Protecting the environment is low priority for Turks, says report

Hürriyet Daily News (Turkey)

Monday, May 16, 2011, Istanbul

A very small minority of people in Turkey believes environmental issues are a major concern in Turkey, according to a questionnaire called “Environment in Turkey” conducted in the framework of International Social Survey Program by Professor Ersin Kalaycıoğlu of Sabancı University and Professor Ali Çarkoğlu of Koç University.

The questionnaire was carried out in 64 provinces during October and December by talking with 1,665 households out of the chosen 3,000. About 57.4 percent of the 3,000 addressees who received the questionnaire replied. Only 1.3 percent of those who replied said Turkey’s major problem was the environment. Instead, “terror” listed top with 30.8 percent followed by economy and poverty with 20.6 and 19.9 percent, respectively.

About 40 percent said they did not believe they have the power to do something for climate change. Only 5.6 percent of the addresses see climate change as a vital problem affecting their families. On the other hand, they are anxious about air pollution with 24.3 percent, chemicals with 9.4, lack of water with 9.0 percent and water pollution with 3.4 percent.

“The vitality of climate change has not been understood by the public yet. Forty percent said they did not believe they could do something to prevent negative climate change. They think that a nongovernmental organization or a political leader should mobilize people on the issue,” said Kalaycıoğlu during the press meeting held Monday at the Sabancı University Communication Center in Istanbul.

Nevertheless, the political parties preparing for elections often prioritize economic problems rather than environmental problems, said Çarkoğlu, adding that the planned expansion of Istanbul with proposed projects targets a growth by destroying the environment.

A high percent of the society evaluates themselves uninformative regarding the causes of environmental problems, illustrated the report. While 37.5 percent said they are not informative, 11.4 percent said they have no idea about the causes of environmental problems. Only 6.5 said they have the sufficient knowledge.

The outcome of the questionnaire also demonstrated that Turkish people lack civil action on protecting the environment, either by establishing nongovernmental organizations, holding protests or singing petitions. “The number of people who donate money to such environmental organizations was only 3 percent, that signed petitions to raise awareness was 5 percent and that participated in protests was 2 percent,” said Kalaycıoğlu, adding that communal action seriously lacks in this field.

Most of the addresses, 63.7 percent, believed the government should pass laws so that the people would protect the environment. People who said they should give their own decision in the ways of protecting the environment were 23.7 percent. “The data shows most people believe the government should force certain standards to regulate individuals and corporations in the issue of protecting the environment,” said Çarkoğlu. “A policy of state control is expected among people to change certain habits.”

The percentage of people who believes Turkey should sign international treaties on environmental problems so the rules would be obeyed compulsory was 40 percent and 33.7 percent strongly agreed, said the report. “This attitude indicates that the current environment politics of government are not found trustable,” said Kalaycıoğlu.

At 73 percent of the addresses above the age 18 said Turkey should use renewable sources such as wind, sun and water energy to meet its energy demands in the future. “Nevertheless, the percentage of people who said they would give up their habits of using their cars to create environmental awareness stayed at 16, despite the high oil price,” said Kalaycıoğlu.

Such an attitude denying the change of a lifestyle shows that Turkish people are presently not willing to abandon the usage of their cars and new transportation needs to be created to diminish the usage of cars in urban cities, he said.

The same questionnaire was conducted in 41 different countries.