Understanding Climate Change
This weekend Ceren Soylu was treating me and my brother to a meal to celebrate the launch of, ‘Yıldızlar Şahidimdir’, the new TV series in which she will appear. Ceren is my cousin who became a TV celebrity, after appearing in ‘Şehnaz Tango’, ‘Hayat Bilgisi’, ‘Pis Yedili’ and over the years has made many programs including the acclaimed documentary ‘Yediveren Düşleri’ in which she examined the power colours have upon us.
Two young people from Greenpeace’s Face to Face team recognised her and came over to talk about climate change. Their presentation touched our souls. Moreover they taught me how to use hashtags in Instagram:)
Two bright young university students were spending their weekend explaining strangers like us that through Greenpeace Action, 20 thousand households were powered by solar panels.
The Effects of Thermal Power Plants
I lived in Muğla region for 14 years, where I heard stories first hand of the effects of thermic power plants on people. Some clients suffered psychological effects due to working and living in such places. Marital problems associated with memory loss, inability to concentrate, higher occurrence of cancer and early death are some of the damage that may be attributed to these plants.
The effects on plants, on water, air and land, and therefore on our food are not only harming human health but also contributing to a planet wide ecological crises. Scientists believe we, as human species are responsible of the global warming which could lead, in time, to mass migration with its associated complications. We will feel the effects of global warming as unusual extreme weather conditions, sea-level rise, temperature increase, and changes in precipitation. These in turn result in impacts, such as loss of land, harm to clean water, reduction of food, dislocation, outbreak of disease, and sometimes loss of life.
Greenpeace invites people to take action; saying ‘we are stronger together’ to be part of the solution in order to protect ourselves, our families, communities, and future generations.
Supporting Solar Power Instead of Thermal Power
The two bright young university students were spending their weekend explaining strangers like us that through Greenpeace Action, 22 of the 80 projects of thermal power plant investments were stopped.
Greenpeace encourages the development of solar power installations which create three times more employment than thermal power plants. In Konya their team contributed to the construction of solar panels that fed 20 thousand households. The name of their campaign is ‘Open Your Sails To The Sun’.
Creative Solutions
What can you and I do? I believe that we need to be open to learn and change, do what we do with good intention and to the best of our ability. Then the events and people we meet and our intuitions will take us to places and activities where we need to be involved.
Each of us are one of a kind and so can only make a unique contribution. I am influenced by Bill Mollison whose unique contribution has been Permaculture. His life experience led him to assert that conflict is loss of time, it was more important to invest our efforts in creative solutions.
As a family therapist I share what comes out from the alchemy of my training and life experiences to contribute to the mental health of the communities around me. My cousin, a performance artist influences people with her personality. The latest TV series she is in, is starting 27th January Friday at 8pm Turkish time on Star TV. My brother Emre, told me that as an olive oil producer he wants to produce the best quality because he believes in its health benefits. But, as the process is more costly, not everyone will buy it. He had an online system built so you can order high quality healthy olive oil from your home. My motto is ‘Be Part Of The Solution’. In which ways can you be part of the solution? What might your motto be?
