Looking closer at climate change

ISTANBUL- Hürriyet Daily News

Courtesy of santralistanbul

santralistanbul’s main gallery is featuring “Climate Change: The Threat to Life and A New Energy Future” until Jan. 15, 2012, in an effort to bring attention to global warming and what people can do to prevent it.

The exhibition focuses on what many consider to be one of the most complex and urgent scientific and social issues of the 21st century: global climate change. Not only does it aim to explain the current science of climate change in a way that can be understood by all ages, it explores the implications of unchecked climate change for future generations. While the exhibition makes clear that there is no single solution, it shows how individuals, communities and governments can use energy more efficiently. That, along with the pursuit of promising new energy alternatives, can make a meaningful impact in reducing global warming.

The exhibit, brought from America’s Natural History Museum, includes eight halls with four interactive and four animated globes, two mini video shows and 20 exhibits.

The first hall explores the origins of the global warming, which dates nearly back almost to the A.D. 1550 discovery of coal – which was known as the “rock that burns” when it was first found. A large installation shows the rising levels of the heat-trapping CO2 gas in the atmosphere from 1550 to today. The exhibit shows how people’s dependence on coal, and its link to the increase in CO2, could result in potentially disastrous consequences for the climate.

The second hall hosts a six-minute video showing the effects of heat-trapping gases, known as greenhouse gases, on climate change.

The third hall hosts perhaps the most important exhibit. It aims to raise awareness as to how individuals can contribute to preventing, or even resolving, global warming by planting more trees, driving less and changing light bulbs to more energy-efficient types. The most interesting highlight of the hall is the installation depicting how we can contribute to slashing carbon emissions by decreasing individual consumption of manufactured goods because the manufacturing process inevitably causes high emissions.

The fourth through seventh halls each display the effects of global warming on the atmosphere, permafrost, oceans and land, respectively. The last hall, appropriately titled Green Energy Future, displays a nine-minute video on the indispensible role of renewable energy in reversing global warming.

The exhibition was brought to Turkey by ArterTasarım, supported by REC Turkey and sponsored by Türk Telekom, Doğa College, Omo and Zorlu Energy Group.