hosted or are hosting Olympic Games and the possibility to create the environmental dimension to the Olympic Games. Our guests are eminent scientists and personalities, including Mr. Olav Myrholt, representative of Norway in the I.O.C., Mr. Inge Aarchus, architect, from Lillehammer, Mr. Michael Bland, 'Greenpeace' representative from Australia, who participated in the formulation of the Sidney proposal and is following closely the development of the Olympic infrastructure in Sidney, Mr. Lluis Millet, architect from Barcelon, responsible for the infrastructure projects in the Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games in Barcelona, Mr. Christoph Parade, architect, from Munich, a specialist in the issues we are to discuss, Dr. N. Moussiopoulos, Professor at the Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki, scientific responsible for the study concerning the prediction of the evolution of the atmospheric pollution in Attica, also scientific collaborator of the Candidature Committee, Mr. G. Pyrgiotis, urban planner at the University of Thessaly, scientific collaborator of the Candidature Committee, Dr. D. Economou, urban planner, Professor at the University of Thessaly, member of the research team concerning the Olympic Games infrastructure, Prof. G. Polyzos, architect-urban planner, Professor at the Technical University of Athens, member of the T.U.A. research group on the environmental impact of the Olympic Games, Mr. S. Papagrigoriou, environmental engineer, coordinator of the environmental issues in the Candidature Proposal, Dr. Th. Vlastos, Associate Professor at the Technical University of Athens, specialist in car traffic issue and Dr. K. Hadjibiros, physicist, environmentalist, Assistant Professor at the Technical University of Athens, who is one of the researchers-consultants for the Candidature Committee and vice-president of G.NEST.

I think it is the perfect chance for a fruitful dialogue, in order to achieve a better environment for the city of Athens. During the first Olympic Games of the new era, in 1896, apart the infrastructure, emphasis was given to the cultural event which were to complement and give additional glory to the first Olympic Games. As an example, I would like to mention the elaboration of a diploma, by the well known painter Nikolaos Gyzis, the sculpted bust of George Averof, a benefactor of the first Olympic Games, by the sculptor George Vroutos, the issue of commemorative stamps, the composition of the Olympic Anthem by the poet Kostis Palamas and its settings to a musical Score by Spyros Samaras, the publishing of commemorative albums, etc.

When the Olympic Games were born again, near the end of the previous century, the cultural dimension was deemed an intrinsic complementary part of the athletic events. I believe that now the time is ripe to complement the Olympic Games with projects and interventions aiming at the environmental improvement of the City of Athens. The ancient saying 'A healthy mind in a healthy body' should be complemented with 'in a healthy environment'.

The Global NEST, the I.I.E.R and the ELEFTHEROTYPIA newspaper, along with our guests, are here with the sole purpose to help the state authorities with ideas and proposals in order to organize environment friendly Olympic Games. The Olympic Games are a unique chance to adopt, apart from a general armistice, which has already been proposed and will hopefully become adopted, a series of measures for the protection and improvement of the environment. Developing the infrastructure for the enhancement of the environment is a very important issue, but we should not forget that positive everyday practices are equally important. It is worth while to work, plan and invest on this sector as well, for the Olympic Games of the year 2004.