Environmental Issues in Istanbul
Istanbul has three major sources, damaging it's environment. They are Rising energy consumption, air pollution, and the worst of them all for Istanbul, water pollution. Istanbul's population and popularity are growing rapidly. The more people are in Istanbul, the more energy they use. The city is one of the largest cities in Turkey and it is not doing to good recourse wise. The huge population of Istanbul is quickly depleting it's fuel resources.
As far as air pollution goes, Istanbul is home to a large percent of Turkey's factories, which, as a person form Los Angeles would know, causes polluted and unclean air. These factories produce most of Istanbul's goods, and Istanbul produces most of Turkey's goods. Istanbul is currently the 7th most polluted city in the world in terms of CO2 emissions. This has t do with it's energy consumption.
Istanbul's biggest problem however, is the water pollution. The city has 7 water reservoirs to satisfy 15,000,000 people, one of which is polluted to the point of foaming, and killing birds. Istanbul's water supply is 97% from the reservoirs, and rapid urbanization are exposing them to pollution. The biggest part of Istanbul's water pollution, is oil in the Bosporus. Thousands of oil tankers cross the Bosporus every year, one every 1 hour and 36 minutes on average. They bring oil to the Bosporus, polluting it heavily. The large tankers squeezing through 45 degree angles, calls for a high risk of accidents and spills. The worst accident of them all, happened in spring of 1994, which involved the spilling of 19 million gallons of oil, from a 66822 ton tanker. Several thousands of collisions have occurred in the strait from the mid 20th century, to the present day, all involving the loss of live, spilling oil.