How would a surviving Ottoman Empire...

mowque

Banned
deal with its ecological environment? I know very little about this part of Ottoman mindset. Would it be more, less, or same as European countries? Would Muslim thought process matter at all? Would the fact that it is very environmentally fragile matter? The fact that and Empire might soon find itself forced to build infrastructure to remote areas to facilitate growth in various industries (thinking oil here) would matter?

What ecological 'sites' does the Ottoman Empire process? (like Yellowstone)

What are some possible disaster spots?

Any help would be great. :)
 
That's a very good question, and very difficult to answer. There's really no way of knowing what the empire's attitude would be - it would probably be similar to Europe's. In general, as it's less industrialized and much more sparsely populated, it will be less polluted, and the Ottomans did discourage industry in Istanbul in order to avoid pollution. And with oil resources, coal will be abandoned fast.

As for ecological sites, what do you mean? Areas that are threatened? That would mostly be deforestation and damage due to hydroelectric projects. The latter are probably unavoidable, but forest management seems likely, as the Republic put some effort into this, and the Republic, especially in early decades, put way, way too much emphasis on industrialization.

In the modern period, it would probably have fairly great resources to concentrate on environmentalism, given it's control over such a vast quantity of the world's oil and gas resources and the revenues thereof.
 

mowque

Banned
and the Ottomans did discourage industry in Istanbul in order to avoid pollution.
So it wasn't about historical buildings but about the environment?

As for ecological sites, what do you mean? Areas that are threatened? That would mostly be deforestation and damage due to hydroelectric projects.

Any particular locations?

In the modern period, it would probably have fairly great resources to concentrate on environmentalism, given it's control over such a vast quantity of the world's oil and gas resources and the revenues thereof.

Like Russia? :p. Seriously, aren't resource driven economies usually the worst?
 
It wouldn't. I am so sick of the Ottoman Empire, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. I'm going to make sure Austria gets Hungary and eats Turkey.
 
With so much oil and proximity to Europe I think large scale industrialisation is eventually unavoidable. As for how much this will or won't be at the cost of the environment... well, that's hard to say. It seems likely to me that to a large degree the environment isn't going to be a priority. After all, you have large swathes of arid land that can't really support agriculture. Before environmental understanding becomes more advanced and widespread no one is going to care that much about what happens to those areas in terms of pollution. Of course, the very same thing means that the areas that aren't arid are probably going to seen as very precious and worthy of protection. It wouldn't be very smart to wipe out what little farmland you actually have, after all.

The dam bit mentioned above is a good point though. A surviving Ottoman empire is probably going to do some very interesting things with the Euphrates and the Tigris and their tributaries, because it can and because it is going to need electricity to fuel its industries (and while oil is plentiful they might still want to reserve that for much more profitable export and use).
 

Keenir

Banned
deal with its ecological environment?

this is a good question; and one not asked before, that I know of.

What ecological 'sites' does the Ottoman Empire process? (like Yellowstone)

aside from the woodlands themselves (which, in some parts of OTL Turkey, are fenced off from public use), there are three groups of sites:
  • historical remote sites (ie Petra in Jordan, the Orthodox towns in Cappadocia)...their very isolation will protect them from a lot of industrial disasters.....unless the Ottomans decide to protect their citizens by placing the nuclear reactor silos in remote places. :rolleyes:;)
  • Heaven & Hell, and Mary's House - places near inhabited towns and cities, whose nature as a tourist magnet will keep industrialization from happening too nearby.
there was a third one, but it slipped my mind; sorry.

What are some possible disaster spots?

I suppose it would be possible for a horrific shipwreck in the Straits or Bosphorus -- imagine the Exon Valdez cracking open on the same day the sewers are emptied.
 
It certainly is a good question, and one I myself have been wrestling with as I get closer to the modern era in the TL I'm doing.

All in all I would suspect that most polluting industry would be kept in centralArabia, where it would essentially not harm the surrounding environment.
 

mowque

Banned
I seem to recall some famous ceders being cut down to make (or make way) for a WW1 railway line?
 
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