Turkish scientist warns of pace of global warming

EDIRNE, Turkey

At the current pace of global warming, global temperatures could rise substantially by the end of the century, a Turkish scientist said Tuesday.

In a speech organized by the Clean Energy Foundation (TEMEV), Doganay Tolunay, a forest engineer at Istanbul University, warned that temperatures could climb by up to 6C (10.8F) by 2100 owing to global warming.

Noting that the world has gradually been getting warmer since 1850, Tolunay underlined that the increase in average temperatures gained momentum from the 1980s onwards and led to extreme temperatures in 2016, 2019 and 2020.

"In the past, the increase in average temperatures occurred quite slowly. One degree Celsius of temperature change took hundreds of years. However, such increases started to occur in a much shorter period.

"As such, the world will likely be up to 2C warmer by 2050 and 6C warmer by the end of the century," he explained.

He emphasized that shrinking agricultural and forest areas due to swift urbanization and ever-increasing consumption of fossil fuels following the Industrial Revolution are the main factors behind global warming.

*Writing by Ahmet Gencturk