Exciting place to be
By Dr. Selim Erhan, TLT Editor | TLT From the Editor April 2023
I would urge everyone to be diligent, creative and ingenious and see the bigger picture.
If we think about it, every day in our lives we are in an exciting place in history. Every day brings possibilities to do something new or to look at something from a different perspective. As the world climate is changing— and there is significant data on increasing carbon dioxide levels contributing to global warming—sustainability and using renewable resources are becoming urgent topics. We have sun and wind energy all around us. They keep blowing away as we watch. We may be running out of certain metals or minerals; we are definitely running out of fresh water. Garbage is piling up and chemicals are leaking that are becoming toxic to the water and soil we depend on to grow our food. It is not only global warming but toxicity, endangered food sources, stress, unhealthy and unnatural living styles—and the list goes on. These are not new topics, but the pressure is steadily increasing, and it urges us to think about what we can do.
It is not easy to be inventive from a comfortable position. We have to accept that most people who actually can do something about these issues today are in very comfortable positions. Unfortunately, in most cases, it becomes too late to do something when the situation becomes uncomfortable.
A good example for knowing and seeing, but not doing anything, is in the mindboggling devastation we saw in the recent earthquakes in Turkey. I grew up in Turkey, so I feel I can talk about it openly. Thousands of buildings collapsed at 4 a.m. Each building probably had about 50 people. If 10 died, which is a conservative number, the death toll could rise much higher than the first estimated numbers, which are over 40,000. There were detailed reports on the locations of three different fault lines. All the 10 cities on the fault lines were warned. There were accurate predictions of the magnitude of coming earthquakes.
Although we do not have the technology to know in advance when an earthquake is going to happen, we know where it is going to happen. Examples from past earthquakes were in plain sight. Countries that had taken precautions and built accordingly, such as in Japan and Chile, survived earthquakes with minimum damage and loss of a few lives. On paper, Turkish building standards are among the best in the world, and they are regularly updated. Yet some contractors kept stealing from the reinforcing steel, from the cement. The government turned a blind eye to poor construction. They even pardoned constructions that did not pass inspection. To add insult to injury, they boasted in public speeches that they pardoned these buildings, and people clapped because they were associating with the Party and felt solidarity with the government. No one did anything until it all came down on their heads and on the heads of their children. Now it is too late.
The Gulf Stream is a river inside the Atlantic Ocean. Seems like a miracle that it does not mix, but what if the temperature conditions change and that stream blends into the surrounding waters? Northern Europe is almost at the same latitude as the Hudson Bay, which is mostly frozen. What if all the methane trapped in the tundra starts getting released? Russia has 11 time zones compared to four in the U.S. You can imagine the amount of methane escaping from Siberia if this happens. Methane is a much more powerful greenhouse gas compared to carbon dioxide. There is mercury in the fish we are eating. Water sources are contaminated, and officials say it is too expensive to fix them! Some cities fix pipes made from lead in a few months, and some drag it on for years. A simple 150-yard stretch of road took almost two years to complete in my neighborhood. Houses in tornado zones still don’t have basements. Corruption, indifference and infinite greed erode all safety mechanisms around us and our families. We need to be watchful and do something today. Because at the end, when whatever comes crashing down, it will crash down on us and our children. It will be too late to realize we were not that safe after all! I would urge all of us who are highly trained and very good at what we do to be diligent, creative and ingenious and see the much bigger picture before we are in deeper trouble.
Dr. Selim Erhan is director of business development for Process Oils Inc. in Trout Valley, Ill. You can reach him at serhan@processoilsinc.com.