Ecology

Here you will find the program and the video records of the 6.th Green Economy Conference on DEGROWTH which was organised on the 17.10.2015 in Istanbul 

Thomas Fatheuer, Lili Fuhr and Barbara Unmüßig of the Heinrich Böll Foundation set out to explore the basic assumptions, hypotheses and proposed solutions of the green economy and to illustrate and criticize their effects in practice.

It is not a hard business for a politician to put up new carpets under which things can be swept. In fact, one of the other oldest hoaxes of the business of politics is to fabricate cover-ups with all shapes and size for all issues and to do this without even caring whether all these contradict each other or not.This is what has recently happened in the case of İğneada. Or should we say the Akkuyu question?

It is estimated that there are 3.4 billion hectares of pasture areas all over the world. Twelve percent of these areas are located in China, 11% in Australia, 7 % in the USA, and 6% in Brasil. Turkey is ranked as 46th among the countries having the largest pasture areas in the world with 14,6 million hectares.1

First, let’s address some misconceptions, a few figures and a few claims such as: “Agriculture is a backward and primitive activity. If it has to be done, it should be done intensively and without manpower.” “Air, water and soil are infinite. They can be exploited unconditionally.”

After the restructuring of the agricultural production in Turkey in accordance with the basin-based agriculture model, which is best documented in the “Turkey Agricultural Basin Production and Support Model,” all agricultural lands in Turkey were divided into thirty basins. Even though tobacco had been traditionally produced in twenty three basins, the Production and Support Model did not entail tobacco farming, and therefore tobacco farmers were deprived of state supports, including supports for crude petroleum and fertilizers. The only state support provided to tobacco farmers was land analysis expertise.

Energy investments, especially nuclear energy investments, are not based on needs but political decisions. No one asks the populace what they think during the decision-making phase or in implementation process. Governments in Turkey know that if they did, the answer would probably be not one they would want to hear.

The G20 seems to lag behind in acknowledging that gender is one of the fundamental dimension to be considered. Given that its policy stance holds critical implications for gender justice, scrutinizing the G20 from a gender perspective is crucial, especially under the light of its unfolding role and importance in terms of structuring the future of world economies.

The Political Declaration adopted in the 59th session, reflects the endeavours of the pressure groups that consists of the Vatican and some fundamentalist Muslim and Christian governments to include conservative values in the declaration, such as promoting maternal roles for women, strengthening the heterosexual family and controlling women’s sexual and bodily rights.

A few weeks ago, we came across a promotional text on a website that features fancy photos of detached houses surrounded by trees anyone living in a big city would dream of. The text illustrates a residential compound designed for high-end consumers in Büyükçekmece district of Istanbul.