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The street protests that spread from Istanbul to some 60 cities around Turkey in recent days have focused on a broad range of grievances, particularly what some see as the unresponsive nature of the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. But the initial spark was a government pan to uproot hundreds of trees and turn a park abutting Istanbul’s Taksim Square (interactive panoramic view) into a shopping mall.

The protests are bound to intensify following the announcement Thursday by Erdogan that the redevelopment project, including the razing of the park, would proceed as planned.

You can learn more about this aspect of the unrest in “Everywhere is resistance; Everywhere is Taksim”: When a Park Becomes Something More,” a post on the EarthDesk blog launched earlier this spring by the Pace Academy for Applied Environmental Studies — my home at Pace University.

The blog is one in a growing constellation of blogs and Web sites produced by university programs focused on environmental issues. You can find other examples listed at the bottom of this post. They all reflect a commitment by faculty and administrators to break down old walls separating academia from the wider community and make sure the knowledge and inquiry on college campuses benefits society at large.

Here’s an excerpt from the EarthDesk post on the green roots of Turkey’s protests, written by Caroline Craig, a research associate at the Pace Academy, with input from Turkey by Miki Tamura, a Pace University alumna who is currently teaching English at the University of Gaziantep in southeastern Turkey through the Fulbright Program:

On May 28, a peaceful, apolitical crowd of demonstrators set up camp in Taksim Gezi Park to prevent its redevelopment into a shopping mall. They said the park, while one of the smallest in Istanbul, is the only remaining space in the densely populated neighborhood that provides a green haven for the public. On May 31st, police moved in at dawn, and the sleeping protesters awoke to the burn of tear gas. In the hours and days that followed the raid, the crowd of demonstrators grew from hundreds into thousands…. Turkish newspaper columnist Asli Aydintasbas told CNN, “It’s not just a bunch of tree huggers, not just about the park… but because this was about a park being demolished, a mall being built, and the prime minister’s one-man style of governing, a lot of conservatives have expressed unhappiness. There were women with headscarves [in the park] because people do not want trees cut down.” While no one can say what direction this new movement will take, the eruption of protests are a reminder that a single sliver of space can mean so much more than a few extra trees and shrubs in the urban landscape. Thousands crossed the political divide in an increasingly polarized country to defend their dwindling green space and, ultimately, to voice their concern over the direction of their country…. Miki Tamura, a Pace University alum and Fulbright Scholar, is stationed in Turkey. She reports, “In Gaziantep, there have been protests in support of Gezi Park, and all the political issues that now surround it of course, for the past few days. I live close to the university and many young students have been taking part with flashing lights, horns, clanging pots, and chanting with signs. A larger protest occurs at a park closer to the city center. It’s always full, from children to the elderly.” Public parks have environmental benefits, certainly, from wildlife habitats to natural water filters. But they also represent physical freedom and aesthetic expression in an increasingly commercialized world. [Read the rest.]

Here are some other notable university-based blogs and Web sites focused on the environment and development (this is a small sample, not a comprehensive list):

Ensia, the University of Minnesota Institute on the Environment

State of the Planet, Columbia University Earth Institute

Yale Environment 360, a publication of the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies

The Green Grok, the blog of Bill Chameides, dean of Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment