Page 43 - Çevre Şehir İklim İngilizce - Sayı 3

Ruşen Keleş

One of the most important steps taken in this field was the report which was
prepared by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the USA
in order to find out the direction of change in the environmental conditions
on earth, upon the request of the Club of Rome, a non-governmental
organisation consisting of industrialists, scientists and intellectuals. The main
argument asserted in this report was that the earth may, to a large extent,
lose its “livability” until the year 2120, within 150 years starting from the date
of the report. This pessimistic estimation depended on the assumptions that
population growth, rapid urbanization and the current fertility trends would
continue the same, and the industrialisation would keep its fast movement.
Therefore, if it was not to face the inevitable end highlighted in the report,
it was necessary to reduce the speed of the growth to zero. Decreasing the
growth speed to zero (zero growth) made it obligatory to stop the growth in
the population as well as to slowdown of the speed of the economic growth.
“Limits to Growth”, the title of the mentioned report was not aimed at the
acception of the fact that the growth itself had certain limits, but expressed
the necessity to set limits to the growth as well.
It is beyond any doubt that the environmental problems cannot be solely
regarded as the internal problem of each country, neither dealt with this mindset.
It is clear that activities causing pollution in each country not only affect its
own environment but also the environmental conditions of the neighbouring
countries. Pollution is carried beyond the borders of the countries through
water, air, transport means and other ways. And finally the pollution becomes
the problem of more countries, rather than being an internal issue of one
country. Habitats substantially lose their livable characteristics as a result of
not only various contamination means but also the negative, unconscious and
irresponsible attitudes and behaviours of the population. Such occurances
cause harm on every single country, besides it makes hard to utilise the values
regarded within the common heritage of humanity.
Due to the environmental problems going beyond the national borders and
becoming an international issue that is discussed here briefly, it has become
necessary to be in close cooperation for seeking a solution and realising
those solution suggestions. Apart from these facts that force societies into
such cooperation, Article 74 of Constitution of the United Nations also
contain a rule imposing them to ensure cooperation for settling the disputes
by peaceful means. A number of international conventions also include the
provisions regarding the obligation to cooperate. Such cooperation attempts
entail to exchange information in solving the problems as well as to enlighten
and aware the governments and people.

28 Journal of Environment, Urbanization and Climate