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"A polar bear on a piece of ice that broke away from the glacier... Symbolizing the global warming, this image was like showing the danger that is far away from home..."
About one year and a half ago, bianet's article series on climate crisis was launched with these sentences.
"A walrus which finds itself in Europe after falling asleep on a glacier that broke off from the North Pole hitchhikes to ships to return home, draws attention by sleeping on a sled designed for lifeboats ..."
This is the story of another symbolic animal that represents global heating. Just like the first one, this story also seems to be describing a danger that is far away from "home".
Let's start bianet's second article series on climate crisis, "As the Climate and World Change"*, with this sentence.
However, it is not far or anything. The crisis has come to our house; it is not even knocking at our door – as if the crisis didn't exist at all!
Elephant in the middle of our living room
Climate crisis is "the elephant in the middle of our living room", as the young climate activist Greta Thunberg emphasized several times during her speeches in front of the world "leaders". In front of everyone's eyes, but never spoken, ignored...
We are at the very center of the biggest threat that has been experienced since the world came into existence.
But we are not aware of it! We don't want to be aware. We think that the danger is somewhere far away from us. But why?
'Our fear is to leave all behind'
If you like, let's ask the indigenous people of the Torres Strait, who have to leave their island where they have been living for thousands of years as a result of the global heating and the things that the heating brings about, such as the sea level rise, erosion of the beaches, flooding of tombs, storms, and floods. For example, Yessie Mosbie, a resident of the island of Masig, told the BBC reporter: "Our fear is getting evacuated off this place."
What he means by the "place" is the only island where his people have been living for hundreds of generations, it is his house, his country, his language, his civilization, and his culture! He is talking about evacuating this "place".
"Our fear is to leave all behind. Leaving our genealogy behind, our lineage behind, leaving our family remains behind... Having our life become a history," he said while wiping away his tears:
"We didn't contribute to any of these disasters."
The legal struggle of the natives who brought Australia to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights for doing nothing against the climate crisis, the developments that quickly destroyed the lives of countless creatures from the Pacific to Africa, and the drought which will pose great dangers to the Middle East and - to Turkey, especially the Southeast region - are not mentioned at all! Why is the elephant in the living room not talked about?
Devil's triangle
The answer is creepingly simple and consists of five words: Devil's triangle of the world. On the first corner, there are giant fossil fuel (coal, oil, gas) companies who are only seeking profit and economic growth, and their financiers' campaigns that are based on lie-fraud-scam.
The second place belongs to the silence of the PR people who are conducting this enormous campaign that will make Goebbels auspicious, and the sold-out mass media that seemed to have sworn absolute obedience to them. Politicians hold the third corner: The big and small politicians or the shopkeepers who owe their power to the support of these great companies.
Brave new world trio
bianet's second article series on climate crisis will feature today's "brave new world trio" which engages in a fierce fight against the "enemies within us" (or against the "inactivists", to borrow the accurate term from the leading climate scientist Michael E. Mann):
- Writings, words, calls containing the experiences and opinions of the child, youth, and "eternal youth" activists,
- Stubborn scientists who do not hesitate to demonstrate the truths of the world,
- Wise natives of the world who know best in the world and how to live in harmony with nature.
We hope that this article series will shed light on this fight which is the greatest of all - and perhaps the last of all in the history of human civilization as we know it!
"Epilogue": Activism will defeat "inactivism" and save the world from the "devil's triangle of the world"! (ÖM/SO/EÜ/SD)
"As The Climate and World Change" article series*
Our life becomes history while we live! - Ömer Madra
1/ A country outside of the global climate policy: Turkey - Ebru Voyvoda
2/ Climate change, securitarian policies and ghosts - Özdeş Özbay
3/ Turkey's energy policy: Indigenous at home, Blue Homeland in the world - Emre İşeri
4/ The impact of climate crisis and fossil fuels on child health - Çiğdem Çağlayan & Funda Gacal
5/ We will see beautiful days, coal-free and sunny days-Elif Ünal
6 / Either capitalism or the future - Tuna Emren
7 / The three pillars of climate journalism: Science, politics, and social justice - Ece Baykal Fide
8 / Bringing science, struggle, and art together - Yasemin Ülgen
9 / Clean energy or betrayal? - Serkan Ocak
10 / It is time to say stop economic growth - Fikret Adaman & Gökçe Yeniev
11 / When climate refugees knock on our door - Mehmet Mücteba Göktaş
13 / Climate crisis affects women, women affect climate struggle - Merve Özçelik
14 / Climate fiction in literature- Buket Uzuner
15/ Dr. Faustus and children in the age of fire- Ömer Madra
* This series of articles is published with the financial support of Oslo Metropolitan University (OsloMet) Journalism & Media International Center.
