Patras may be a city under the sea by 2100
The Peloponnesian city of Patras could be 1.6 meters under water by the end of the century if the sea level continues to rise at the current rate, a university professor said yesterday. Efstratios Doukakis, associate professor of topography at the National Technical University of Athens, said that the sea level has risen by 16 millimeters every year from 1969 to 2001. «It is not necessary for me to tell you that receptionists at the country’s large hotels will in a few years be wearing bathing costumes at work,» he joked in an effort to underline his point. According to the professor’s research on 2,000 kilometers of coastal area, most of the land was categorized as being at high risk. Some scientists have claimed that 80,000 hectares of Greece will be covered by the sea in 2100.
