Page 71 - Çevre Şehir İklim İngilizce - Sayı 3

Aytaç Yüksel - Duygu Barut

needs and expectations without compromising the needs and expectations
of future generations”, it is seen that there are positive and negative opinions
about whether sustainable development is possible and applicable.
First of all, according to the opinion advocating the principle of sustainable
development, the concept of sustainable development seeks a consensus
between environmental protection and economic development. Development
should be accepted as a right and a basic goal, but reconstruction should be
carried out at the global level in order to protect the environment (Güneş
and Coşkun 2004:90). In line with this view, the increase in the welfare level
of humanity depends on the development of opportunities such as health,
education and the protection of the environment.
When it comes to the criticisms aimed at sustainable development, we
can say that the basic assumptions of the criticisms are shaped around the
impossibility of sustainable development. At first, the principle of sustainable
development aims to use renewable resources below the limits of renewal
as a requirement of the importance it attaches to the continuity of natural
resources, and non-renewable resources should either not be consumed at
all or their bearing capacity should not be exceeded. Secondly, there are
human obstacles to the sustainable development such as consumption habits
and lifestyles of people. Possibility of realizing the sustainable development
depends on moving away from consumption of disposable products, reducing
the consumption in general, preventing the population growth, abandoning
the profit-oriented management and the redistribution of wealth (Anderson
and Leal 1991:168). However, considering human history, it is observed that all
this has happened in the opposite way; as the population and consumption are
constantly increasing, profitability is a basic goal due to the prevailing capitalist
economic model, and the redistribution of wealth has failed (Anderson and
Leal 1991:168-169). Indeed, the realization of the conditions listed here requires
the establishment of decision-making mechanisms that can act ecologically
sensitive. Taking into account that there are economists among the people
who raise this issue, we can reach the conclusion that sustainable development
can only be possible after very radical structural changes (Dryzek 1997:130).
The implementation of a development policy compatible with the environment
depends on the provision of many prerequisites such as raising public awareness,
strengthening the participatory structure of development, proper design of
international relations, reorientation of technology (Yücel 2003:111).
On the other hand, the principle of sustainable development has been put
forward as a basic principle of environmental protection policies as a result
of the erosion of the ecosystem by developed countries within the scope of
the development goal. However, the developed Nordic countries managed

56 Journal of Environment, Urbanization and Climate