Earth Day in the Shadow of the Epidemic: Slightly Optimistic, Slightly Cautious

Nowadays with the coronavirus epidemic where people are locked up in their homes, our world with fewer car noises, less travel, less carbon footprints and perhaps less consumption welcomes 2020 Earth Day a little more cleaner and refreshed. We’ve talked to the Ecology Collective and Yuva Association about the Future Without Coal Campaign as well as the effects of the coronavirus epidemic on our world and the new world awaiting us after the epidemic.

We talked to Ekin Sakin from the Ecology Collective and Yuva Association Future Without Coal Campaign’s official Nisan Su Tablacı on the April 22nd, Earth Day, which we welcome under the shadow of the coronavirus. Ekin Sakin says, “The days we live are not an improvement for ecology, but proof that we need to act faster for a fair life.” while Nisan Su Tablacı states: “Our hope is positive steps to be taken in the direction of thermal power plants in Turkey after the outbreak of coronavirus.” 

“The Witnessed Improvements Are Evidence for the Greatness of Our Destruction”

Ekin Sakin from the Ecology Collective Association says that today we experience an epidemic of coronavirus (Covid-19), which has increased our awareness on many issues: “As we experience that we cannot survive without social solidarity, we also see how deep the inequalities are.” Another issue that Sakin draws attention to is the positive effects of the epidemic on environmental health: “As life has slowed down, staying in the houses to prevent further spread of the epidemic and to control the epidemic brought down the economy to a halt, as well as reducing emissions from transportation along with transportation itself. Therefore, there was a serious reduction in air pollution. Due to the epidemic, energy consumption and emissions have been decreased. This situation showed how great the destruction we have caused was.”

Despite the few positive effects of the epidemic on nature, Ekin Sakin says that it is not possible to talk about a positive picture in general: “Although it is stated that the restrictions and measures that come with the epidemic can actually be considered for climate crisis as well, we cannot say that these two evaluations which are given as examples to improvement towards climate crisis are not correct assessments for the solution of the climate crisis. Although the epidemic has provided a short-term recovery, in fact, it has only shown us the destruction we have caused in nature as well as the inequalities and how critical the water and food crisis were, as a summary. We know that the coronavirus epidemic will end somehow. However, we are moving towards an irreversible point as ecological destructions and climate crisis grow. In China, which is the starting point of the epidemic, we see that the declining air pollution is coming back. In this context, the days we go through are proof that we need to act faster for a fair life, but they are not improvements for ecology.”

 “What Capitalism Has Brought Were Revealed Again”

The Ecology Collective has started to work on the epidemic crisis: “Within the scope of our climate justice itinerary, our file of this month “From Crisis to After” was published. We covered the pandemic issues in many ways within the scope of the file. If you wish, you can find our evaluations on our website iklimadaleti.org.”

According to Sakin, we observed the effects of the climate crisis in the same way as we see the effects of the epidemic, from a global inequality. Sakin explains the inequalities in the days of the epidemic with examples and says that not everyone can reach the right to health equally: “The physical and emotional difficulties faced by the workers of courier companies, grocery stores, healthcare, mining and of all people without the luxury of staying at home have come up. While domestic labor of women has become a little more visible, we see a different dimension of domestic violence in the news every day. Cities such as Zonguldak, which are vulnerable to public health due to fossil fuels have been more affected these days as not everyone has the right to health. While we could not access our freedom of expression and most importantly our right to health, the things that were brought up by capitalism were exposed again along with all other rights violations.as in the climate crisis.”

“Our Daily Practices Are Exchanged with Positive Awareness”

Sakin states that all negativities have turned into positive awareness: “We have very limited access to clean, good agricultural food. With pandemic, access to clean food and water has become our critical and priority point. To put it in the simplest way, we have seen that bread which is the most basic food source in our society can be made by everyone or that balcony gardening can be done with very simple efforts, and that parsley, garlic, tomatoes can be grown in pots. In this respect, many people have experienced that they can be self-sufficient, instead of being somehow dependent to supermarkets. We can also say that our daily practices have improved with awareness. However, whether or not this awareness will continue after the epidemic, the point we should focus on is the realizability of awareness in terms of creating a change. Experiencing these awareness should encourage us to take action to convey our demands on our daily practices for the climate crisis and for other destructions. We will see whether the experiences brought by the pandemic would create a demand mechanism when the outbreak ends.”

The Ecology Collective is struggling for the right to access public and ecological information. During the coronavirus epidemic, problems related to the right to information have emerged. Sakin answers our question on whether people accessed accurate and sufficient data about the Covid-19 outbreak or not as follows: “We had distrust on obtaining information from the very beginning of the epidemic. Staying calm during the crisis is directly related to our trust towards solidarity and public administration. In order for the society to feel safe and to take necessary precautions, information must be shared transparently and not be hidden. Only by providing solidarity in this way can we overcome this process. The basis of insecurity in the society since the beginning of the epidemic and the panic situation brought by the curfew actually originate from the inability to reach sufficient data on every subject.”

“The Epidemic Restricts Our Fundamental Rights and Freedoms in Many Ways”

According to Sakin, when we look at the Korona pandemic in terms of ecology and in terms of the information we’ve obtained, the picture is not much different. Sakin says that they have difficulty in accessing accurate and sufficient information as the Ecology Collective: “With the capacity support that was published with Covid-19 at the end of March, it was announced that the capacity increase, meaning the losses among underground mines would be covered. Despite this incentive, mine workers are forced to work under inappropriate conditions, while employers continue to profit. For example, in the coal mine operated by İmbat Mining in Soma, it was announced that the production activities were stopped with the epidemic. Despite this, a dent occurred in this mine which was operated in Soma recently, and 3 workers lost their lives. We know that power plants also suffered losses before the coronavirus, however, in the past few days, the possibility that the loss maker companies could be purchased by the asset fund was included in the bag law. We see that a serious accident has occurred in the operation of İmbat Mining which announced that it had stopped its activities, and that the power plants that received the incentives are the subject of another rescue with the epidemic. The epidemic restricts our fundamental rights and freedoms in many ways. However, some of the changes and practices made become legal reasons under the name of epidemic measures. In this context, we find it difficult to access correct and sufficient information as usual.”

“We Can Foresee The People To Be More Sensitive and Aware”

Because of the epidemic, issues such as strong immune system and organic nutrition became the agenda. This brings to mind that the pandemic will increase sensitivity towards ecological life, clean energy and global warming, and that the world of the future may be cleaner. Yuva Association Future Without Coal Campaign Office r Nisan Su Tablacı agrees with this: “We can predict that the Covid-19 outbreak will cause people to be more sensitive and aware in terms of ecological life, clean energy and environmental health. We observe that the interests and motivations of the people who have been related to the subject before increase as well as the people with lesser interests and motivations before.”

“We Are More Hopeful For The Non-Thermal Future After The Outbreak”

Yuva Association has been running a campaign under the name Future Without Coal for a while. Zonguldak’s special situation and the fact that air pollution being critical despite the fact that it is not a metropolitan city has attracted everyone’s attention because it is among the cities that were under the entrance and exit ban. Tablacı says that they attach great importance to the campaign and hope to increase the trend towards clean energy sources: “Unfortunately, in many cities of Turkey, thermal power plants still exist and work actively. Our work and hope is towards replacing all coal-fired power plants with clean energy sources to produce energies where the health of all living things are respected, the living spaces of living things are not damaged and that these areas are protected. Today, both humans and all other living things are unfortunately at a point where coal-fired thermal power plants entrench upon our right to fresh air. Unfortunately, due to the Thermal Power Plants, Muğla has no access to water in İkizköy today. Zonguldak is among the most affected cities by the Covid-19 outbreak. One of the biggest reasons for this is that the province’s livelihood is coal. Air pollution and health are much related. Our hope is to take positive steps regarding thermal power plants in Turkey after the coronavirus epidemic.”