Mr. Smith's Mathbox
Wednesday, November 6, 2024
Thanks to TUVA for the write up!
Tuesday, July 16, 2024
Santorini Island: Hyper-tourism VS Sustainability
Stories of Sustainability
Lesson 5: Santorini is Too Beautiful!
Santorini is among the most popular, and most beautiful islands in all of Greece, and indeed the world. An active volcanic history gives it it’s unique crescent moon shape, miles of dramatic beaches with deep red, black and white sands, and a 3000 year history preserved in pyroclastic ash.
A popular destination for people from around the world, it’s picturesque white and blue buildings and narrow streets bathed the Mediterranean sun have become the iconic look of the Greek islands, despite many islands having the same build landscapes. Visitors crowd beaches, cafes, restaurants and yachts to take in the scene, particularly for sunsets on the caldera.
The millions of visitor who pulse through the island each year provide a livelihood for the islands 35,000 permanent residents. They are also a stress on the islands natural resources like fresh water, as well as energy and waste systems. While many will tag Santorini as a destination success story, with nearly four million visitors in 2023, the elected leadership is actually calling for a halt to all new development!
While both data sets generally showed an increase, a deeper examination shows a more complex picture. While cruises were the primary means of arrival in 2013, the percentage of arrivals by air has now surpassed it. What this means for Santorini is that drastically more visitors are spending the night on the island, instead of sleeping on their cruise ship.
A closer examination of the types of accommodation data finds that while the overall number of beds is increasing, the increase is not even. Five star beds have increased by nearly a factor of nine, while there's only half as many one star beds compared to ten years ago.
Of course, there are challenges to such a bold move, the primary one being that this kind of authority to limit development comes from the central government, not the municipalities like Santorini. Generally, Greece's central government has been heavily promoting tourism, aiming for 40 million in a couple of years. Despite this, there are growing concerns from across Greece about the dangers of hyper-touism. Is Athens listening?
Tuesday, June 25, 2024
Small Communities and Big Ideas
Sustainable Lessons from Municipal Leaders
Rhodes Vice Mayor Petras and his staff |
Tilos - A model of sustainability
Tilos Head of Communications, Jenny Giannopoulou |
Waste: First of all, the island is the first island in the world to have a zero waste landfill. According to Giannopoulou, over 90% of all waste is recycled, or upcycled, while the remaining less than 10% is pressed into pellets used for industrial heat energy. The project is largely run by the Just Go Zero - Tilos project. This branding was all over the island, from the separate trash bins in our AirBnB and at each business, to the recycled materials placemats at each restaurant, to the many electric municipal vehicles in public transport, and service. The recycling magic happens at their Κεντρο Κυκλικησ Καινοτομιασ (Center for Circular Innovation), a modern facility that processes the three streams from residents and businesses: organics, recyclables (single stream) and non-recyclables.
Waste is sorted into 27 categories pressed, and recycled |
In addition to the impressive recycling numbers, the Tilos project started before that, with a campaign supported by residents, to Reduce (the often forgotten R of Reuse Reduce Recycle), which, according to Giannopoulous resulted in a reduction of waste from 548 tons per year, to 308 tons (Problem 1: what percent is that?)! Energy: The second significant achievement is that through municipal electrification, and the construction of 3Mwh hybrid renewable energy system, Tilos generates all of it's own electricity. This 3mWh hybrid system consists of a single wind turbine, a solar farm, and a salt battery system. They've also electrified municipal services, including the Circular Innovation Center, as well as public busses.
Their success is due to early adoption of EU Green New Deal policies that attracted investment, ambitions leadership from a widely respected mayor, and widespread community support from the ~750 permanent residents.
Organic material is composted, and delivered back to residents |
Municipal vehicles are electrified |
Zero, for Zero Waste! |
View of the Circular Innovation Center |
Astypalea - Four Pillars to a Sustainable Island
Astypalea Mayor Nikolas Komineas |
Pillar one was about swapping out as many combustion engines on the island with electric vehicles. To do this, the municipality of Astypalea partnered with the Greek state, and Volkswagen. This partnership helped fund necessary infrastructure upgrades, like charging stations, and a subsidy for the municipality, and every resident of Astypalea to buy an electric car with an over 50% discount. In the two years, 150 electric vehicles have been purchased.
AstyGo offers many electric transport options |
Astypalea |
On Demand rides may be autonomous by 2030 |
Director Labrini Grigori, right, and her colleages |
View of Astypalea from the Junior High School |
A Classic Tension - Ios
Beach seating at Calilou Resort |
Reservoir Project |
Ios busses advertise a party island |
Calilou swimming pools use both fresh water, and sea water |
Counselor Voulargis also said that the municipality of Ios is currently pursuring a solar powered desalination plant to relief to water supplies.
After spending an hour with both the developer, and talking to Fisher from Save Ios, I do not envy the position of these elected officials faced with the need for both development, and environmental protection.
I am developing a series of lesson projects I'm calling Stories of Sustainability. My experience, and the data provided to me by Voulargis are the basis for a two part lesson for Pre-Algebra and Geometry students. These are meant to be mini-projects available as a student choice, placed at the end of a chapter or unit. Here is the draft for Ios, check back for updates!
Karpathos - Climate Change vs. Gov't - Who Moves Faster?
IUP Fulbright Alum, Andriani Arampatzi |
Civil Engineer, Ionnis Karatasos |
As the project progressed with pre-construction engineering studies, the economic crisis happened, which was a turning point for all of Greece, that included drastic cuts to state services. This delayed the project considerably, so this is only it's third summer.
Vice Mayor Stathis Galafanakis (L), Civil engineer Jimmy Gorgatsoulis (R) |
This dramatic delay was largely a result of a dramatic public sector decrease that came out of the crisis. According to the elected Prefecture of the South Aegean, Popi Nikolaidou, in 2010, a decree was issued that mandated only one new government hire for every ten which retire. The result is that municipalities often struggle to carry out best laid plans.
Popi Nikolaidou S. Aegean Prefecture |
And here's where climate change comes in. During that delay caused by the crisis, annual rainfall in Karpathos has steadily declined. In the two years that it has been completed, the rains haven't managed to fill it beyond 10%. The impacts of climate change are a dry reservoir, and possibly worse, a lack of confidence in the government.
It's an unfortunate turn of events, and demonstrates the difficult position municipal officials find themselves in, as the climate continues to change. How to plan for long range problems, using short term dollars.
I don't have an answer here, but I do have a lesson plan. It is currently an outline, and a work in progress. It is part of a new series I am creating for my classes, Stories of Sustainability, which draws on public data sources to help students make real life decisions.
Monday, May 27, 2024
Where's the Beach? Engineers have an answer!
In my research of best practices in climate change and sustainability education and policy in Greece, there are two projects I would like to feature as inspirational, and great hands-on problem solving opportunities for students, and communities.
Where's the Beach?
What most folks see in the photos from the island of Lefkada on this page is evidence of why it is one of the most popular destination islands in the Ionian Sea. Miles of long, quiet sandy beaches, some of the best water/wind sports locations in the world, and a remarkably cute downtown area with lots of local shops attract thousands of Greek and European tourists each year. With calm inland harbors, it is a destination for recreational sailboats of all sizes exploring the Ionian coast. It is not surprising that tourism and related industries is the primary source of income for a majority of the island's 23,000 residents.
However, for students at the 1st Technical High School of Lefkada of Mr. Gerassimos Anagnostopoulos's Climate Detectives club, in these same pictures they see evidence of the impacts of climate change, and threats to the long term sustainability of the island. The Climate Detectives is a collaboration with the European Union, which encourages student clubs to explore local issues, and then provides high level data to help them understand the problem. What these students see in these photos, particularly over time, is that the beaches are shifting, eroding in one place, and extending in another. In addition, the erosion of the sea side beaches has led to damage to the roads to reach these areas. Lastly, as seas levels rise, these students are tracking the potential of flooding, which could significantly impact Lefkada Town, which barely rises two meters above sea level.
Led by Mr. Anagnostopoulos each year, the Climate Detectives club works to identify and analyze issues facing their community. I was impressed with the level of understanding these students had when I interviewed them about this year's project. The shifting sands problems threatens to have serious impacts to Lefkada. However, they also recognize the significant engineering challenge to solving the problem, whether by relocating tons of sand, or creating new infrastructure.
I feature the Climate Detectives project because it is simply such a rich lesson. It checks all the boxes for relevance, sustainable development, and for my research project they're using math as a tool to understand threats to their own lives. Bravo!!
Incubating Transition
The second project scales this high school lesson up significantly, rigorously investigating problems facing communities due to climate change, and acting as an incubator for innovative solutions with ambitious goals. The CLuBe project,(Cluster of Bioeconomy and Environment of Western Macedonia))is based in the northern Greece town of Kozani, which is the center of a coal mining and burning economy that is rapidly transitioning away from fossil fuels. I first came across CluBe at the Skyros Academy, where their education director Valentina Plaka presented her work in Kozani, one of 100 cities in the EU committed to climate neutrality by 2030.This ambitious goal of a relatively rapid transition has seen many of their coal power plants shuttered in the last five years, while many of the surrounding hills are now coated with solar panels like icing on cake. CluBe has been there from the beginning, acting as a catalyst for good ideas, and to bring sustainable energy dollars from international partners to the region.I sat in on a CLUBe conference on building the Bioeconomy, where entrepreneurs and EU funders had a chance to meet to find the best ways to bring sustainable industry to scale. I was impressed at the exciting projects in the room, from bio-plastics, to natural erosion control, to vertical farming, to closed loop manufacturing processes, great ideas in sustainability were represented.
In many of my interviews with students here in Greece, when I ask them if they are optimistic about the future, given the challenges of climate change, many of the glass half full students point to technology. Many students have faith that human ingenuity will help us engineer new climate solutions. If that happens here in Greece, it will be because of organizations like CluBe in Kozani, and staffed by students like the Climate Detectives I met in Lefkada. These are models for helping students, and policy makers understand the choices and challenges presented by climate change.
Saturday, April 6, 2024
On optimism and good governance - Greek students sound off
The initial results indicate students have a number of opportunities for students to learn about issues surrounding climate change. Regular lessons in primary, and junior high school were regularly reported as the first place students learn about these issues. Also, a number of students get a lot of information from social media, Tik-Tok, Youtube, and Google searches. Overall, students I spoke to were relatively well informed about the mechanisms of the greenhouse effect, and human’s impact on CO2 the planet.
Locally, students often identified hot local summers, wildfires, and a lack of snowy winters as impacts of climate change. Recycling programs, and trash pick-ups were the most popular out of class activity that students had experienced. Many of the students in school eco-clubs had also participated in regional gatherings that included creative ways of communicating about climate change, including
schools involved with theater, posters, design, and fashion.
Monday, February 19, 2024
Best Practices in Climate Change Education
1st Secondary School of Alonis |
Observing incredible teachers
Director Photis Mylonas at work |
Also, thanks to the director of the 1st Primary School of Nikaia, and my friend Photis Mylonas, who I met last summer in Skyros, who helped me understand the challenges and opportunities facing schools in Greece.
First Bioclimatic Building in Greece |
I had a great introduction to environmental education programs in Thessaloniki, hosted by Geoge Ylfantis, and George Slafkidis, where I had the opportunity to observe them at work the first Environmental Education Center in the country. These Centers spread across Greece, and are resources for teachers of all grades to bring students to learn about climate change, and how they can take action. These are incredibly fun, interactive lessons that have students up, and moving around the room.
Students try to fit on a shrinking "island" |
The kids are alright!
3rd JH of Thessaloniki |
Thank you to another Fulbright Alum, Vasso Michailidou, an English and music teacher, at the 3rd Junior High School of Thessoloniki who helped me organize two focus groups of students. One group was selected students from her classes, and the other group were involved in the school's Environmental Club. I also enjoyed presenting to several of her classes throughout the day. It was great to be in a classroom again, the students were actively engaged, asking all sorts of really smart questions, like, What about the jobs lost when we transition? What about nuclear power? Does everyone in America have a gun?
Fulbright Rock Star Vasiliki! |
In both of the focus groups students said that they learn about climate change, and actions to help in their communities, their schools, and in their families. From international programs such as Erasmus, and eTwinning, to lessons on energy consumption in their classes, to grassroots community groups organizing for local clean-ups, to parents teaching about recycling and waste management, these kids demonstrated a firm understanding of the challenges in their future.
Policy Makers - Policy Implementers
The Greek educational system is like a lot of EU countries, with centralized decision makers who make choices on curriculum that are implemented locally by many of the folks I've met so far. This model is different from most places in the U.S., where local school boards have significant leeway in determining curricular priorities. Since the central government has made environmental education, and climate change education a priority, there seem to be many opportunities for teachers and students to be engaged in conversation, and actions around sustainability.This centralized model is repeated in governance, with local municipal leaders also being asked to focus on sustainability, and actions related to climate change. This is notable across Greece, where the public recycling infrastructure is everywhere. While the integrity of these programs are not always as they were likely drawn up, the commitment is clear. Climate change is real for Greek policy makers, and folks are committed to creating a sustainable future.
Where is the Math? Polynomials on melting icebergs |