Page 241 - Çevre Şehir İklim İngilizce - Sayı 2

Zerrin Toprak Karaman - Özlem Çakır - Meriç Aziz Berge

workshop as a whole was not included in this paper as the project
has not been concluded, while answers to scientific questions will
be published at the end of the project.

1. The Importance of Climate Events

There are certain studies on past events at a global scale. According to
Global Climate Risk Index, which questions and interprets the amount of
damage and losses imposed on countries by extreme climate events (such
as storms, floods and heat waves), in the last 20 years (1998-2017) over 11,500
extreme climate events have taken place. Such climate events that can be
categorized as disasters caused the deaths of 526,000 people and (based on
the purchasing power parities) an economic loss of 3.47 trillion US dollars
(Global Climate Risk Index, 2019). Recent studies state that the estimated
increase in global surface temperatures results largely from overheating
since the 2003–2012 period. Even in the case of a really low gas emission
scenario, the global warming is estimated to reach 1.5°C in the short term, or
the possibility of exceeding this value seems to be over 50%. The countries
affected most from these negative effects are colonial countries, which is also
mentioned in the reports (IPCC, 2022).
According to the data created by The Ministry of Environment, Urbanization
and Climate Change, General Directorate of Meteorology in the 2000s,
topics such as strong winds, storms, and hurricanes gained importance with
the triggering effect of climate change and became an area that needs to be
examined from multiple perspectives. The year 2019 witnessed the emergence
of meteorological disasters, heavy precipitation/flood (38%), storms (29%), hails
(18%), lightning (7%) affecting different parts of Türkiye (https://www.mgm.gov.
tr/FILES/ iklim/yillikiklim/2019-iklim-raporu.pdf).
Similarly, in the foreword of the 2021 Report, our Ministry puts emphasis
on the word, “storms” in the expression: “It includes analyses of extreme
weather and climate conditions around Türkiye, such as storms, hail, droughts,
avalanches, heavy precipitation and floods.” The year 2021 witnessed 1024
extreme weather conditions. The extreme weather conditions recorded as
of 2021 consisted of storms/hurricanes (40%), heavy precipitation/floods
(28%), hail (13%), and heavy snow (7%). (https://mgm.gov. tr/FILES/iklim/
yillikiklim/2021-iklim-raporu.pdf: 5). As seen in these cases, the meteorological
issues in Türkiye started to gain more importance than tectonic issues. However,
they have not gained widespread public awareness yet. According to the
comprehensive report by Grand National Assembly of Türkiye (GNAT), Global
Climate Change Research Commission in 2021, “The lack of the necessary

227 Journal of Environment, Urbanization and Climate