Effects of urbanization, forestation, internet use, energy consumption, and gross domestic product on environmental degradation in Türkiye

As the negative global effects of environmental degradation continue to increase, this common problem of humanity is becoming one of the central focus of countries. In this vein, the present study examines the possible impact of internet use, forestation, energy consumption, gross domestic product per capita, and urbanization on environmental degradation through two dependent variables such as carbon dioxide and ecological footprint, for a robustness check. According to the linear Autoregressive Distributed Lag Method, analyzing the annual data of the 1990–2020 period: (1) there is cointegration in the long run, and, the linear combinations converge to the equilibrium point; (2) the long-run elasticity of gross domestic product per capita is neither negative nor more minor than the short-run elasticity in either model, thus, the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis for Türkiye is not verified; (3) in the long run, all variables, except forestation, increase environmental degradation; (4) while internet usage rates have a finite negative effect, the positive impact of forestation variables on environmental degradation is particularly evident. Regarding causality, (5) bidirectional causality relationship exists between ecological footprint and internet usage rates, forestation, and urbanization. (6) One-way causality relationships exist going from carbon dioxide emissions to gross domestic product per capita, internet use, and forestation rate. The results reveal that while internet use increases environmental degradation by increasing energy consumption, it also reverses the degradation with some positive externalities. Finally, as expected, the increase in forestation appears to be a natural solution for environmental degradation in the country.