Abstract:

The climate crisis that emerged with the growing mechanism of the linear economy, the irreversible destruction of nature that feeds each other with the climate crisis, and as a result of all these, the increase in zoonotic diseases and the possibility of the continuity of pandemics have become the biggest threat to human life today. While the most visible effects of human activities that surround the world based on fossil fuels are drought, storm, flood, and weather conditions outside of the seasonal norms, the loss of life more than one million people, and material damage of approximately 440 billion euros in the last 50 years; other visible effects are pollution of water, air, soil, loss of biodiversity, and destruction of forest, glaciers, and natural carbon sinks that trigger global warming. Thus, eliminating the loss and destruction caused by climate change but dealing with the planet in terms of holistic perspective with an ‘only health’ approach; subsequently, it seems possible for a sustainable economic structure, accelerating the transition to the circular economy. In our study, the ecological destructions (Anthropocene age) and the resulting pandemics, which are caused by the current economic structure focused on more production/growth and more consumption, and the human responsible for this--trying to become the ruler of the planet, not a part of it--are discussed. As a result of the study, it was emphasized that “human health can only be possible with the health of nature” and that the sustainability of the planet will be ensured, and the continuity of pandemics will be prevented by rapidly transforming the world into a circular economy.