On the one hand, the fires that continued for weeks and could not be extinguished, on the one hand, the floods that suddenly pressed down and deeply affected the region. Soils that get dry for months or even years because they do not receive precipitation and become unable to produce any more yields. Hurricanes, tornadoes, storms, winds that occur unexpectedly. The glaciers that break apart and melt in large, even huge pieces, and the oceans and seas whose level rises every year as a result. Extinct animals, plant communities that cannot maintain their flora. The reason for all this is climate change. The increasing use of fossil fuels with the industrialization that has been going on since the 1750s and the resulting greenhouse effect are slowly killing our world. As recently announced by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, red alerts are now sounding. According to the report, if we do not take immediate and urgent action, a significant temperature limit could be exceeded in about 15 years as a result of the continued release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
The agenda of the world continues to change every day with the news of wars, diseases, pandemics, migrations and economy. The agenda is always full, and because we are all constantly exposed to this news, we hardly see what is going on out there. Since we do not raise our heads and look at our environment and nature, we do not realize how much damage we have created on our world. Average temperatures these days are higher than ever before. News of fires, floods, erosion, tornadoes are coming from all over the world, glaciers are melting, and species are becoming extinct. While there are fires on one side, there are floods on the other. The climate is changing and we are the major cause of it. We humans have corrupted and are corrupting the world we live in with our own hands. Industry, the globalizing world, technological developments, the use of fossil fuels, the increase in the use of nuclear energy, automobiles filling the roads and intense energy consumption make our world uninhabitable. When we look at it in a broader context, we see what we do as follows:
– According to the World Health Organization, 9 out of 10 people around the world breathe polluted air.
– 663 million people in the world do not have access to potable, clean water.
– Every day, approximately 1,000 children die from preventable diseases due to water and sanitation conditions.
– About 1.8 billion people use contaminated water resources.
– Air pollution causes 800 deaths per hour and 13 deaths per minute.
– According to the global disaster assessment of 2016, 750 large-scale natural disasters occurred and 9,200 people lost their lives due to natural disasters.
– In Turkey, it is estimated that 530 deaths per 1 million are caused by pollution.
– More than 2 million tons of wastewater, industrial and agricultural waste are discharged into the world’s waters every day.
How do we ruin the climate?
How did we make our world, the only place on which we can live in the entire universe, like this? The answer lies in the atmosphere and greenhouse gases that protect us and make our world habitable. Some of the gases such as carbon dioxide, ozone, water vapor, which are in our atmosphere and generally called greenhouse gases, are reflected back to our world. This effect creates a greenhouse effect that will keep the air at an average of 15 degrees, and this effect provides us with the necessary environment for living life. Without this optimum temperature level, the world would quickly witness -20 degrees Celsius and all living life would disappear.
This balance and order began to deteriorate gradually with the industrialization process initiated by mankind in the 1700s. People who started to use fossil fuels from the ground such as oil and coal began to increase the rate of greenhouse gases, which stood in perfect balance over time. On the one hand, they released their gases into the nature by using fossil fuels such as coal and oil, on the other hand, they destroyed the forests by cutting them, and directly disrupted their environment. Today, many different international organizations agree that the main cause of climate change is that carbon dioxide from fossil fuels increases greenhouse gases, which in turn raises average temperatures. The temperature has risen above 1.2 degrees Celsius since the 1800s, and experts say that if it is not kept constant at 1.5 degrees, there will be irreversible consequences.
The Industrial Revolution, which started in the second half of the 18th century, caused the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere to increase continuously and it was inevitable that the natural balance would gradually deteriorate. As a result of the greenhouse effect, the Antarctic continent has warmed appreciably in 25 years, which has led to rising sea levels. Changes in the composition of gases such as nitrogen, oxygen, argon, carbon dioxide, methane and water vapor that make up the atmosphere and the release of carbon dioxide and other gases accumulated in the air create a greenhouse effect, causing rapid warming of the earth. (TUBITAK, 2007)
The Industrial Revolution dropped the first of the dominoes and was replaced by fossil fuels, which have been responsible for 60% of global warming since the mid-19th century. Gases from automobile exhausts and factory chimneys, petroleum, coal and its by-products, fossil fuels that increase carbon dioxide gas in the atmosphere are still used extensively today. Apart from fossil fuels, activities such as the reduction of agricultural areas and forest areas, industrialization processes and especially cement production accelerate the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. (DMI, 2007)
Effects of climate change
Today, however, we have begun to experience the effects of climate change very often and visibly. Floods, hurricanes, tornadoes are more frequent. Glaciers are melting regularly, even breaking up in large chunks. As a result, the water levels in the oceans and seas are rising. Experts predict that cities like Venice will face this problem seriously in a few decades. Due to drought and drought, plant and animal ecosystems are seriously damaged, generations are disappearing, mass deaths are experienced. There are largescale fires almost every day, and sometimes they cannot be extinguished for weeks. Heat waves kill not only plants and animals, but also people.
In the “Global Warming Report” published by the United Nations in February 2007, it was mentioned for the first time that 90% of people are responsible for global warming. (UN, 2007) The changes that the increase in temperature will create in the world until 2100 are stated as follows: While Antarctica is facing the danger of extinction with the melting of the polar ice caps, it is an inevitable end that many coastal countries such as Bangladesh and the Netherlands will be flooded. Climate change will bring heat waves and severe storms. On the other hand, it has been revealed that even if solutions to problems such as industrialization and fossil fuels are found, global warming and the rise in sea levels will continue for centuries. (Cnnturk, 2007a)
According to the data of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), an average of 21.5 million people have been forced to migrate every year since 2008 due to disasters such as floods and droughts. The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) states that climate change will affect migration flows in three ways. The first of these is the migration which will be experienced as warming causes a decrease in agricultural productivity and clean water in some regions. Second migration is the one which will force people to migrate massively due to increased extreme weather events, such as flash floods or stream flooding, especially in tropical regions. The third one is the migration which will force millions of people to relocate due to the disappearance of coastal areas below the level due to sea level rise.
The April 2007 issue of the American Newsweek Magazine published a study that revealed that global warming can have positive aspects for some regions, aside from all the negative aspects. According to the research, in countries with cold climates such as Norway and Finland, it will not only extend the agricultural season, but also cause the tourism season to spread throughout the year. Apart from this, it is expected that the frozen areas of Siberia will become productive in terms of agriculture and animal husbandry with global warming, and that a warming of 2.5 C in the USA will reduce the annual number of deaths by 40 thousand people. In addition, in countries with cold climates such as Canada, Russia and Scandinavia, the decrease in winter cold, increase in agricultural production and decrease in deaths are among the positive expectations. (Cnnturk, 2007b)
What else will we go through?
The report recently released by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has once again revealed this reality. According to the report, a significant temperature limit may be exceeded in about 15 years as a result of the continued emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. The report also points out that sea levels could rise up to 2 meters by the end of this century. The scientists who wrote the report say that since 1970, temperatures on the earth’s surface have risen faster than in any other 50-year period in the past 2,000 years.
Different data from the report;
• The temperature at the Earth’s surface was 1.09 °C higher between 2011- 2020 than between 1850-1900
• The last five years have been the warmest on record since 1850.
• Recent rate of sea level rise nearly tripled compared to 1901-1971
• Human impact is probably (90%) the most important driver of global melting of glaciers and shrinkage of Arctic sea ice since the 1990s
• It is “almost certain” that extreme heats, including heat waves, have become more frequent and intense since the 1950s, while cold events have become less frequent and less severe.
Climate change and the cement industry
In particular, the cement industry has a great role to play in terms of carbon emissions, which have very important effects on climate change. Today, emissions from cement production worldwide account for about 5% of all global emissions. These include direct emissions, such as emissions from decarbonization and fuel, and indirect emissions that are the result of activities at the facility but from other facilities. TürkÇimento, one of the umbrella organizations of the cement industry, encourages the Turkish cement industry to make studies and investments to implement the following leverages for the reduction/control of greenhouse gases.
• Increasing energy efficiency
• Using alternative fuels (especially biomass wastes)
• Reducing the clinker/cement ratio (increasing the use of cement with additives)
• Using new and innovative technologies (eg carbon capture, storage and use)
Cement factories in our country carry out the greenhouse gas monitoring, reporting and verification process on a regular basis every year in accordance with the legislation.
Carbon Trading Systems
Turkey cannot benefit from the flexibility mechanisms of the Kyoto Protocol, which are subject to emissions trading. In our country, there is no official emission trading system or emission tax system within the scope of the Kyoto Protocol or independent. In addition, projects for the Voluntary Carbon Market, established within the framework of the environmental and social responsibility principle, have been developed and implemented for a long time.
