The Impact of Development on Environmental Problems: An Integrated Overview of the Concept of Sustainable Development

Abstract

The rapidly increasing population of the world, industrialization and urbanization have played an important role in the economic growth and development of countries. After the Second World War, the concept of development became widespread and the development moves of all countries turned into a passion and race for growth in every sense. However, this passion for development was aimed entirely at production and consumption, without considering natural resources. Following these developments, "production for consumption purposes" has been replaced by "consumption for production purposes". While this understanding was adopted, natural resources were ignored and the cyclic structure of the natural environment was disrupted. With the deterioration of the structure of the ecosystem, after the second quarter of the twentieth century, economists turned to environmental and environmental problems and a sustainable development approach emerged. The main purpose of sustainable development is to achieve a balance between environmental protection and economic development. In this sense, sustainability is accepted as the main input of development. In this study, the impact of development on environmental problems has been investigated and the concept of sustainable development is addressed with a holistic view.