Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew inaugurated the 8th "Religion, Science and the Environment Symposium", which focuses on the Mississippi River, on Thursday in New Orleans.

   Bartholomew, who has been dubbed the "Green Patriarch" because of his environmental sensitivities and initiatives and interest in the intersection of faith and the environment, has been organising the Symposium since 1995, which focuses each time on a specific body of water and the problems faced by the surrounding communities and ecosystems. Previous Symposium themes have included the Aegean Sea, the Nile Delta, the Amazon, the Danube River and the Arctic Ocean.

   The 8th Symposium, titled "The Great Mississippi River: Restoring Balance" and taking place over the next five days on a steamboat sailing on the Mississippi River, brings together environmental scientists, theologians, environmentalists, business leaders, public officials and media representatives to discuss the problems and challenges facing both the River and the area, nearly three years after the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina.

   The Ecumenical Patriarch had visited New Orleans in January 2006, just four months after the hurricane and ensuing massive flooding.

   In his opening address, the Ecumenical Patriarch described the 8th Symposium as "historical" and "special", noting that the Mississippi River was a "microcosm of our planet", in whose waters one can observe many of the global environmental problems, and stressed that "we are here to hear its story, and learn from its history".

   Messages from Pope Benedict and former US vice president and Nobel laureate Al Gore were also read out.

   "Our decisions, individual or collective, determine the future of the planet. We have extended our domination over nature to such a point that we touched the absolute boundaries of survival," Bartholomew said.

   "We have lost half of the great forests of the world due to the demand for wood, but also for their conversion into expanses for cultivation. The quantity of water in some of the biggest rivers of the world has been substantially reduced to human activity, with the result that they don't even reach the sea. But even the water that does flow into the sea now conveys chemicals and industrial waste, as well as the trash it collects along the way. Instead of living off the surplus of the natural resources, we are wasting the environmental capital and destroying the natural sources of the Earth as if there is no tomorrow. The dilemmas we face are problems created by human beings. We must keep in our thoughts the fact that we are all on the same fragile ship of life," he added.

   Archbishop Demetrios of America also delivered a greeting to the Symposium, referring to "the wounds caused to New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina" and stressing that "many years will be needed to heal them".

   Caption: Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew arrives at Louis Armstrong Airport in New Orleans on Wednesday 21 October 2009. ANA-MPA/DIMITRIS PANAGOS