Page 51 - Çevre Şehir İklim İngilizce - Sayı 3

Aytaç Yüksel - Duygu Barut

Introduction

Mankind has interacted with nature throughout the history, and benefited
from natural sources during the hunter-gatherer period as well as in the period
after the emergence of agricultural society. Although the destruction of human
activities on the environment remained at negligible levels during this period,
humanity’s use of natural resources and destruction of the environment
increased, especially in the post-Industrial Revolution period. The search for
prosperity, especially in the post-World War II period, increased the pressure
on natural resources; and environmental problems started to become a
current issue of the world.
In the post-World War II period, especially in the 1960s and 1970s, it became
clear that prosperity could not be achieved solely by economic growth, and
the importance of sustainability in the use of natural resources began to be
discussed. Despite the importance of sustainability had been mentioned much
earlier than this period, the criticism of the search for an increase in prosperity
provided the appropriate basis for the conceptualization of sustainable
development. Following the definition of sustainable development in the
Brundtland Report for the first time, the concept of sustainable development
found its place in many studies in the field of environmental law and economics.
Today, while discussions are ongoing in the doctrine about the legal
meaning of sustainable development concept; and many international
organisations such as the United Nations and juridical bodies include this
concept in their decisions.
In this study, sustainable development concept, which is still criticized today
with the ambiguity of its definition, will be explained primarily in terms of its
interdisciplinary structure, the historical development of the concept and the
inclusion of the concept in international texts, judicial decisions and doctrine,
and finally, general information will be given about the criticism of sustainable
development.

1. Sustainable Development Concept

1.1. General
The concept of sustainable development, which is one of the basic concepts
often discussed today, plays an important role in solving global problems.
Although this concept is perceived as an economic concept at first glance, it
falls within the field of study of many disciplines, especially economics, ecology
and public administration (Sachs 2015:21; Güneş and Coşkun 2004:79). This
interdisciplinary structure of the principle makes it necessary to use economic
principles, environmental science principles and legal science in researches
(Güneş and Coşkun 2004:79). However, sustainable development concept

36 Journal of Environment, Urbanization and Climate