The climate crisis is no joke. They have their own rules arising from the laws of nature. For giving all the necessary warnings to humanity over the years, he has cut the bill against indifference and callousness. And it carries out the collection in an extremely cruel way.
Here are our forests burning right under our noses. On the one hand, our lungs burned and on the other hand, our future burned to ashes, with the wild friends in it. Here are the villages and districts swallowed by the flood disaster… These are just a few of what we are witnessing in our own geography.
The forests of California, which have been burning in America for months and cannot be extinguished… Settlement centers in the south of the United States, which were destroyed by Hurricane İDA, agricultural areas… All four sides of Italy are burning. In Siberia, fires are still unextinguished. Floods, hurricanes and everything that nature rules are adversely affecting life all over the planet with an ever-increasing coefficient of violence. It can even leave millions of people starving, as in Madagascar.
According to UN estimates, the world’s population has increased by about a billion since 2005.
Depending on where you live in the world and your lifestyle, your impact on gas emissions also varies. This determines what kind of negativity will be reflected from the climate crisis of the geography you live in.
When we turn the page, we see hot wars of human hands. This is Afghanistan! One of the longest wars has resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people with the promise of bringing democracy “there” and for the West it is described as a complete fiasco, shame and defeat! Right under our noses, Iraq, Syria… Palestinian territories… A little further than that, Yemen… In almost every corner of Africa, guns are talking, people are dying. Not to mention Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, Myanmar. These are the geographies where the heartbreaking images of human drama have become natural life.
As a result, the entire planet is turning into a “refugee shelter.” One day we may find ourselves queuing for refugees because of the consequences of the climate crisis or man-made crimes. So much so that one day mankind may not even find a refugee center to shelter! If it were not for today in all geographies of the planet, tomorrow; If it were not tomorrow, there is a formation that will bring humanity together with the identity of a refugee. And “we still don’t see it”… We are not confronting this reality!
With these developments, which mean the bankruptcy of the philosophy of “sustainable human development” put into practice by the United Nations in the early 1990s, it is doubtful that we can even see the year 2050 aiming for global warming to remain below 2C!
A life like a refugee is on our doorstep. We’ve already had a warm-up round with the pandemic. We have voluntarily given up all our freedoms. We lived a life of imprisonment. We couldn’t get on planes, trains or subways. Borders closed. Did we learn anything? Of course “no”. Scientists are talking about returning in early 2020. We know that vaccines are “effective to some degree,” but even that is not guaranteed. In the treatment of Covid-19, there is the fact that “there is no barley length” in front of us. The “chaos” that no one can see ahead of continues to happen. Nation states have failed, international institutions have failed… The leaders were apparently “paper castles”… In the raging waters of the Mediterranean, with $2 life jackets around their necks, even refugees are evolving, which will nurture the exhausted hopes of those who travel to hope! It is even a matter of debate whether those who want to throw themselves into “developed” countries with the hope of a new life will no longer be able to find a sustainable life there.
Mass migrations travel with their culture. First the culture shock, then the expectation of adaptation, but the xenophobia shown to refugees for wanting to protect their culture in places where the most terrible “human rights” flag flies! However, the days when those who make this enmity may queue up “to get a refugee identity card” are not far away.
Example; United States. Isn’t that floating falling apart? Could the United States be on today’s world political map at the end of this century? Who knows which parts of the world Americans will migrate to from their own internal hostility or the destructive effects of the climate crisis?
No good news?
There is, of course. Youths! Those who are now 13-25 years old are the ones who will hold the ropes in politics, civil society and business in 20 years. Those who will make the decisions. Millions of them followed by “human rights-based ecological environment and friendly, caring about local culture; It is as if there is a wave behind us that uses the concepts of peace, justice and law in a dictionary sense. It is not known whether they are given the opportunity or not, but there is a “hope”.
Apart from our expectations for young people, small, regional but steps are also being taken under the heading of “improvements” in accordance with the laws of nature. For example; With rising temperatures, farmers on South Korea’s Jeju Island have begun planting crops that were not previously grown in the region, such as coffee beans, papaya, coconut, sugarcane and avocado.
Under the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, rich countries have agreed to provide ‘climate finance’ to poor countries with the aim of helping them adapt to climate change. But whether it is implemented, is debatable!
The scope of sensitivity to the carbon footprint is expanding. That’s also good news.
Individual awareness has increased about the extent of direct CO2 emissions from the combustion of fossil fuels, including domestic energy consumption, transportation (cars, planes), defined as the primary footprint.
Secondary carbon footprint; a measure of indirect CO2 emissions from the entire life cycle of the products used, which are related to the manufacture and eventual deterioration of these products. (bottled water consumption, meat consumption, food and drink from distant countries, clothes, overpackaged products)
Veal and lamb meat are among the foods that are most harmful to the environment because they produce methane gas, which is a powerful greenhouse gas in the digestive systems of livestock. We can say that awareness of these issues has also increased relatively until ten years ago.
The UN says we need to consume more domestically produced food and reduce food residues.
Where and how our food is produced is also important, because the effects on nature can be very different depending on the place and method in which the same food is produced.
For example, a cattle raised in a deforested area creates 12 times more gas emissions compared to cows raised in its natural environment. Awareness on these issues is also increasing rapidly.
What can we do?
The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says the world is unlikely to meet its gas emission targets unless individual steps are taken.
The IPCC lists the things that need to be done:
Buy less red meat, milk, cheese and butter and eat more locally produced foods, reduce food waste
Change the way you travel. Drive electrically powered cars, but if it’s a short distance, walk or bike. Use trains, buses instead of planes
Instead of traveling for work, communicate by video conference
Do not throw washed laundry into the dryer, dry it on a clothesline
Install an insulation system in your homes
Demand low carbon in every consumer product
The IPCC also found that the impact of lighting on reducing energy consumption was less than generally thought, while the impact of the energy used to heat water was greater than previously estimated.
What if I don’t have the budget to change my lifestyle to combat climate change?
The following observation in the BBC’s report based on the UN report is noteworthy;
Living with climate change awareness and adapting the lifestyle to it can be costly. This will be budget-straining changes, from eating habits to driving electrically powered vehicles.
However, consuming cheap vegetables instead of red meat, going to work by public transportation or by bicycle or walking if the roads and distances are appropriate can also be steps that can be taken.
On the other hand, saving energy consumed at home can also reduce high bills.
After all; We have to choose between changing our habits and embracing a future that is uncertain what will one day become an “asylum seeker” in a refugee shelter.
(*) Written for the Fall 2021 issue of TEİD, the Ethics and Reputation Association’s IN magazine
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