As the deadline for the pre-tender for a coal-fired thermal power plant in Eskişehir is approaching, public resistance is rising and has become the most artistic form of protest Turkey has seen in a long time.

Nowhere in the EU is smog more suffocating than in southern Poland. This year, the polluted Polish mining city Katowice will host the COP24 climate conference. Ahead of that, change is in the air — and on the ground.

In 2017 the numbers of food poisoning cases all over Turkey was unprecedented high. In tens of cases which have occurred throughout the year particularly in secondary schools, Quran courses, universities, dormitories and military barracks, as well as workplaces, factories and constructions sites, thousands have been poisoned by the food they have eaten in canteens. 

While energy giants like Exxon and Shell have drawn fire for their roles in warming the planet, the corporate meat and dairy industries have largely avoided scrutiny.

The reason why Turkey is not among those developing countries eligible for climate finance is the appendix system which was adopted by UNFCCC at 1992 and the system is ended with Paris Agreement. But under this appendix system Turkey as an OECD country was considered as developing country which has many duties on to contribute funding of technology and capacity building to under develop countries. 

COP 23 was one COP in two zones: The Bula zone was the site of the official negotiations  - with little relevance to what happens in the real world. The Bonn zone hosted dozens of civil society kiosks and hundreds of events searching for real solutions.

Today, on 20 November, is the Transgender Day of Remembrance. Broader systemic inequalities still exist - especially in three crucial areas: gender identity/expression, sex work and migration.

The law, which women’s organizations and the parliamentary opposition have been protesting comprises significant changes in the regulation of marriage matters contrary to secular principles and to the disadvantage of women. Authorizing religious authorities, the muftis, to officiate marriages is only one of them. 

Geoengineering technologies are not yet deployable globally, but support for them is advancing fast, thanks to backing by powerful advocates eager to start experiments. But no silver bullet for climate change exists, and we must not abandon proven methods for the sake of a promise that one will be found.

The Turkish education system has become a battlefield of both policies and ideologies in Turkey. The latest proof of that is the abolishment of the entrance exams for secondary education last month.