Page 38 - Çevre Şehir İklim İngilizce - Sayı 1
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Global Problem: Climate Change


            global economy grew fivefold, while trade has grown ten times. Accordingly,
            the world population doubled, reaching 7,8 billion. This undoubtedly indicates
            an increase in individual consumption as well.
               Another indication that human beings are the dominant force in nature,
            was displayed through a study called “Global human-made mass exceeds all
            living biomass” issued in Nature on December 9th, 2020 (Elhacham et al, 2020)
            implemented  by  Weismann  Institute  of  Science  based  in  Israel.  According
            to the study, the weight of all anthropogenic resources (buildings, vehicles,
            dams, roads, etc.) has now reached that of all living beings (aquatic creatures,
            land creatures, plants and trees, humans, all types of animal populations, etc.)
            around the world. According to the aforementioned study, the amount of
            plastic that has been in our lives for just a century equals twice as much as
            the weight of marine and land animals in our world. Yet, all these structures
            have a lifespan, an endurance period and an expiry date. In other words, every
            produced item bears the potential to turn into waste. That is, human beings
            are producing waste.
               This study reviews the emergence and development of global climate
            change, the dimensions of the international fight process against this change,
            and reveals the position of Türkiye against this crisis, presenting a green
            transformation model as a solution.


               The Birth of a Climate Crisis

               We  will  be  experiencing  the  results  of  all  these  scientific  studies  which
            present clear indications that natural balance is disrupted by the hand of
            human beings. The record-breaking temperature increases, forest firest lasting
            months, the highest temperatures in history and hurricanes, dust-storms,
            droughts and water crises, the loss of arable land, lack of access to safe food
            as well as the loss of biodiversity and the extinction of species are some of
            the problems that threaten the existence of living beings. The most important
            factor that increases the effects, strength and number of these problems is
            global climate change.
               Our world, which has a history of billions of years, has experienced climate
            change in different periods. Taking a look at the main factors that lead to
            these changes, it will be noticed that natural processes such as solar flares, the
            elliptical orbit of the Earth around the Sun, the tectonic movements (across
            continents), and volcanic activities play an active role in the world climate
            change (Fahey et al., 2017; NASA, 2020). However, these changes seem to have
            happened over periods of 11 to 150 thousand years, while the current issue
            we face has formed over 2 to 3 centuries. That is to say, the current change





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