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WHAT IS CLIMATE CHANGE? and CLIMATE CHANGE IN TURKEY

by Umut Karadeniz | 21-03-2019 04:01


     Before knowing what climate change is first it is important to know what is climate. All of us know what weather is. For the ones who do not know weather is the changes we see and feel outside from day to day so it the question of what is the weather like today? Sometimes it is sunny, sometimes rainy. Furthermore, weather changes place to place. People might be going to beach to sunbath, at the same time people far away from there might be shoveling snow. So climate is the usual weather of a place which can be different season to season. For instance, a place might be mostly warm and dry in the summer and also the place might be cool and wet in the winter. Different locations can have different climates, too like you might live where it is sunny all the time while some other people live where it is always raining.

     Since we know what climate is, the question becomes what is climate change? While explaining the climate we mentioned that every location has their usual climate so if this climate changes from what is usually is it is climate change. In other word, climate change is a change in the usual weather found in a place. This change could be a change in how much rain a place usually gets in a year or it could be a change in a places usual temperature for a season. Moreover, climate change is a change in Earth¡¯s climate. Finally, it is important to take a note that weather can change in hours. However, climate takes hundreds of years to change.

     So since we know the topic really while it time to talk about my country. We all have read that just 2 Celsius degree change of world¡¯s temperature can cause disasters. For instance, IPCC, which stands for Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, says that change on Earth¡¯s temperature will cause extreme climate problems. Moreover, in 2009 Copenhagen and 2015 Paris Climate Summit countries took important steps in order to stop any possible ways to go that way which includes Turkey. According to analysis, between the years 1979 and 2010 (32 years), Turkey¡¯s average temperature increased 1.2 Celsius degree. This increase changes region to region. While the biggest increase happened at Aegean region and Southeast region, we see that there was nearly no change at East region. In 2014 IPCC published Fifth Evaluation Report which mentioned that between the years 1951-2012 there will be an increase of 0.72 Celsius degree globally. Thus, if we compare the two reports we can say that Turkey was much above the average which means we are doing so many things wrong in our country. Did these changes in 32 years have affected the amount of raining and drought in our country? According to ECMWF¡¯s hydrological data sets even though this huge increase happened, there was not a huge change at the amount of raining in our country. How did this happen? Since the temperature has increased averagely, snow and ice started melting earlier from its usual time so needed water was received.

     For the future it is believed that since we are located at Mediterranean Basin, we will have more increase in the following years. For instance, in 20 to 50 years the average temperature will increase at least 2 Celsius degree. This situation will cause precipitation, unexpected increase in weather evets, heat waves, loss of productivity in agricultural products which require regular watering, decline in tourism revenues, loss of biodiversity, increase in forest fires and loss in water storage areas. Unfortunately, by 2030, it is expected that because of the water problem and drought in Turkey, many people will migrate to other countries.

     If we consider the consequences of climate change especially for Turkey, first of all, Turkey has mixed climate which means in every region there is another weather type at the same time. Therefore, Turkey is one of the countries which will be affected by climate change at the biggest level. Furthermore, Turkey is surrounded by seas on three sides which means every region will be affected by the climate change in different ways.

     In conclusion, from most of the humanities point of view serious actions should be taken as soon as possible since our purpose is to live longer in a happy life. About possible solutions I will talk about them in my next essay.