On-site problem solving
The formation and acquisition of an environmental ethos, referred to by both Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomaios and Athens Academy President Ioannis Zizioulas – the heart and soul of the Phanar’s active turn toward environmental problems – was the driving force behind the Adriatic symposium. Talking about environmental problems in the security and remoteness of a congress is fairly easily and comfortably done. By contrast, bringing in specialists and the media, going to where the problems are and meeting the people who suffer from them is considerably more difficult. And it is all the more substantial because whatever is said acquires the essence which is usually lacking; the basis of which is a genuine sense of responsibility, whose constant presence was one of the chief characteristics of the Patriarchate’s symposium.
