Gaye Tuncer

Environmental attitudes of young people in Turkey: effects of school type and gender

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of school type (private and public) and gender on sixth, seventh, eighth and tenth grade students’ attitudes toward the environment. A total of 1497 students (n = 765 girls; n = 715 boys; and n = 17 gender not provided) attending public (n = 603) and private schools (n = 892) located in Ankara participated in the study. A 45‐item Likert‐type questionnaire consisting of four dimensions, namely, awareness of environmental problems, national environmental problems, solutions to the problems and awareness of individual responsibility, was used to measure students’ environmental attitudes. A two‐way multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was conducted to determine the effect of school type and gender on four dimensions of the environmental attitude questionnaire. Results showed that school type and gender had a significant effect on the collective dependent variables. Univariate ANOVAs indicated that mean scores on each dimension of the questionnaire were significantly different for students in public and private schools. Moreover, there was statistically significant mean difference between boys and girls with respect to scores on each dimension of the questionnaire. It is concluded as a result of the study that, although there are differences between categories of individuals, there is a widespread support for conservation of the environment among young people living in Ankara/Turkey.

Land-based sources of pollution along the black sea coast of Turkey: Concentrations and annual loads to the black sea

Abstract Concentrations of inorganic pollutants, pesticides and PCBs were measured in 42 sources including rivers, streams, and industrial and domestic discharge points along the Turkish Black Sea coast in three seasons of the year 1993. The measured concentrations were compared with water quality standards currently effective in Turkey in order to determine the levels of pollution in the rivers and streams. Concentrations were also combined with the water discharge data to determine annual loads of pollutants discharged from each source into the Black Sea. Concentrations of measured parameters were much higher in domestic and industrial discharges, as expected. Most of the rivers and streams were polluted with organic material, nitrogen and phosphorous species due to discharges of untreated domestic wastes into these streams. Metal concentrations measured in the rivers and streams were fairly low due to the lack of extensive industrialization in the drainage areas of the streams. Some of the small streams, including the Neyren, Kilimli, Zafir and Tabakhane streams, are heavily polluted and were identified as sources having the potential to generate hot spots along the coast. Annually, a total of 39.700 tons of nitrogen, 3.700 tons of phosphorous, 15 tons of Cd, 340 tons of Cu, 60 tons of Pb, 1.200 tons of Zn, 12 tons of heptachlor, 11 tons of aldrin, 31 tons of dieldrin, 180 tons of endrin and 500 tons of DDT are discharged from Turkish sources into the Black Sea. Except for trace metals, rivers and streams dominate the flux of pollutants. Large industries along the coast that discharge their wastes directly to the Black Sea account for a significant fraction of the annual metal discharges. Pesticides and PCBs were detected in most of the sources included in the study indicating their illegal use in agriculture. The Sakarya river was the most important source of pesticides.

Evolution of metal pollution in the golden horn (Turkey) sediments between 1912 and 1987.

The Golden Horn is a heavily polluted water body in a large metropolitan area with a population of approximately 10 million. A 3-m long undisturbed core sample was collected in the Golden Horn, from research vessel RV Knorr, during the third leg of the joint Turkish--American Black Sea expedition in 1989. The core was sliced and dated using the 210Pb isotope technique. The bottom of the core corresponds to the year 1912. Each slice was analysed for major, minor and trace elements by inductively coupled plasma emission spectrometry (ICP). The masses of the measured elements can account for approximately half of the sediment mass. The lithophilic elements Li, K, Rb, Mg, Ca, Ba, Al, La, Ti, V, Mn, Fe, Co and Ni account for more than 90% of the elemental mass and do not show any change in their concentrations between 1912 and 1987. Although anthropogenic elements Mo, Zn, Cr, Cu, Ag, and Cd account for a minute fraction of the elemental mass, their concentrations increase along the core, signifying human influence on chemical composition of the Golden Horn Sediments. Lead was enriched at the bottom of the core suggesting pollution of Golden Horn sediments by this element even at the beginning of the century, but observed concentrations of the remaining anthropogenic elements, at the bottom of the core, can be explained by sedimentary material. Concentrations of pollution-derived elements do not change significantly between 1912 and 1950, but their concentrations increase sharply in the second half of the century. A factor analysis applied to the data set has shown that the inorganic fraction of the Golden Horn sediments includes crustal, marine and two anthropogenic components. One of the anthropogenic components is attributed to the discharges from an iron and steel plant. The second anthropogenic component, which accounted for a larger fraction of system variance, is due to discharges from industries, particularly metalwork plants.

A Qualitative Study on Turkish Preschool Children's Environmental Attitudes Through Ecocentrism and Anthropocentrism

This study explores preschool childrens attitudes towards environmental issues with a focus on the issue of gender as a factor affecting their attitudes. The study sample comprised 40 preschool age children living in Ankara, Turkey. The research adopted a qualitative approach, and the data were collected through interviews in which a questionnaire was administered. The interview questionnaire was adapted from ‘The Childrens Attitudes Toward the Environment Scale-Preschool Version’ which contains 15 interview questions and sub-questions. The findings of our study indicate that most of the 5–6-year-old children initially appear to have ecocentric attitudes towards environmental issues in all the dimensions. However, when the children explained their reasons for choosing one of the two pictures, their responses were evaluated as emanating from anthropocentric attitudes. No difference in the attitudes of the preschool children was detected in relation to their gender. In conclusion, this study shows that the educational programmes at the preschool stage need to be broadened and improved, particularly in the provision of outdoor study in natural settings for the children to develop a more ecocentric attitude towards the environment.

Message in a bottle: what shapes university students’ understanding of sustainability?

ABSTRACT Our research question concerned how life stories shape university students’ understanding of the sustainable use of natural resources. We searched for an answer for this question by listening to the life stories of nine students from a public university in Turkey. The difference between this research and former work is that we were not concerned with professionals rather we interviewed the university students. While interviewing students, we only asked them to think about their life experience so far and tell us what shaped their thinking on sustainability. The evaluations of the stories displayed that the people, time, and places were different, but the outcomes of the stories were not. The students reflected the role of their family, especially their mothers’ tendency for the sustainable use of natural resources in shaping their own attitudes and behaviors toward sustainability.