Under the name of the climate crisis, terrible scenarios are told, the Paris Climate Agreement is brought to the agenda as a solution to all problems, actions are organized all over the world, studies are carried out for the 'climate crisis'. Following the statements made by President Erdoğan, the efforts for the Paris Climate Agreement accelerated in Turkey. We talked in detail about the 'climate crisis', the Kyoto and Paris agreements and the reflections of the climate crisis in Turkey with Ahmet Dursun Kahraman, Chairman of the Board of the Chamber of Environmental Engineers.
“IT IS A FORMATION OF CAPITALISM TO RELIEVE THE PUBLIC OPINION”
The Paris Climate Agreement has become a hot topic in recent days. What is the Paris Climate Agreement?
Before coming to Paris, it is necessary to talk about Kyoto. The Kyoto Agreement has not been successful. The Paris Agreement was launched for the same purpose. The European Union is an agreement in which 190 countries participate. There are countries that approve, and there are those that do not. Turkey is also among those who do not approve. The phrase “we signed first” is somewhat idle. Because it was not approved. Turkey is just joining in 2021. When we look at nature, this agreement is a formation of capitalism aimed at relieving public opinion and gassing. Because there is a financial flow, funds and supports on its basis. Another issue is that we call climate change, not climate crisis. Because there cannot be a climate crisis, it will be a system crisis. We do not think that a correct solution will be found in this system from the Paris Climate Agreement. It should not be given too much meaning. They cannot fight for climate change in this system because capital is ahead.
THE CAPITALIST SYSTEM IS PREPARING THE TERRIBLE ENDINGS
You said, "It's not a climate crisis, it's a system crisis." Can you open a little bit?
The climate of the world has been changing since ancient times. The climate changes, you can't do anything about it. This is natural. Climate change is different, changing is different. With the creation of a consumer society whose needs are constantly increased, the change in its normal course intervenes like a knife and pulls it in very different directions. It changes its speed and perhaps its direction. It is the capitalist system that convinces everyone to buy a vehicle, wants to accumulate more capital, and prepares for dire consequences such as drought. This is the problem posed by the system. If it causes this, it is called a system crisis, not a climate crisis. This is the problem of capital, the crisis of capitalism. The climate change we are experiencing is not a change at that level.
The system is trying to justify itself by calling it a climate crisis. For example, climate change affects precipitation, floods occur. These are natural. Unnatural ways are to build houses on stream beds. This is capital imposition. Everyone knows the phrase "If houses are built on stream beds, people die", but it is still being built. The system still benefits from the current system crisis. This is also the case in Turkey. You should not open places such as touristic facilities or waste facilities in the forests. You should not turn forest areas into mining licensed areas. If you're going to fight climate change, you need trees. For climate change, you need water beds, not emissions. The Ministry has 357 air measurement stations that measure air quality. Of these 357 stations, 236 of them did not take any measurements. He did not receive reliable measurements from 82 of them. In order to be immune to climate change, you need not only to control emissions, but also to protect water resources and basins. It is not convincing that the political will, which does not care about these, cares about climate change.
“PARIS CLIMATE AGREEMENT IS PART OF THE SYSTEM”
Let me tell you from the beginning, it is impossible to be hopeful about this. I want to be wrong, even if I am wrong, I will not be sad, I will be happy. When you think of climate change, the environment comes to mind. I would like to state that we are not very hopeful when we look at the "sensitivity" and the system in the dormitory and when there is an experience like Kyoto in a global sense. Our people who drowned in streams did not die because we did not know that a house could not be built in the stream. Despite our knowledge, dozens of our citizens died because a house was built there. Flood is natural. What is unnatural is the loss of life and property. Whatever happens, we think that we have no expectations when there are destructions made under the name of development, and besides these, the attitudes are obvious. You have turned your forests into mining areas, you have destroyed the equipment for defense of your forests. We are talking about elements for the benefit of society, plans away from labor and nature. That's why we think there is no development plan. This is a profit plan. We are not hopeful because of all that we have said. The Paris Agreement is also part of the system. Funds and supports arouse appetite. When we see these, it will not be wrong to think that what is said are political discourses and that there will be no change in the dormitory.
“WE CHANGE THE NATURAL CHANGE ALSO”
What is your comment on climate change?
There is climate change. But it was there before. Climate change has occurred since the beginning of the world. Floods, ice age occurred. Climate is part of nature. There is a natural course of change. Maybe you change the climate change when you build a thermal power plant. This is due to the change in the natural course we live in. The climate comes in 1 year with thermal power plants that are built to change the future in 100 years. We're talking about the little things here. We're talking about half a degree of warming, but even that half a degree has a lot to do with it. The thermal power plant does not emerge spontaneously, we build it. In this way, we are once again changing the natural change of the climate.
“CLIMATE CHANGE IGNORED IN TURKEY”
What about climate change in Turkey? Is the scary news true?
For once, it's not something specific to Turkey. Since it has become a global problem, we can say that what is spoken is of course not a story. Drought is imminent. The drought that would normally come after thousands of years is now in a position to come soon. The drought was linked to the dam water level but not like that. After the winter comes a drought. The dam water levels are said to be low. After the first three rains, this process is forgotten. What is touted as a drought is seasonal drought. The drought mentioned in climate change is hydrological drought. This is a disaster and it is the greatest of disasters. The earthquake hits. The damage is momentary. This drought hits for decades, the damage lasts for years. Loss of vegetation, excessive rainfall, drought, disruption of the food chain, difficulty in accessing food, dominant new species, epidemics; These appear as damage. When we ask about the situation in Turkey, we cannot do without saying these things. Climate change is ignored in the name of science and nature in Turkey.