Before The Last Glacier Melts

Heatwaves have become increasingly frequent and intense due to climate change, posing significant risks to human health, particularly in the Mediterranean region. As the frequency and intensity of these extreme heat events continue to rise, prioritizing heatwave preparedness becomes crucial for safeguarding human health. Therefore, we must urgently explore various aspects of heatwave preparedness, emphasizing the importance of taking immediate action to protect vulnerable communities from the impacts of extreme heat in a warming world. A heatwave refers to a prolonged period of abnormally high temperatures, surpassing the usual temperature variations in a particular region. Unlike normal temperature fluctuations, heatwaves can have detrimental effects on human health. They are primarily caused by a combination of factors, including atmospheric pressure patterns, humidity levels, and changes in wind patterns. Heatwaves bring various health risks and consequences that demand attention. H

James Hansen is an American climate scientist. Between 1981 and 2013, he worked at NASA Goddard Space Research Institute (GISS), where essential data in terms of climate were produced, and during this time he served as the director of the Climate Research Division of GISS. With his testimony in the US Senate in 1988, he attracted more public attention to the problem of climate change and created scientific awareness. With this and subsequent activism, James Hansen is one of the best-known scientists on climate change. Hansen is an advocate emphasizing the importance of resolute policies and renewable energy sources in tackling climate change. Despite his retirement from GISS, James Hansen continues his research and effective communication on climate change. In his latest article, Hansen targets the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which is considered an authority in terms of climate science. The IPCC is often the target of those who do not believe in the climate crisis

Biodiversity is important. This year, it is much more important for our country. As a result of the conference held in Rio in 1992, the governments signed three major agreements. Of these agreements, the Framework Convention for Climate Change is the agreement we hear the most. The Paris Agreement sets out the principles of implementation of this convention. The Climate Conferences held at the end of each year are actually the Conference of the Parties to this convention. Another agreement signed in Rio is the Convention on Biological Diversity. Similar to climate conferences, biodiversity conferences are also held biennially and the next conference will be held in our country. After the last conference is being held in Kunming, China, our country will assume the responsibility of biodiversity topic globally, and therefore the issue of biodiversity will be on our agenda for the next two years. Since climate affects our daily life, everybody knows more or less about it. Biodiversity, on

Last week, European Climate Change Service announced that 2021 was the fifth warmest year in history. When we read newspaper headlines in this way, many of us may reach different conclusions, so I will try to explain the meaning of this announcement piece by piece. First of all, scientists have been measuring the average temperature of the globe with modern thermometers for nearly two hundred years. Although there were no modern thermometers all over our planet two hundred years ago, we can know the average temperatures we have experienced in the last two hundred years with quite a high accuracy, as these thermometers were spread in most places and the measurements made at that time were corrected by comparing them with the measurements today. So we are confident that the average temperatures we have experienced in 2021 have not been seen for at least two hundred years. We know that Galileo Galilei invented the first roughly scientific thermometer four hundred years ago. Although the m

2021 was the year we believed in the climate crisis. Until that year, most of us were not yet aware of what kind of trouble we were in. And in 2020, a pandemic came on top of everything. In fact, at first, we thought that the pandemic would not be different from other problems and that life would return to normal in a short time. When 2021 started, it was widely thought that the pandemic would end in a short time with the discovery of the COVID19 vaccine. Unfortunately, 2021 did not progress as expected. The level of education, which developed all over the world after World War II, started to decrease gradually with the neoliberal system led by the US and UK in the early 1980s. At that time, most were unaware of the trouble that had befallen us. Individuals who are accustomed to learning, problem-solving, and thinking gradually decided that it is more enjoyable to live without thinking, and to walk on the path shown by the system without questioning it too much. As life got easier, peo

It is a well-known behavior that countries start to pay more attention to the environment in addition to the economy in parallel to the increase of their level of development. Since the votes of the political parties, which attach more importance to environmental policies, have increased, the European Union has begun to put more weight on environmentally friendly production within its economic policy. This new production and consumption style friendlier to nature is primarily defined as a system respecting the boundaries of nature. The scientific basis of this definition was the Planetary Boundaries study published by the Stockholm Resilience Center in 2009, led mainly by European scientists. According to this study, the sustainable development of humanity was only possible if these limits were respected. The developments around this work have started to be implemented in all manufacturing and consumption sectors in Europe. As the European Union tightened the rules on the environment,