Political Ecology
Political ecology is a totally new way of looking at and understanding environmental problems. It aims to examine relations and hierarchy between human and nature regarding social, economical and political sides while looking these environmental problems. It is the component that complements environmentalism.
AN OVERVIEW OF ANIMAL AGRICULTURE
One of the most important issues of political ecology is animal agriculture. It is at the top of all environmental problems. According to 2009 Worldwatch Report, livestock make up %51 of all greenhouse gas emissions. Only %13 of these is due to transformation. Anyone can reach this truth. But this fact is not on the agenda. This is because the meat industry dictates federal policies thanks to their political power. At this point, ecology has become a political issue. Well, as long as these power elements exist, are the efforts of environmentalists enough to maintain the balance of ecology?
WHAT IS URBAN POLITICAL ECOLOGY?
Urban political ecology examines the city and nature not as discrete areas, but as dynamics that establish each other in mutual relations, and connects urban environmental problems with global processes such as capitalism. Cities are made of transformed nature that has been processed and produced through the input of human labour and capital investment. In Netherlands, cities have high level air quality. So, a new smart technology was developed called TreeWiFi in these cities. If air quality is high level, TreeWifi will offer you free Internet. In the Urban Political Ecology analysis of this situation, the process of Coltan ore required for smart technologies is evaluated: %80 of Calton ore is in Congo and is mined by workers devoid of international worker and human rights. Therefore, socio-environmental change processes are not sustainable for everyone. The value given to ecology has been reduced to a certain area, not the whole world. The destiny of ecology in a place shares the destiny of the society there. Well, if the society is poor, can we say ecology is poor or does the wealth of society enrich ecology? In our opinion, these questions are also fundamental questions of political ecology.
CORONAVIRUS EPIDEMIC AND POLITICAL ECOLOGY
Many events today can be viewed from the perspective of political ecology. For example, with the coronavirus epidemic, the ecology of the city has changed as a result of people closing to their homes and stopping production. CO2 emissions have dropped by 5–8% this year. But is this a sustainable situation? How long can unemployment and depression, another side of the epidemic, continue this situation? Is justice, which is one of the main research subjects of political ecology, achieved through such a relationship?
Written by Yaren Hazal Erman and Özgenur Sürmeli
