Thursday, December 20, 2012

TreeHugging in Turkey: A look back

For the past four years, I've been blogging for TreeHugger.com about environmental news and views in Turkey and wherever else has piqued my interest.

What passes for 'nature' in much of Istanbul.
In the main, the environmental news from Turkey has been distressing to follow: continual construction of destructive dams, stubborn plans to build a nuclear power plant in the face of earthquake threats, the tragic deaths of coal miners, and preventable flooding disasters, to name just a few.

Not that there haven't been some fun moments too (a cute little baby bear in a box! ice cream delivery by bike! translating Tarkan lyrics and calling it work!).

Most heartening, and rewarding, however, has been getting to know some of the people who are bucking the tide of unsustainable growth -- people developing eco-tourism options, helping others shop more responsibly, empowering consumers to learn about their food, designing green buildings, engaging in creative recycling, and planting permaculture gardens in the middle of the city.

As of this week, due to changes at the site, my tenure as a TreeHugger correspondent is over, though not my interest in covering these issues, of course. To mark the end of a little era, here's a baker's dozen worth of links to some of my favorite TreeHugger posts that I wrote about Turkey:
You can find my full archive of TreeHugger posts (for now, at least) on my contributor page.

3 comments:

Senior Dogs Abroad said...

Jen, Your articles for Treehugger are excellent and oh, so timely. I went to a couple of them and I can see I can continue to mine them in the future for info. about environmental activism which I'm very interested in. I hope you will continue to write about these issues. The pic and your caption were funny and so true.

The Turkish Life said...

Thanks! I'm glad you've been enjoying them.

huseyinbircan said...

I am a tour operator in Turkey.I have been enjoying your post since last 1 month.Great article.