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How Europe's first Chief Heat Officer wants to keep Athens habitable despite the heat

2021-11-10T16:19:55.948Z


The Greek capital suffers from the effects of climate change like hardly any other European metropolis. As the first Chief Heat Officer, Eleni Myrivili should ensure that she has a future despite the heat records.


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Eleni Myrivili is Europe's first chief heat officer

Photo: [M] Atlantic Council

She was fresh in office when Eleni Myrivili suffered her first defeat. It was the beginning of August of this year, a historic heat wave rolled over southern Europe, and forests were burning almost everywhere. The temperatures in Athens climbed up to 44 degrees. Even at night it was still 28. At some point Myrivili and her husband decided to buy an air conditioner. "The monster" is what she calls the gray, inconspicuous device when she stands in front of it in the bedroom today. It was an act of desperation.

Air conditioning is something like the original sin of climate protection, a parable of collective failure, if you will.

Instead of solving a recognizable problem, it is transported to the front door.

The devices work with heat exchange, with every degree of coolness inside, the heat increases outside.

In addition, there is astronomical consumption of resources.

In Athens, the consequences were recorded years ago down to the decimal point: for every additional degree of heat, electricity consumption increases by 4.1 percent.

"It's already about saving lives"

"If we just buy new air-conditioning systems, our city is lost," says Myrivili. Nevertheless, the 60-year-old believes that it will not be possible in the coming years without additional equipment. “When it comes to climate protection, we talk a lot about the future, but the problems have long been there. We can't just turn off climate change, ”she says. “It's already about saving lives. Thousands of people die every year as a result. "

Now she wants to break the silence.

Myrivili has been Athens' Chief Heat Officer since July, the first in Europe.

It should make the heat problem visible and prevent the city from possibly becoming partially uninhabitable in a few decades.

The Greek capital is already regularly the hottest on the continent in summer, and the temperature is often seven to ten degrees higher than in the surrounding area.

That summer was the hottest.

So far.

She describes her friends and her American husband as hippies

Myrivili was professor of anthropology, chairwoman of the Greens, until 2019 she was deputy mayor. Adaptation to climate change was her topic even then. Now she is supposed to push the issue for the conservative incumbent. Kostas Bakoyannis, nephew of the incumbent Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, presents himself as a modern bourgeois who takes climate protection seriously. The heat officer should help. The work is supported by the Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center, a think tank that supports similar projects in other regions of the world.

The fact that she is now advising the mayor has disturbed some in her environment, says Myrivili.

She describes her friends and her American husband as hippies.

She sees herself as a left-wing Green, more an academic than a politician.

The criticism does not seem to stir her particularly, from her point of view, the step is only consistent.

»Minds are more important than parties.

The fact that we exchange everything every time there is a change of government has brought us into this situation in Greece. "

As Deputy Mayor of Athens, she published the first climate plan in 2017.

In it, the city pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent by 2030.

The report also explicitly described what the heat is already leading to: for every additional degree above 31 degrees Celsius, the death rate increases by five percent.

Some mulberry trees look burned down because their roots lack water

Since then, a lot has happened, for example there is »Extremema«, a dedicated app against the heat.

Whoever enters age, gender and previous illnesses should be informed about personal risks by her.

So far, the application has been in the shadows, but cities such as Paris, Lisbon, Milan and Rotterdam have already taken over.

Conversely, says Myrivili, Athens can learn from other metropolises.

Myrivili was at the World Climate Conference in Glasgow until a few days ago, she maintains a dense network in other cities and countries.

Paris' Mayor Anne Hidalgo, herself a figurehead for greener cities, received praise for her appointment.

"The problems we are facing affect many metropolitan areas," says Myrivili.

"Today, more often happens in cities than at the state level."

At the same time, there is often a lack of knowledge on site.

Last but not least, 10 years of austerity have left their mark.

In Athens, the Green Spaces Office still had a good 400 employees under her - ten years earlier it had been around 1,500.

"If I want to know how we want to make Athens greener, it is often easier today to fly someone in from Sydney than to find someone here," says Myrivili while walking through the city center.

The harbingers of climate change can already be seen in many places.

Some mulberry trees look burned down because their roots lack water.

Others suffer from fungi and beetles, which until a few years ago only existed further south.

In the coming years, the green areas are now to be expanded in a targeted manner.

Several kilometers of green corridors are planned around the center, as they already exist in Singapore or Paris.

They should help to cool the city better in summer.

Smaller parks should help to increase the quality of life in the center.

In the 1980s, district cafes were built for senior citizens, which could also serve as chilled lounges in the future.

The fight against the increasing heat is not least a social issue

Myrivili's primary task is to convert the broad interest in more climate protection into support for specific projects. Above all, she can admonish, annoy and praise. She has an office in the town hall, but no staff. Her greatest strength is that she is reliably listened to. International media report on their work. However, others have to ensure that Athens changes fundamentally.

Anyone walking the streets with Myrivili understands that fighting the increasing heat is not least a social issue. More than 90 percent of Athenians live in apartment buildings. The Polykatoikia, hastily erected buildings from the post-war period, are the gray legacy of modernity. They are not beautiful, but for a long time they made sure that the city remained fairly colorful. But at the same time the heat builds up in the narrow streets, many houses are shabby.

Those who have money have often fled to the suburbs. Those who are poor are left behind between thin walls. In winter there is now often a smell of wood - the crisis has brought cheap stoves back in many inner-city districts. Conversely, the warmth builds up here in summer even at night. “We know what the consequences are. With every heat wave, the number of psychological problems increases. Depression and psychotic flare-ups increase when the body cannot cool down, ”says Myrivili. "Within a few, the first people die of the heat, especially the old."

The heat is a quiet killer, its traces can hardly be found in a declaration of death.

Heart attacks, strokes, natural death are written on paper when the air is burning outside and hundreds more people have died in hospitals and old people's homes than would actually be expected.

According to official figures, the excess mortality in the first two weeks of August of this summer alone was 2,300 - the corona deaths have already been factored out.

Myrivili therefore calls for learning from the corona pandemic and specifically recording excess mortality in the summer months.

For heat waves, it calls for the introduction of own names, as has long been the case with storms and thunderstorms.

She would prefer a scale that makes the development more visible.

Most important for understanding, however, are practical changes. Several streets in the city center were cordoned off last year in order to reduce traffic. The "Great Walk", the Megalos Peripatos, now connects the Acropolis under plane trees with several museums. The number of cyclists has tripled since then, according to a study.

The city recently had new maps drawn up.

Satellite images show where the heat problem is most pressing.

The data should now ensure that the expansion of solar systems in the city is accelerated.

Those who suffer particularly from the temperatures should therefore receive more subsidies for solar panels on the roof than residents in green, well-cooled suburbs.

It is still a vague plan and there are no concrete figures.

But it is always the right approach, praises Eleni Myrivili.

Better than just air conditioners.

This contribution is part of the Global Society project

Expand areaWhat is the Global Society project?

Reporters from

Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe

report under the title “Global Society”

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The reports, analyzes, photo series, videos and podcasts appear in the international section of SPIEGEL.

The project is long-term and will be supported for three years by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF).

A detailed FAQ with questions and answers about the project can be found here.

AreaWhat does the funding look like in concrete terms?

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) is supporting the project for three years with a total of around 2.3 million euros.

Are the journalistic content independent of the foundation?

Yes.

The editorial content is created without the influence of the Gates Foundation.

Do other media have similar projects?

Yes.

Big European media like "The Guardian" and "El País" have set up similar sections on their news sites with "Global Development" and "Planeta Futuro" with the support of the Gates Foundation.

Have there already been similar projects at SPIEGEL?

In the past few years, SPIEGEL has already implemented two projects with the European Journalism Center (EJC) and the support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation: the “Expedition ÜberMorgen” on global sustainability goals and the journalistic refugee project “The New Arrivals” as part of this several award-winning multimedia reports on the topics of migration and flight have been produced.

Where can I find all publications on global society?

The pieces can be found at SPIEGEL on the topic Global Society.

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2021-11-10

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