Before The Last Glacier Melts

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, ...

We can find enough of the precious metals on the Earth's surface to last us for thousands of years. We also have sufficient sources of coal, oil, and natural gas, most of which are underground, that humanity can burn until the atmosphere becomes unbreathable. However, when we look at all these sources, two main problems emerge. First, should we unearth and use all of these resources? We can burn all the coal, oil, and natural gas we want until we increase the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere above 5000 parts per million. During the time when the dinosaurs reigned our planet, there was even more carbon dioxide, so if we extract and burn all these fossil fuels, it is possible to reach the same level. But we know that if the carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere reaches 5000 ppm, we will not be able to breathe. If we decide to extract all the other minerals, the surface of our planet will belong to mining companies rather than living beings including humans. It also became ...