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News That Matters

30/04/2023 ---- 06/05/2023

As Turkey gears up for its highly anticipated elections on May 14, the race between President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and main opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu is heating up. With a narrow lead in opinion polls, Kilicdaroglu, backed by a six-party alliance and leading the Republican People's Party (CHP), promises to bring democracy and freedom to Turkey if he wins. Prioritizing relations with the West over the Kremlin, he aims for free media and judicial independence. As the tight race is expected to go to a second round two weeks after the initial election, a new poll suggests that Kilicdaroglu may win the presidency, but Erdogan's alliance is ahead in the race for parliament.

Erdogan recently reappeared on the campaign trail in western Turkey, attending a rally in the port city of Izmir. The event demonstrated strong turnout in an opposition stronghold, with no signs of the illness that caused Erdogan to drop out of key events earlier in the week. The upcoming elections for the presidency and parliament are expected to be his toughest challenge yet after 20 years in power. Erdogan's main rival, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, a secular candidate backed by an alliance of six parties, will hold a rally in the same spot on Sunday. Opinion polls give a slight lead to Kilicdaroglu, but the election could be a close call. Inflation in Turkey is officially around 50%, with experts blaming Erdogan's unorthodox economic policies.

Turkey's pro-Kurdish party, Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), and its leftist allies support President Erdogan's main rival, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, in the May 14 presidential election. HDP is the third-largest party in Turkey's parliament and has won over 10% of the vote in past national elections. HDP represents a community accounting for about a fifth of Turkey's population. HDP co-leader Mithat Sancar calls the upcoming vote "the most crucial in Turkey's history." HDP faces the threat of closure over alleged "terror" ties and is running its parliamentary candidates under the banner of a new party called the Party of Greens and the Left Future. HDP's support expands the reach of Kilicdaroglu's six-party alliance, which includes liberals, nationalists, and an ultraconservative party.

In the weeks leading up to the elections, 110 people were arrested in Turkey over alleged ties to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Raids were conducted in 21 provinces, including Diyarbakir. Arrests occurred weeks ahead of May 14 parliamentary and presidential elections. President Erdogan has been accused of cracking down on PKK-linked opposition for electoral support. Tayip Temel, deputy leader of pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP), links arrests to Erdogan's efforts to secure a third term. Detainees include politicians, journalists, lawyers, and human rights activists. Diyarbakir Bar Association says lawyers are banned from contacting clients for 24 hours. Erdogan faces a tough electoral test against opposition candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu. HDP extends tacit support to Kilicdaroglu by not fielding a presidential candidate. Former HDP leader Selahattin Demirtas is imprisoned for various offenses. Erdogan's support has taken hits due to a struggling economy, accusations of authoritarianism, and his response to February earthquakes.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan canceled campaign appearances due to illness during a live TV interview on Tuesday. Erdogan will not visit Mersin on Thursday, where he was scheduled to attend a ceremony marking the inaugural loading of fuel at a new power plant. He will attend the ceremony via video conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Erdogan's TV interview was disrupted as the 69-year-old president became sick with stomach flu, leading to the cancellation of three campaign speeches on Wednesday. Erdogan faces a tough election as six opposition parties form an alliance against him amid Turkey's worst cost-of-living crisis in two decades. The opposition alliance has chosen Kemal Kilicdaroglu, 74, as its joint presidential contender in the May 14 vote.

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In a groundbreaking discovery, Chinese researchers have found evidence of liquid water on Mars, opening up new possibilities for understanding the Red Planet's climate evolution, habitable environments, and potential life. This exciting revelation comes from data collected by China's Mars rover, Zhurong, which has been exploring the Martian surface since May 2021. The presence of liquid water at low latitudes on Mars fills a significant gap in our knowledge about the planet's watery past and its potential to harbor life.

Mars, often referred to as Earth's sibling, has long been a subject of fascination for scientists and the general public alike. The possibility of finding liquid water, and by extension, life, has been a central focus of numerous Mars missions. The discovery of liquid water on Mars is a game changer, as it suggests that the planet may have been more Earth-like in the past, with a climate that could have supported life.

China's Zhurong rover has been investigating the surface composition of four crescent-shaped dunes in the Utopia Planitia region since landing in Mars' northern hemisphere. The rover discovered cracked layers on these tiny Martian dunes, suggesting that Mars was a salt-rich watery world as recently as 400,000 years ago. The dunes are coated with thin, fractured crusts and ridges that formed between 1.4 million and 400,000 years ago due to the melting of small pockets of "modern water."

Researchers believe that water vapor traveled from the Martian poles to lower latitudes a few million years ago, resulting in the formation of minerals like sulfates, silica, iron oxide, and chlorides in the presence of water. The new findings suggest that Mars had water activity on top of and inside salty dunes, leading scientists to propose future missions to search for salt-tolerant microbes.

The discovery of liquid water at low latitudes on Mars, where surface temperatures are warmer and more suitable for life than at high latitudes, is a significant step forward in our understanding of the planet's potential habitability. The presence of water-containing minerals in Martian sand dunes, along with features such as crusted surfaces, cracks, and water marks, provides crucial observational evidence for liquid water in regions of Mars that were previously unexplored.

This groundbreaking discovery not only sheds light on Mars' climate evolution but also opens up new possibilities for the search for life beyond Earth. If Mars was indeed a watery world as recently as 400,000 years ago, it raises the tantalizing prospect that microbial life may have once flourished on the planet, or perhaps even still exists today in some form.

As humanity continues to explore the cosmos, the discovery of liquid water on Mars serves as a reminder that our understanding of the universe is constantly evolving. With each new finding, we inch closer to answering one of the most fundamental questions of our existence: Are we alone in the universe? The search for life beyond Earth may have just taken a giant leap forward, and the possibilities are as vast and exciting as the cosmos itself.

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In the early morning of April 26, 1986, the world witnessed one of the most catastrophic nuclear accidents in history at the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine. The explosion and subsequent fires released vast quantities of radioactive material into the environment, forever altering the region's ecological landscape. Over three decades later, scientists are still uncovering the impact of this disaster on the area's flora and fauna. However, amidst the devastation, life has shown incredible resilience, adapting to the harsh conditions and thriving in the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone (CEZ). Following the accident, the area most affected by the radioactive cloud became the CEZ, spanning 2600 square kilometres around the power plant. Many wildlife populations were substantially reduced after the disaster, with some species recovering while others have not. One of the most concerning aspects of ongoing environmental pollution is the potential for changes in genetic diversity due to directional selection, bottleneck events, or alterations in migration patterns. Recent studies have shed light on the eco-evolutionary consequences of radiation exposure in the CEZ.

Researchers have found that some bird species have adapted to the radioactive environment by altering their antioxidant levels and producing higher levels of protective melanin in their feathers. Similarly, Eastern tree frogs living in the CEZ have developed darker skin colouration, possibly as a protective mechanism against ionising radiation. It is important to note that these adaptations seem to have come without significant physiological costs, as no noticeable changes in the animals' oxidative stress levels were observed. Not only have the small creatures of Chornobyl shown remarkable adaptability, but large-bodied mammals have also been found to survive and even thrive in the contaminated area. Free-roaming dog populations, for example, are genetically distinct and have established family structures within and among populations in the CEZ. These findings provide essential information for investigations into the effects of continuous environmental radiation exposure on mammalian species.

While these studies highlight the adaptability of various species in the face of adversity, they also raise concerns about the potential long-term consequences of radiation exposure. The increased genetic diversity observed in some species may have resulted from elevated mutation rates due to the highly mutagenic environment. Moreover, the changes in colouration, such as in birds and frogs, may have far-reaching consequences on their mating patterns and population dynamics. The adaptability and resilience displayed by wildlife in the CEZ are awe-inspiring and concerning. The findings from these studies are significant not only for understanding the impact of radiation exposure on living organisms but also for providing insights into how life perseveres in the face of extreme adversity. Lessons learned from Chornobyl's wild inhabitants may help guide future conservation efforts in similarly contaminated areas, such as Fukushima, Japan, which suffered a nuclear disaster in 2011. The wildlife of Chornobyl has shown that nature can find ways to adapt and survive even in the harshest and most contaminated environments. While the long-term effects of radiation exposure on these species remain a subject of ongoing research, the findings so far provide a glimpse of hope amidst the tragedy of Chornobyl. Furthermore, they serve as a powerful reminder of the strength and resilience of life on Earth, even in the face of human-induced disasters.

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The world's oceans are running a fever, and the consequences of this are alarming. With sea surface temperatures breaking records in recent months and a potential El Niño weather pattern looming, there is growing concern over the impact of ocean warming on marine life, extreme weather, and global climate change.

The primary culprit for this troubling trend is human activity, notably the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation, which have pumped heat-trapping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Over the past century, the planet's vast oceans have absorbed more than 90% of all the excess heat energy trapped by CO2, causing their average temperatures to rise consistently. The ocean's uppermost layer, down to about 250 feet, is warming the fastest, with an average increase of about 0.11 degrees Celsius per decade since the 1970s. Marine heatwaves are also becoming more frequent and severe, with the number of days that qualify as heatwaves increasing by over 50% in the past century.

These warming trends significantly affect marine life, particularly organisms sensitive to even slight temperature changes. Corals, for example, can become stressed by a mere 1-degree Celsius increase, causing them to expel the symbiotic algae that provide them with energy, a process known as bleaching. In some cases, corals can recover from these events, but in others, they may not. Warming oceans also contribute to more intense storms like hurricanes and tropical cyclones. Scientists predict that warmer seas will increase the likelihood of these storms reaching category 4 or 5 on the Saffir-Simpson storm-strength scale, speeding up the rate at which they intensify and increasing the likelihood that they will release enormous volumes of rain. Another concerning consequence of warmer oceans is rising sea levels. As the water heats up, it expands, causing the oceans to grow and sea levels to creep up. Between 1971 and 2010, heat-driven sea-level rise added about 0.8 millimetres to the ocean's height yearly. Thermal expansion has contributed to about half of all the sea-level rise observed across the planet.

The recent spike in global ocean temperatures has been attributed, in part, to the potential onset of an El Niño climate pattern. El Niño, characterised by warmer-than-average surface waters in the Pacific Ocean, can have domino effects on weather worldwide. The last major El Niño in 2016 drove the planet to record heat and had devastating consequences, including severe droughts, increased precipitation, and diminished Atlantic hurricane activity. El Niño events can also trigger ecological disasters, such as wildfires, coral bleaching, polar ice loss, and the spread of diseases. While scientists are not yet sure about the specific impacts of the recent ocean temperature surge, there is consensus that the oceans are steadily growing warmer. A study published in Nature Reviews found that the upper reaches of the oceans have been heating up around the planet since at least the 1950s, with the most noticeable changes observed in the Atlantic and Southern oceans. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has also stated that it is "virtually certain" that the upper levels of the oceans have warmed over the past half-century and "extremely likely that human influence is the main driver."

It is crucial to address its root cause to mitigate the impacts of ocean warming: greenhouse gas emissions from human activity. Reducing reliance on fossil fuels and transitioning to renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind power, can help curb CO2 emissions. Additionally, protecting and restoring forests, which act as natural carbon sinks, can help to remove excess CO2 from the atmosphere. Governments, industries, and individuals can all participate in this effort by investing in green technologies and adopting more sustainable practices in agriculture, transportation, and waste management. Furthermore, increasing our understanding of ocean warming and its effects is vital for developing effective adaptation strategies. Investments in oceanographic research, monitoring, and technology can provide valuable insights into the changing marine environment, enabling better predictions of future changes and facilitating targeted responses to protect ecosystems and coastal communities. Another avenue to explore is the development of innovative solutions to directly mitigate the effects of ocean warming, such as deploying shades or artificial upwelling systems over coral reefs to cool the water and prevent bleaching events. However, these approaches should be carefully considered to ensure they do not have unintended consequences for marine ecosystems. Promoting awareness of the issue is also essential to engage the public and galvanise support for action. Educating people about the importance of the oceans and their threats can help build a global movement demanding change and urging governments to take robust and decisive action against climate change.

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