Baysal: New urban-rural solidarity is key to climate action - Part Three

Serap Baysal says tackling the climate crisis requires stronger solidarity networks between urban and rural communities in Turkey and Kurdistan. In an interview, she argues that local governments often highlight tree-planting campaigns as meaningful action, but the crisis goes beyond symbolic projects. She points to drought, loss of agricultural land, expanding urbanization and ongoing destruction of ecological life moving together. Baysal, president of KESK Tarım-Orkam-Sen, tells ANF that authorities should coordinate with cooperatives, expand urban gardens, buy food for public cafeterias from local producers, tie school nutrition to regional supply, protect water basins and build new solidarity links. She argues agroecology—not industrial, chemical-intensive farming—should be central, citing soil as a carbon sink and warning that fertilizers, pesticides, monocultures, long-distance fossil-fuel production and groundwater extraction drive greenhouse gas emissions.