ATHENS – Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew officially opened the international ecological symposium “Toward a Greener Attica: Preserving the Planet and Protecting its People” at the Acropolis Museum in Athens.

The symposium includes 200 theologians and scientists, political and business leaders, professors and students, as well as activists and journalists from Asia, America, Africa, Europe, and Greece.

In his keynote address, Bartholomew, known as “the Green Patriarch,” observed how “the ecological crisis has revealed that our world constitutes a seamless whole, that our problems are universally shared.”

Bartholomew highlighted the ecological problems of the surrounding region of Attica and Greece: “Much remains to be done in order to reduce the unacceptable trash in the surrounding mountainside of Attica with its deplorable landfills and to resolve the unjustifiable plastic on the floor of the surrounding sea that threatens marine life.”

The symposium will travel to the islands of Spetses and Hydra, concluding with a session on board a ship on 8 June.