Consume tea, not coffee, for a sustainable world

‘Is Sustainable Living Possible?’ held at Istanbul Arel University Tepekent Kemal Gözükara Campus. Speaking at the conference, Güven İslamoğlu made important statements about the climate crisis and warned especially about consumption habits.

Stating that the climate crisis is a more serious problem than it seems, Güven İslamoğlu also touched upon Salda Lake, which NASA stated should not be entered with shoes and which came to the fore with the construction of asphalt on its edge; He stated that we owe some of the oxygen we breathe now to Lake Salda.

Journalist Güven İslamoğlu touched upon the development process of the planet Earth throughout history and the existence of oxygen; “The work went beyond turning off two lamps, throwing away a plastic bottle, and sending the paper for recycling. It has reached another dimension. We will talk about how many of us will live in the next 2050, how many of us will exist. The piece of sand in Lake Salda is 3 and a half billion years old. At the beginning of oxygen “It is a fossil of an existing creature. That’s why Lake Salda is very important to us. That’s why it’s a world heritage that we need to protect. That’s why we pay so much attention to Lake Salda. We owe some of the oxygen we breathe to it now,” he said.

‘We are destroying the water we drink’

Adding that the amount of water in the world is always constant, Güven İslamoğlu emphasized that it is more important that water is not destroyed rather than wasted.

İslamoğlu; If you want to protect nature, turn on the taps and let it go. Because nature also needs it. Because the amount of water has been 0.3 since the world existed. If you want for one person or for two people. For 9 billion if you want. Water does not come from anywhere in this world. It neither decreases nor decreases. What are we doing? We are ruining the water we drink. We are destroying the water we drink. We think that water can come at any time. Yes, it can come, it can come with a meteor. Excess water may come with a meteorite. He can’t come otherwise.

‘Our consumption habits are enough to change the balance of the world’

Emphasizing that our consumption habits cause the climate crisis, Journalist Güven İslamoğlu continued his speech with the following statements:

“For 60 million years, nature has been taking carbon from the air, locking it down, turning it into coal and oil, fossil fuels as we know them, and storing it there. It gives oxygen instead. So what are we doing? We take out that much coal every year. Your clothes and shoes are all coal. Everything you eat, drink, your mobile phone, glasses, car, lifestyle, consumption habits means carbon. So we’re lifting the carbon below up. We are taking back the carbon that the world has locked down for 60 million years. Your consumption habits are enough to change the balance of the world.

“Textile industry and smartphones are one of the sectors that pollute the world the most”

The textile industry has become one of the most polluting sectors in the world. People no longer buy clothes to dress up, they buy dresses to show off their wealth. Greenhouse gas emissions of smartphones are very high. Are smartphones obsolete? No. The mobile phones you currently use can be made usable again with a small update. But they don’t want to do this. Because slowing down is beneficial. Between 2010 and 2019, 13 billion phones were sold by a famous brand, 3 billion of which are in use. All the rest are in working order but are sitting in your drawer. There is gold, silver, water, energy, carbon, copper, everything in it. We have produced so much, polluted the world, and it’s sitting in a drawer. Why? Because it slowed down. They keep selling you that phone. The phone does not cost anything. The phone costs $10. But you are paying him a lot of money.

“We destroy the world just for fun”

The carbon footprint of messages is also quite high. 400 million messages are sent per day, equal to the daily carbon emissions of airplanes. Every message you send means energy. Because mobile phones work with energy. Systems that capture this work with energy. We call this ecological perversion. The carbon footprint of an app like TikTok is very high. We destroy the world just for fun. Thousands of machines operate to store the videos produced here. It is necessary to cool the machines. With the climate crisis, we will have to spend twice as much energy to cool these machines.

“Bitcoin consumes energy at the size of the country”

Another one is bitcoin. Bitcoin consumes as much energy as the Netherlands, the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan and Norway. We said we would get rid of fossil fuels, we said we would use solar energy, we said we would use wind energy, and then we added why for “Bitcoin”, why for “Tiktok”. Such a world will not last. It will come to a certain point, after a certain point the world will start to correct itself.

“They are destroying forests so that you will drink that coffee”

“The coffee you drink. Coffee comes from Brazil. They destroy forests and plant coffee instead so that you will drink that coffee. That’s why the carbon footprint of coffee is very high. If you are thinking about what we can do for the world, starting today; Cut out coffee, drink tea. Tea is produced in Turkey. Never consume imported products. Turn to local products. Go as local as you can.

Australia is currently fighting fires. They are responsible for this. Because it is the largest coal producer in the world. It does not give up coal, it continues to sell coal. While he was destroying the world for his own welfare, suddenly the climate crisis hit him. He says pray for me now. “

“It is not a living thing that we can make a fire under a tree for.”

“It is not a creature that we would light a fire under a tree with. We are going to the forest, we are going to get oxygen. When you light a barbecue, you breathe in carbon. You are being poisoned. That’s why we are against barbecue. Otherwise, there is no difference between the oxygen in the Kaz Mountains and the oxygen here. 21 percent there, 21 percent here. Quality oxygen there, poor quality oxygen here. That’s the difference.“

“The great wave of migration has begun”

Our health expenses increased by 1,200 percent. It will increase even more. You cannot be examined when you go to many parts of Europe. You can’t find a doctor. That’s why we need a healthy environment. A great wave of immigration began. If we cannot stop this, approximately 250 – 300 million people are expected to move with their families and children from east to west in 2050. Climate migration. This is where they will come. Some of it has already arrived. You already see this when you go out on the streets. They have nowhere to go. They will come to places with water, land and prosperity. People will want to live, they will come to the place where they will live. “

“We can plant carbon sequestering plants”

Istanbul Arel University Board of Trustees Chairman Özgür Gözükara, Istanbul Arel University Vice Rectors Prof. attended the conference with intense participation. Dr. Ergül Berber, Prof. Dr. Hüseyin Gün, Istanbul Arel University Secretary General Mustafa Kılıçaslan, faculty deans, academic and administrative staff and students attended. The conference, which raised awareness especially in terms of our consumption habits, ended with the presentation of a certificate of appreciation and a photo shoot.