In this article I will be talking about the current environmental issues that we have in the city where I live: Istanbul. Istanbul is the most crowded city in Turkey despite not being the capital. The total population of Turkey is 74 billion while 14 billion of them live in Istanbul. In other words, almost 20% of the population in Turkey is in Istanbul. Istanbul isn?t an enormous city by means of area. It only has 5.343 km² of total area which is obviously, not enough for so many people. The enormous number in population causes urbanization that is rapidly growing.
The fact that, Istanbul takes immigration from abroad and all cities in the country, mainly due to the life standards, makes urbanization go out of control. When you add 14 billion people and urbanization that is out of control, you get an utter chaos for the city is unable to help its citizens.  This chaos that has been going on for about a decade is the source of many environmental issues in and around Istanbul.
The first issue, and perhaps the most important one, is CO₂ emission. When I say CO₂ emission, I am not talking about factories, but rather vehicles. The never-ending increase in population came with a never-ending number of vehicles in Istanbul. There are 3 million 230 thousand vehicles and 2 million 146 thousand of those vehicles are automobiles. This number of automobiles causes CO₂ emission in giant numbers.
According to an EU research, averagely a car produces 140 grams of CO₂ per kilometer. Just imagine how many CO₂ is released into our atmosphere in a day. Even if we assume that only half of these cars are used for 1 km per day, the daily CO₂ emission of Istanbul is 164 kg only due to the cars. This number is terrifying as it is, but unfortunately is the optimistic result. There is also the fact that, traffic jam is a problem in Istanbul for there are too many cars out in the traffic and inadequate number of roads. In fact, traffic jam is such a problem in Istanbul, It could double the calculation of CO₂ emission that we have just did. Moreover, there are 400 more cars out in the traffic every day in Istanbul. These calculations, and the crucial reality that it is only getting worse by the day, shows how important it is to find a solution for such an issue.
The government is well aware of the current problems in Istanbul. They have increased the number of public transportation vehicles in the past years. They have also been working on a new law that is about adding the production of CO₂ usage in automobile taxes. It will be great step if it is accepted as a law. However, despite all these efforts, it goes without saying that these countermeasures are not enough for a problem at this size.  
I believe there three main solutions that we can use against this environmental tackle. First of which is using cars that work with LPG of biofuels. More than 60% of all cars in Istanbul use diesel or petrol as fuel. In an AEGPL (European LPG Association) report, it is stated that LPG emit 12% less CO₂ than petrol cars and 10% - 15% less than diesel cars. Also, using biofuels is important. Biofuels like ethanol that are made from corn or switch grass still emit Carbon Dioxide when they are burned for energy, but they produce less CO₂ as much as 85% that is. So implementation of the usage of LPG and biofuels is an effective solution. Furthermore, minimizing the usage of personal automobiles is also important. For example, using public transport to reach your destination, riding a bike or even walking if it is nearby are possible environmentally friendly alternatives. Last but not least, the proper organization of urbanization in Istanbul would solve the issue of unnecessary traffic jam in Istanbul.
In overall, CO₂ emission caused by automobiles is a vital issue in my city Istanbul. If this issue is left unsolved, we will be taking a huge step towards the global warming. As such, this issue is of great importance to our environment and must be dealt with as soon as possible.
 
RESOURCES
http://www.yenisafak.com.tr/gundem/trafik-cilesine-her-gun-400-arac-katiliyor-521565
http://www.haberturk.com/yasam/haber/924616-istanbulda-kac-milyon-arac-var
http://ec.europa.eu/clima/policies/transport/vehicles/cars/index_en.htm
http://ec.europa.eu/reducing_co2_emissions_from_cars/doc_contrib/aegpl_en.pdf
http://www.milliyet.com.tr/maliye-den-surpriz-calisma/ekonomi/ekonomidetay/10.03.2013/1678568/default.htm
http://www.car-emissions-explained.co.uk/2011/01/possible-solutions-to-reduce-carbon.html
http://www.internationaltransportforum.org/Topics/pdf/ACEA.pdf