Page 8 - Çevre Şehir ve İklim Dergisi İngilizce - Özel Sayı

Introduction

n our world, facing many problems today such as the climate crisis in
Iparticular, disasters related to floods, fires, desertification and drought occur
due to the impact of the climate crisis, and on the other hand, there are fractures
in the production, distribution and consumption chain in all sectors. This very
situation causes more loss of life and property in disasters as well as economic
and financial crises. People, who are exposed to these disasters especially in the
poor and developed regions in our world, are leaving their lands and migrating
to other places. Access to clean water and food is getting more difficult in these
regions. The climate crisis and its consequences currently threaten the ecological
system as a whole, while leaving species at risk of extinction. Human pressure
and intervention on the ecosystem have never been so destructive, the cycle of
life has not been so disrupted in any period all along the existence of the Earth.
Human beings have never negatively affected their own future to this extent with
their own hands. The main reason for these developments is the production and
consumption culture that has been growing since the industrial revolution.
It is an indisputable fact that the socio-economic life model adopted by
mankind in the last 150 years leads to environmental problems. According to
official data, currently 2.1 billion tons of solid waste are generated, 8 million tons
of waste are mixed into the oceans, a third of the food produced every year,
namely 1.3 billion tons, is wasted in the world. The cost of food waste has reached
$ 1 trillion annually. More than 11 thousand disasters caused by the climate crisis
alone have claimed more than 2 millions lives and lead to 3.64 trillion dollars of
economic losses in the recent 50 years. Today, more than one billion people are
still adversely affected due to desertification/land degradation.
Türkiye, which is located in the Mediterranean basin, also encounters problems
caused by climate change as well as desertification and erosion. In addition to
being extremely vulnerable against land degradation, erosion and drought due
to its geographical location, climate, topography and soil conditions, Türkiye is
affected more deeply by these unfavourable aspects along with climate change
and human activities day by day.
Many disasters have occured in Türkiye in recent years, which were mainly
derived from climate crisis. We lost our beloved ones in the floods in Kastamonu,
Sinop, Bartın, Rize, Giresun and Trabzon, and fires in Antalya, Muğla and İzmir
and in other disasters. The mucilage in the Sea of Marmara, the drought we face
in Central Anatolia, in the East and Southeast Regions also reveals the extent of

VII
Özel Sayı / 2024