Social perceptions on climate change, environmental degradation, and internal migration after the wildfires of 2021 in rural areas of Muğla

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Tezin Türü: Yüksek Lisans

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: TED Üniversitesi, Lisansüstü Programlar Enstitüsü, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2025

Tezin Dili: İngilizce

Öğrenci: FURKAN FATİH YEŞİLTAŞ

Danışman: Kerem Kılıçdaroğlu

Açık Arşiv Koleksiyonu: AVESİS Açık Erişim Koleksiyonu

Özet:

Anthropogenic climate change gradually increases its impacts on human life with the
growing greenhouse gas emissions. Forest fires are one of the concrete proofs that
anthropogenic climate change starts to open a new dimension in our planet. This
qualitative study conducts a two-week fieldwork that showcases the societal impacts
of new dimension with the sincere perceptions of environmentally vulnerable groups
in the rural areas of Mugla where is announced as the wildfire high risk area of Turkey.
Either houses or occupations of vulnerable people are in the risky area. The questions
related to disaster management, gender, environmental, and migration perspectives
have been asked to the sample group. The study has come up with seven conclusions
according to evaluation and deduction of sample group’s experiences. Each day, it
becomes more complex to take precautions to hamper forest fires, whose impact is
mounting due to proximity to 1.5℃ threshold of global warming. In the disaster areas,
victims can choose internal migration as a way of adaptation strategy. Although
migration is not a dominant adaptation strategy in 2025, it might become a prevalent
state of urgency in the rural areas of Mediterranean basin in the following years.