Novice

It’ s here, but not to stay!

As young reporters for the environment who grew up in the 21st century, we have been consistently reminded of the impending global warming and its potentially catastrophic effects. Over time, this concern has evolved into a broader concept of climate change. Companies started to include more of this issue into their policies and PR materials and countries started talking about taking measures to avert this unfolding reality. Yet today, this future we have been preventing, is now upon us. All around us, after a brief look, we can see the effects of this climate change. We have personally experienced the disasters it brought upon us and we are witnessing its effects around us, lake by lake, region by region being destroyed while measures are not being taken soon enough.
Take, for instance, Istanbul, Europe’s biggest city, home to a staggering 16 million permanent residents, which has begun to experience usable water shortages during the summer months. Local authorities have repeatedly called for the public to use water sparingly and have sought out alternative sources of water from neighbouring towns. However, this is not a viable solution. An inefficient system at scale is still an inefficient system. Time is of the essence, for soon there may be no next town left from which to get water from. Over the past five decades, 36 lakes were completely dried, and over 10.000 square kilometres of useful wetlands have been lost to drought in Turkey. Many efforts have been made to revitalize some lakes by companies in an attempt to pay back nature for what they have taken and to promote responsible consumption; however, what’s brought back does not cover what has been lost. This undeniably causes immeasurable damage to the ecosystem and those living in it.

Dried up wetlands near Lake Burdur Turkey facing drought (1). Photo: Naz Özcan

A flip side of this coin is the occurrence of flooding and extreme precipitation, attributed to climate change. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, higher temperatures cause more water vapour which results in more rainfall and subsequently more flooding. and denser clouds, causing stronger and more frequent rainfalls that exceed the historical amount expected in an area. Slovenia recently experienced such a disaster, which affected the lives of many, including some of those writing this article. The summer of 2023 marked an unprecedented natural disaster in Slovenia, the catastrophe that was unlike anything the country has seen before.

OVERVIEW AND CAUSES OF THE FLOOD EVENTS

The severe floods occurred throughout the whole country from 4th to 8th of August 2023. The catalyst was a cold weather front originating over the Atlantic Ocean, which progressed its way through Western Europe to the Mediterranean, where it became a shallow cyclone. On the night from 3th to 4th August, torrential downpours occurred across the country. Within a span of 6 to 12 hours, the rainfall greatly increased, surpassing 200 mm at that time. Considering the fact that Slovenia’s average yearly rainfall is 1031mm, it is almost awe-inspiring how quickly the land received almost a fifth of annual precipitation. With that, a number of devastating floods occurred in many regions around the country. From the 4th to the 5th, rivers around Slovenia started to flood. By the end of the day, nearly two thirds of the country were flooded.

Severe weather alerts for 4.-5. August (2). Photo: ARSO ( Envrironmental agency of Republic of Slovenia )

CONSEQUENCES OF THE FLOODS

The floods have had heavy consequences for Slovenia. Critical infrastructure lies in ruins, transportation networks have been severed as roads and bridges have been quickly washed away, and access to essential services has been disrupted. Countless homes and businesses were completely overwhelmed by the flood, which caused significant property damage and monetary losses for the affected people. The floods have also had heavy consequences for the social climate of Slovenia, worsening inequalities and heavily restraining the needed resources for recovery efforts. Agricultural lands have suffered extensive damage, as well as major infrastructure resulting in issues with food and water shortages in certain regions.

In an interview with Professor Dr. Doğanay Tolunay, Head of the Department of Soil Science and Ecology at Istanbul University, he explained how climate change affects different parts of the world differently. How Slovenia, known for its high precipitation, had to face these devastating floods, while not too far from it in Turkey, there were droughts and lakes disappearing because of the same reason.

Floods in Moste (3). Photo: Mykhailo Olishevskyi

CONCLUSION

Patching up wounds inflicted by natural disasters is urgent, but unlike other disasters that cannot be prevented, these occurrences are caused by humans and can be prevented by humans. All around the world these all-time highs in history or unprecedented rainfalls, snows, and other weather events are being reported, yet it is still being treated as an unsolvable natural disaster.

Without having to look back so far, only during pandemic-induced lockdowns that happened all around the world a couple years ago, news of no longer seen animals returning to their previous habitats and indicators of climate change lessening were a common occurrence. A world- scale closure is not viable, but building a world that can coexist with nature is. We strongly believe this and hope to spread awareness and responsibility with our peers and everyone else around us. For that reason, we organized presentations for friends and teachers at school, made pamphlets and leaflets to be distributed around our school and homes. We talked to our parents and neighbours and spoke with professors to learn as much as we could. We wrote to newspapers to bring this issue to the eyes of everyone.

We grew up being taught to fear climate change. We are living through the fearsome climate change and its effects, and we are refusing to just stand by. We will conquer this issue by teaching it one person or one school at a time. Climate change can’t be prevented because it is already here with its effects, but we believe it can be stopped and reversed if everyone can do their part wherever they can. Yes, it is already here, but it is in our hands to make sure it is not here to stay!

REFERENCES

http://rte.arso.gov.si/vode/poro%C4%8Dila%20in%20publikacije/
Porocilo_visoke_vode_in_poplave_avg2023.pdf

https://sl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poplave_v_Sloveniji_(2023)

https://www.gov.si/zbirke/projekti-in-programi/ukrepi-drzave-za-pomoc-po-poplavah/

Lost lakes and wetlands

https://www.ntv.com.tr/galeri/turkiye/goller-yoresinde-son-50-yilda-10-bin-kilometrekare-sulak-alan-

https://www.trthaber.com/haber/turkiye/turkiyenin-kuruyan-golleri-444292.html

Kuyucak Lake Revitilization by a company

https://yarininsuyu.com/projeler/kuyucuk/finish-ten-once-kuyucuk-

Water Waste Responsiblity AD

http://elmaaltshift.com/turkiyenin-kuruyan-golleri-bardak-olursa/

Extra water supplied to Istanbul because of over use and draught