In April, I received an invitation from the ITU environment Club, which I founded during the university years, to make a speech at the sustainable ecosystem conference. I was asked to introduce the activities of the Belgian-based WFO Foundation, where we carry out prevention and cleaning activities on marine waste. 18 years later, as the president of WFO Turkey, Middle East and Africa, I was at my own university to make speeches to young people. He is a partner and general manager of a company that produces plastic packaging, as well as pagev and PAGDER Vice President, eupc EU Plastic Manufacturers Association executive board member.; during a period of false, false and misleading news about plastics, my speech about the environment was important. First of all, I told my young friends about the activities of the WFO Foundation. Then I focused on the relationship between development, development and sustainability. I mentioned the concept of responsible industry. But most importantly, I explained how wrong it is to have a unit like the gross national product in the focus of development.Germany, as a father sentenced to pay the price of the EU crisis alone, spent the money horribly and even had to close the deficits of its indebted children, is making sacrifices on unwilling but helplessly sacrificing. Devoted Germany is the fifth largest in the world in the gsmh. It is the second largest exporter with its largest country and $ 1.5 trillion export.

Today, the first parameter that comes to mind when it comes to ‘development’ is gross national product. GNP is one of the indicators that is a statistical value and is necessary to measure the economies of the country and thus manage them. This value, which is just one of the values to be followed today, is more important than necessary. Thus, by looking at the GNP of the countries, we compare the countries with each other in terms of development.

Today, unfortunately, the basic parameter of development model is gross national product and this is a false perception. In the world, there are countries with very high GNP but very low quality of life. In rapidly growing countries such as Turkey, the imbalances in income distribution can be lost among the economic data, while this is reflected in the GNP.

LET'S NOT FORGET THE WHEEL!

To assess today's complex societies with gross national product is just like driving a car with gas and brake. This car has no steering wheel, no speed gauge, no headlights, no where and when. In fact, supporting this measure with wider and more realistic indicators
it's not that hard, but these statistics are compiled under different names. The important thing is to make them the main element of development. For example, the United Nations Development Programme's “Human Development Index” is a good step in this direction. This index is the average literacy rate in a country.
it also includes data such as life expectancy, purchasing power.

Although the United States is one of the largest countries in the world with GNP after Switzerland, the Human Development Index was the 18th largest since it was based on purchasing power parity. Is ranked. Countries such as Sri Lanka, Costa Rica, which are very low in the GNP ranking, are much higher in the Human Development Index. In addition, the distribution of income in many of the countries that have also overcome poverty is leading to environmental problems as well as injustice. There are countries that are rich but whose air is not breathable and whose water is not allowed. Is this really Development? Development? If you can't live in a humanly healthy environment, if the privileged rich can't get out of ivory towers into the street, this is not a useful development and development for humanity.

The economy is no longer only an important part of the economy, but it has a direct impact on our lives. Therefore, it is very important to accurately determine and accurately measure economic values in order to create the right policies. While development and development are being told to the public, we need a more comprehensive index. This index should include the distribution of income, purchasing power parity, social and environmental costs, the depreciation of irreparable resources, the suicide rate of people in the country, Education, Health, Nutrition, housing, basic services, environmental pollution, biodiversity. At the conference, I shared these with the young people, the experts, activists and academicians of the environment, while on the other hand I thought to myself: what is a world of countries competing against each other at such a criterion? Perhaps when it is hit by what we call the Human Life Index, it will promise to humanity a just order, a clean nature, sustainable development and happiness.

Yavuz Eroğlu
Member of the Executive Board of EU Plastics Manufacturers Association (eupc) 
eroglu@turcomoney.com