THE WORLD'S NORTHEST CITY IS DISAPPEARING LONGYEARBYAN

While the orbital motion of the earth, radioactive radiation emitted by the sun's rays, and volcanic events are amongst the natural causes, the destruction of forests, the effects of harmful gases emitted from vehicles such as cars, planes, and trains on the climate can be given as examples of unnatural causes. All these effects lead to the warming of our world. It is indeed! However, I can smell the suspicion in the air: how this temperature is formed then? Let me clarify with an example. Let's imagine that you bought a blanket to warm yourself on a blistering cold day in winter, but you still have many blankets on top of each other because you are not warmed up. After a point, you will realize that you are getting warm no matter what the temperature of the room is. But it's not the blanket that keeps you warm. The blanket acts as a shield between your body temperature and the coldness of the room, preventing your body temperature from blending with the room temperature and keeping you warm by trapping the heat. The harmful gases we have mentioned, mixed with the atmosphere, take their place on our world like a blanket and get stuck between the earth and our planet, causing our planet to heat up nonstop. The reason for these sudden changes in the weather, which we think as being extremely rainy one day and extremely hot the next day, is actually the release of harmful gases into nature and the warming of our planet day by day by acting as a blanket covering the atmosphere.

Longyearbyen, the northernmost settlement in the world, where 2300 people dwell, is a living example of climate change. The Norwegian Center For Climate Research, which started keeping records of temperature increases in Longyearbyen, pointed out that temperatures have increased by seven degrees since the early seventies and that the temperature will gradually increase as greenhouse gas emissions begin to increase. This result poses a great danger to the local people. Because the melting of glaciers can cause more avalanches, more landslides, and cause destruction.

The melting of the glaciers by the temperatures in Longyearbyen is not only affecting the people living in that area. While melting glaciers cause sea level rise, it also causes the depletion of corals, which form the basis of the food chain, which is important for bird and fish life. The disappearance of corals means the extinction of fish. So the issue is not just with the increase in temperature. This is exactly why we need to adjust our perspective. We should include products that are environmentally friendly and factor nature in our consumption habits, and we should carry out economic planning by focusing on the environment. As Stephanie Mayer, a researcher at NORCE and the Bjerknes Center puts it, “…we must not forget that these dramatic consequences can be mitigated if we succeed in transitioning to an economy with fewer greenhouse gas emissions and if all countries are finally able to follow through with the Paris agreement.” In fact, there is still hope, of course, if everyone takes responsibility...


R.A. Burçin ÇAKIR