Impact of Economic Crisis on Passenger Transportation – Case of Travelling to the Greek Mainland from Crete

The Greek economic crisis of 2009 onwards has affected all aspects of social and economic life of the country, including transportation. The present study focuses on the impact of economic crisis on the long distance transportation between the island of Crete in Greece, the largest Greek island and one of the largest in the Mediterranean Sea, and the Greek mainland. A questionnaire survey was used to investigate the opinions of the Cretans on the way the economic crisis influenced their transportation to the Greek mainland. The results of the survey show that the frequency of the Cretans’ travels was significantly limited, owing to the increased direct or indirect associated cost, due to the economic crisis. Especially for those who struggled to make ends meet, the transportation to the mainland dropped to the bare essentials. Furthermore, the respondents deemed that the&nbsp;deregulation of the Greek maritime and airline markets was also to blame for the high fares, thus they favoured a regulated public transport sector and were against privatization. Inevitably, financially vulnerable individuals were the most preoccupied with these issues. A feeling of isolation and exclusion was revealed by the sample on occasions when the scheduled trips were cancelled by the operators due to exogenous parameters.</p

Impact de la crise économique et de la position politique des citoyens sur leurs opinions sur les questions environnementales

The environmental issues that concern the scientific community worldwide are varied and extend to an extensive number of scientific fields. The human component contributes significantly to the way environmental issues are managed and dealt with. For this reason, researchers from all over the world investigate the way citizens deal with the environment by studying their awareness, attitude and behavior towards the environment. They also investigate the factors that influence citizens' environmental attitudes and behaviors, as demographic, socioeconomic factors, and personal beliefs and ideologies influence citizens' opinions. In this paper, citizens' opinions on the environment are investigated, and in particular, citizens' awareness, attitude and behavior towards key environmental issues are investigated, as well as the effect of the economic crisis and citizens' political positions on these opinions. The results of the survey show that citizens maintain a moderate attitude towards the environment. They are concerned about the environment and the current and future state of nature and recognize the destructive consequences of human interference with nature.Citizens also show moderate religiosity, without their environmental attitude being affected by their degree of religiosity. However, citizens who show a stronger environmental attitude also express a greater presence of religion in their lives. Regarding the awareness of the citizens towards the environment and whether this is consistent with corresponding pro-environmental behaviors, the results show that the citizens show a fairly high environmental awareness but they present a moderate environmental behavior. Furthermore, when investigating the behavior of citizens in their daily lives, regarding the use and consumption of water, energy and food at the household level, it was found that citizens demonstrate responsible environmental behavior in their habits and behaviors, when using household appliances and energy and water consumption at the residential level. Finally, regarding the political position of citizens, it is observed that citizens with a left-wing political position maintain a pro-environmental attitude and show a higher environmental awareness and behavior than citizens with a right-wing political position.Τα περιβαλλοντικά θέματα που απασχολούν την επιστημονική κοινότητα παγκοσμίως ποικίλουν και επεκτείνονται σε ένα εκτενές πλήθος επιστημονικών πεδίων. Η ανθρώπινη συνιστώσα συμβάλλει σημαντικά στον τρόπο διαχείρισης και αντιμετώπισης των περιβαλλοντικών θεμάτων. Για το λόγο αυτό ερευνητές από ολόκληρο τον κόσμο διερευνούν τον τρόπο που οι πολίτες αντιμετωπίζουν το περιβάλλον μελετώντας την ευαισθητοποίηση, στάση και συμπεριφορά τους απέναντι στο περιβάλλον. Διερευνούν επίσης και τους παράγοντες που επηρεάζουν τις περιβαλλοντικές στάσεις και συμπεριφορές των πολιτών, καθώς δημογραφικοί, κοινωνικοοικονομικοί παράγοντες και προσωπικές πεποιθήσεις και ιδεολογίες επηρεάζουν τις απόψεις των πολιτών. Στην παρούσα εργασία διερευνώνται οι απόψεις των πολιτών για το περιβάλλον και συγκεκριμένα διερευνάται η ευαισθητοποίηση, η στάση και η συμπεριφορά των πολιτών απέναντι σε καίρια περιβαλλοντικά θέματα, καθώς και η επίδραση της οικονομικής κρίσης και των πολιτικών τοποθετήσεων των πολιτών σε αυτές τις απόψεις. Τα αποτελέσματα της έρευνας δείχνουν ότι οι πολίτες διατηρούν μία μέτρια στάση απέναντι στο περιβάλλον. Ανησυχούν για το περιβάλλον και για την τρέχουσα και τη μελλοντική κατάσταση της φύσης και αναγνωρίζουν τις καταστροφικές συνέπειες από την ανθρώπινη επέμβαση στη φύση. Οι πολίτες παρουσιάζουν επίσης, μέτρια θρησκευτικότητα, χωρίς να επηρεάζεται η περιβαλλοντική στάση τους από το βαθμό θρησκευτικότητάς τους. Ωστόσο, οι πολίτες που παρουσιάζουν ισχυρότερη περιβαλλοντική στάση εκφράζουν επίσης, μεγαλύτερη παρουσία της θρησκείας στη ζωή τους. Όσον αφορά στην ευαισθητοποίηση των πολιτών απέναντι στο περιβάλλον και αν και κατά πόσο αυτή συνάδει με αντίστοιχες φιλοπεριβαλλοντικές συμπεριφορές, τα αποτελέσματα δείχνουν ότι οι πολίτες παρουσιάζουν αρκετά υψηλή περιβαλλοντική ευαισθητοποίηση αλλά μέτρια περιβαλλοντική συμπεριφορά. Επίσης, κατά τη διερεύνηση της συμπεριφοράς των πολιτών στην καθημερινότητά τους, σχετικά με τη χρήση και την κατανάλωση νερού, ενέργειας και τροφίμων σε οικιακό επίπεδο, εντοπίστηκε ότι οι πολίτες επιδεικνύουν υπεύθυνη περιβαλλοντική συμπεριφορά στις συνήθειες και τις συμπεριφορές τους, κατά τη χρήση των οικιακών συσκευών και στην κατανάλωση ενέργειας και νερού σε επίπεδο κατοικίας. Τέλος, αναφορικά με την πολιτική τοποθέτησης των πολιτών, παρατηρείται ότι οι πολίτες με αριστερή πολιτική τοποθέτηση διατηρούν φιλοπεριβαλλοντική στάση και παρουσιάζουν υψηλότερη περιβαλλοντική ευαισθητοποίηση και συμπεριφορά σε σχέση με τους πολίτες με δεξιά πολιτική τοποθέτηση.Les enjeux environnementaux qui préoccupent la communauté scientifique mondiale sont variés et s'étendent à un nombre important de domaines scientifiques. La composante humaine contribue de manière significative à la manière dont les problèmes environnementaux sont gérés et traités. Pour cette raison, des chercheurs du monde entier étudient la façon dont les citoyens traitent l'environnement en étudiant leur conscience, leur attitude et leur comportement envers l'environnement. Ils étudient également les facteurs qui influencent les attitudes et les comportements environnementaux des citoyens, car les facteurs démographiques, socio-économiques et les croyances et idéologies personnelles influencent les opinions des citoyens. Dans cet article, les opinions des citoyens sur l'environnement sont étudiées, et plus particulièrement la sensibilisation, l'attitude et le comportement des citoyens à l'égard des principaux problèmes environnementaux, ainsi que l'effet de la crise économique et les positions politiques des citoyens sur ces opinions. Les résultats de l'enquête montrent que les citoyens conservent une attitude modérée envers l'environnement. Ils sont préoccupés par l'environnement et l'état actuel et futur de la nature et en reconnaissent les conséquences destructrices. intervention humaine dans la nature. Les citoyens font également preuve d'une religiosité modérée, sans que leur attitude environnementale soit affectée par leur degré de religiosité. Cependant, les citoyens qui montrent une attitude environnementale plus forte expriment également une plus grande présence de la religion dans leur vie. En ce qui concerne la conscience des citoyens envers l'environnement et si et dans quelle mesure cela est cohérent avec les comportements pro-environnementaux correspondants, les résultats montrent que les citoyens montrent une conscience environnementale assez élevée mais un comportement environnemental modéré. En outre, lors de l'enquête sur le comportement des citoyens dans leur vie quotidienne, concernant l'utilisation et la consommation d'eau, d'énergie et de nourriture au niveau des ménages, il a été constaté que les citoyens font preuve d'un comportement environnemental responsable dans leurs habitudes et comportements, lors de l'utilisation d'appareils électroménagers et d'énergie et la consommation d'eau au niveau résidentiel. Enfin, concernant l'orientation politique des citoyens, on observe que les citoyens d'orientation politique de gauche maintiennent une attitude pro-environnementale et montrent une conscience et un comportement environnementaux plus élevés que les citoyens d'orientation politique de droite

Analysis of Environmental References in the Texts of the Four Gospels Using Descriptive Statistics

Christian ecotheology uses theology to examine the consequences of human action on ecology. It comes from the notion that the natural world is the creation and the good of God. The study of the Sacred Texts and the analysis of their references to the environment provides information on the relation of human beings to the environment and reveals the approach of each author. In this study, a detailed descriptive statistical analysis of the environmental references of the four Gospels of the New Testament was carried out. The different aspects of the environment (natural, anthropogenic, and spiritual) were explored and a quantitative analysis of the environmental references was performed for the texts of the four Gospels using descriptive statistics measures. The results show that the anthropogenic environment is the most commonly cited, with the spiritual environment coming next and the natural environment in the third position

Review of composite environmental indicators

Indicators are used in almost every scientific field to quantify and/or record and/or follow the evolution of a specific parameter. Environmental indicators are related to the environment quality and are specifically used to monitor the quality of the environment and to measure the environmental performance. They can be categorized into specific, composite and personal environmental indicators. A review of the composite environmental indicators used in the literature are presented here. Composite environmental indicators include indicators coming from the synthesis of specific indicators or cover the relationships between the environment and the economic and social sectors. The main composite environmental indicators reported in the literature are: Sustainable Development Goals Index, Ecological Footprint, Environmental Performance Index, Environmental Sustainable Index, Air Quality Index, Policy Performance Index, Genuine Progress Indicator, Living Planet Index and Bhutan Gross National Happiness Index

Review of specific environmental indicators

Indicators are used in almost every scientific field to quantify and/or record and/or follow the evolution of a specific parameter. Environmental indicators are related to the environment quality and are specifically used to monitor the quality of the environment and to measure the environmental performance. They can be categorized into specific, composite and personal environmental indicators. A review of the specific environmental indicators used in the literature are presented here. Specific environmental indicators include indicators related to the natural or to the anthropogenic environment. The specific environmental indicators for the natural environment are mainly related to climate change, reduction of the ozone layer, air quality, water quality, forest resources, fishing resources, biodiversity etc, while the specific environmental indicators for the anthropogenic environment are mainly related to socio-economic indicators, such as population, consumption, energy, waste, transportation, etc

Clustering analysis of countries using the COVID-19 cases dataset

There is a worldwide effort of the research community to explore the medical, economic and sociologic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many different disciplines try to find solutions and drive strategies to a great variety of different very crucial problems. The present study presents a novel analysis which results to clustering countries with respect to active cases, active cases per population and active cases per population and per area based on Johns Hopkins epidemiological data. The presented cluster results could be useful to a variety of different policy makers, such as physicians and managers of the health sector, economy/finance experts, politicians and even to sociologists. In addition, our work suggests a new specially designed clustering algorithm adapted to the request for comparison of the various COVID time-series of different countries

Review of personal environmental indicators

Indicators are used in almost every scientific field to quantify and/or record and/or follow the evolution of a specific parameter. Environmental indicators are related to the environment quality and are specifically used to monitor the quality of the environment and to measure the environmental performance. They can be categorized into specific, composite and personal environmental indicators. A review of the personal environmental indicators used in the literature are presented here. Personal environmental indicators include indicators related to the attitudes and behaviours of citizens towards environmental issues. The main personal environmental indicators reported in the literature are: the New Environmental Paradigm Scale, the Environmental Attitude Inventory, the General Ecological Behavior Scale, the Motivation Toward the Environment Scale, the Connectedness to Nature Scale, the Ecocentric Scale and the Anthropocentric Scale

Assessment of the Greek National Plan of Energy and Climate Change—Critical Remarks

The Greek National Energy and Climate Plan was validated by the Greek Governmental Committee of Economic Policy on 23 December 2019. The decisions included in this plan will have a significant impact on the Greek energy mix as the production of electricity from lignite combustion ceases in 2028, when lignite will be replaced by natural gas (NG) and renewable energy sources (RES). This work presents an assessment of the Greek National Energy and Climate Plan by analyzing its pros and cons. The main critiques made are focused on the absence of risk analysis and alternative scenarios, the proposed energy mix, the absence of other alternatives on the energy mix and energy storage, the low attention given to energy savings (transport, buildings), the future energy prices, and the economic and social impacts. This analysis shows that delaying this transition for some years, to better prepare it by taking into consideration the most sustainable paths for that transition, such as using more alternatives, is the best available option today

Probing Climate Change in Greece with a 2m dish radio telescope

We study the effect of solar activity on the climate in Greece. We search for correlations between solar and terrestrial indicators. The solar proxies which are representative of the activity of our star include the number of sunspots, the intensity of solar radiation, the radio flux at 10.7cm and the galactic cosmic rays. Earth’s weather indicators include six parameters, temperature, relative air humidity, wind direction and intensity, atmospheric pressure and precipitation. The solar data span several years starting from 1975 to 2005, including decades-long variations. The meteorological data come from 12 stations located in various parts of Greece. The main part of the research is the unique experiment in Greece which aims to continuously monitor and record the solar radio flux at 10.7 cm using a 2m paraboloid radio telescope (the pilot project of the THERMOpYlae Hellenic radio telescope)