Climate Arena (İklim Meydanı) recently brought together experts, the British Council’s Climate Advocates, and students for an open discussion on climate change. Following brief presentations by the panel of experts, the audience were invited to pose questions to the panel, moderated by Radyo ODTÜ host and stand-up comedian Ege Kayacan. Were last year’s floods in Istanbul a consequence of climate change? Does recycling really help the environment? What happened to the ozone layer? Is climate change merely an unsubstantiated fact, or even an elaborate hoax?

 Middle East Technical University (ODTÜ) in Ankara recently hosted an open discussion forum with the aim of revealing truths and busting myths related to climate change. Climate Arena organised by the British Council, Midde East Technical University Science and Society Centre and the United Nations, brought together experts with students seeking to fact-check some of the many rumours circulating about climate change.

The two-hour event kicked off with a series of short presentations from the invited experts and the British Council’s young volunteer Climate Advocates. The experts all work in fields with a direct relationship to climate change: Professor Meryem Beklioğlu from ODTÜ’s Biology department; Professor Nüzhet Dalfes from Istanbul Technical University’s Eurasia Earth Sciences Institute; Atila Uras, United Nations Joint Programme Manager; Assistant Professor Bahar Gedikli from ODTÜ’s City and Regional Planning department; Uygar Özesmi, PhD., Greenpeace Mediterranean Executive Director; and Oya Akman, Editor of National Geographic Magazine, Turkey. 

The presentations provided details of the effects of climate change in the long-term, its effects on daily life, as well as the economic and social repercussions. Professor Beklioğlu cleared one important point, telling the young audience that, “Climate change is not happening for the first time. In fact, the climate has been changing for the last 3.9 billion years.” Why then has it become such a hot topic in recent decades? Beklioğlu’s answer was short and simple: ‘The human factor has surpassed the natural factors since the Industrial Revolution. We are now responsible for triggering an exponential increase.’

Professor Dalfes pointed at the complicated nature of climate change, ‘There are so many parameters, so many factors influencing the change, so it is very difficult to come up with a clear picture.’

Climate Arena was as fun and entertaining as it was informative, with Radyo MEYU’s famous sketch-show host and stand-up comedian Ege Kayacan acting as moderator. One participant raised a question that is on many people’s minds, ‘What do you have to say about the argument that there is no such thing as climate change?’ Özesmi’s answer stressed the urgent need to move beyond scepticism and focus on how we can become part of a great change to save the planet: ‘Let’s say that there is no such thing as climate change and that it is an elaborate hoax. Should this fact stop us from recycling, being sensitive to conservation of the environment? Should we then continue relying on fossil fuels and pollute the atmosphere? Should we continue polluting the planet even if there is no such thing as climate change?’

 The next discussion will take place in Istanbul Technical University in May