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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