The day my shutter flew away!

When I left the house in the morning, the weather was sunny. One of the shutters was half-closed. In the middle of the event where my documentary was being screened, my phone rang. Our building superintendent said, “your shutter has flown away”!

The storm in Antalya had ripped the huge shutter off and thrown it into the middle of the street. My blood ran cold. Fortunately, there was no one on the street at that moment, so it didn't cause an accident. It was left to me to collect the broken pieces of the shutter that were scattered across the street.

As this article was being written, the speed of the storm in Antalya reached 118 kilometers per hour.

Extreme weather events have become our “New Normal”. The world is changing before our eyes. We are watching the effects of the global climate crisis with astonishment. Tornadoes are being seen in Antalya and İzmir. Landslides are occurring in the middle of Istanbul.

Today, the violent wind knocked down some trees in Konyaaltı. Two young people who wanted to play with the giant waves were saved from drowning at the last moment. Umbrellas and sun loungers from businesses preparing for the summer season flew into the sea. Part of a mulberry tree in the neighborhood collapsed onto a parked car on the street!

The effects of the global climate crisis are now our “New Normal!”. The speed at which we are consuming the world has long since surpassed the speed at which the world can renew itself. The greenhouse gases that humanity releases into the atmosphere, and the concentration of these gases in the atmosphere, have reached levels unseen for millions of years. The global warming threshold has exceeded 1.5 degrees Celsius. We are experiencing the hottest period since the Industrial Revolution. The Earth is facing a record-breaking rise in water levels.

If we do not abandon our habits that destroy the atmosphere and nature, we will face the deadly consequences of the climate crisis. And perhaps humanity will be among the species that go extinct.

All the responsibility for the water, air, and world we consume unconsciously will be a burden on the shoulders of our children. Perhaps this is why Climate Change has been included in the educational curricula of many countries. Children in Western countries are raised with environmental awareness from an early age. What about Turkey's children?

What about us? How conscious are we?

Do we know that everything we do in our daily lives affects the planet? Are we aware that when we eat a slice of cheese, we consume 90 liters of water, and when we throw a rotten avocado in the trash, we are throwing away 700 liters of water? Do we know that while eating a portion of meatballs, 3500 liters of water are spent for the production of the hay to be given to the cattle; that we spend 4 liters of water when we wash our hands and faces; and that we consume 15 liters of water when we flush the toilet? When we wash dishes by hand, we use 103 liters, but when we choose to use a dishwasher, we only spend 9 liters of water.

It is very difficult to control something we cannot measure or are not aware of. For this reason, we measure the effects of our daily activities on the atmosphere through two values: Carbon Footprint and Water Footprint. During the storm that shook Antalya at a speed of 118 km per hour, I measured my Water Footprint. On the day my shutter flew away, I made radical decisions.

I recommend it to you as well… Let the decisions I made be the subject of next Sunday's article.

Wishing you storm-free days, stay healthy…