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(Klarin 2018:70). Thomas Malthus, one of the economists of the period who
initiated the debate whether unlimited needs can be met with limited natural
resources, emphasized the phenomenon of famine and that the population
growth should be limited, in his study named An Essay on the Principle of
Population (Abdiraimov 2016:31). While David Ricardo relies on the law of
diminishing returns in this regard, John Stuart Mill suggests that prosperity can
be enhanced due to the individual prudence and common sense (Tıraş 2012:
61). Despite these environmental approaches, Arthur Cecil Pigou was the first
economist to address pollution as an economic phenomenon. According to
Pigou, pollution, which is an external cost of production and consumption
processes, is less likely to be zero (Suluk 2021:26).
In the 19th century when the idea of sustainability in the economics was first
introduced in the fields based on the renewable sources such as agriculture,
forestry and fisheries, Arthur Young expressed his ideas on the sustainability
concept in his book General View of Agriculture of Hertfordshire published in
1804. According to Young, a continuous increase in the amount of agricultural
products and productivity was achieved as a result of the transition from the
communal system cultivating the agricultural land to an individual system
(Bozlağan 2005:1014). Also, coal became the most important energy source due
to the impact of industrialization in 19th century, and concerns were raised by
philosophers like William Stanley Jevons that coal deposits may be depleted.
In this context, according to Jevons, if the trend towards coal consumption
does not change, British coal reserves will run out within a century and, thus,
Britain will lose its dominant industrial position. Finally, Alfred Russel Wallace,
in his review titled Our Wonderful Century published in 1898, discussed the
destruction caused by the rapid consumption of natural sources and defined
the intensive consumption of fossil fuels and minerals and destruction of forests
as an harmful act towards the future generations (Gedik 2020:199). Thus, the
rights of future generations over natural resources were expressed.
The Keynesian theory, which gained importance after the end of the
Second World War, prioritized production growth by setting short-term
political priorities such as accelerating economic development, preventing
unemployment or controlling inflation during that period, and with this
approach, the idea of prioritizing the development in those times prevented
the creation of environmental awareness (Dulupçu 2001:1). Within the
scope of the acceptances of Keynesian theory, environmental problems
were regarded as the result of development that had to be endured until
the 1960s (Tıraş 2012:62). However, in the same period, an awareness in the
field of environmentalism was created with the publication of scientist Rachel

40 Journal of Environment, Urbanization and Climate