Economics A2
7 March 2019
Mr. Reuter
Air Pollution in South Korea
Over the years, many countries like South Korea and China have suffered from the exponential growth of air and dust pollution. This year, South Korea has reached its highest point of pollution that it has ever had. Their levels of pollution have hit a high of 157 AQI (air quality index) which is in the unhealthy range and may cause serious health effects and maybe even death. In past years, many citizens would wear face masks to help filter the air before they inhaled, but studies say that they might not be enough for them anymore.
As the years progress, the air has gotten worse due to the amount of automobile pollution and smoking. Seoul, South Korea is a very busy city in which there are streets filled with cars, busses, and motorcycles exhausting polluted air. On top of that, there are also underground and above ground subway systems. All of that build on top of each other collectively affects the air. Although South Korea’s air is not as bad as India’s or China’s, there needs to be a change.
According to export.org, the Korean Ministry of Environment regulates/ monitors the air pollutants put out under the Clean Air Conservation Act. Although the pollution is slowly decreasing, the pollution is still harming the citizens. Just a mere 15 minutes outside with a face mask, the health of the citizens are harmed. Many schools have canceled recess for their students and try to minimize the amount of time spent outside for everyone. As years go by, almost every country’s air quality has been improved yet some are still in bad condition. Scientists and car brands are finding new ways to have more environment friendly automobiles like Tesla to help prevent and improve the air quality. Slowly, but surely, the air pollution will decrease and the air quality will increase creating a cleaner world for upcoming generations.
Al Jazeera. “South Korea Plans Artificial Rain to Reduce Seoul Air Pollution.” News | Al Jazeera, Al Jazeera, 6 Mar. 2019, www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/03/south-korea-plans-artificial-rain-reduce-seoul-air-pollution-190306095309023.html.
Hu, Elise. “Armed With NASA Data, South Korea Confronts Its Choking Smog.” NPR, NPR, 10 Oct. 2017, www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2017/10/10/552264719/armed-with-nasa-data-south-korea-confronts-its-choking-smog.
The World Air Quality Index project. “Air Pollution in South Korea: Real-Time Air Quality Index Visual Map.” Aqicn.org, aqicn.org/map/southkorea/
“Korea - Air Pollution ControlKorea-Air-Pollution-Control.” Korea - Air Pollution Control,
This topic is extremely sad to hear about. The fact that children are being kept inside for recess is frightening because recess seems like something so simple and necessary. When hearing about this it makes me sad but I know there are many efforts being made to improve the air quality around the world. If we as a planet stay diligent about the effort we put in to keeping the world healthy, the air quality should improve slowly but surely.
ReplyDeleteI would agree with you that air quality is a big factor because if you don’t have good air, its hard to live there. People may get sick from the bad air that is going around, and even though it might be ok now you have to think how is that air going to be in 10, 20 year. Will that air be suitable to live in or are you going to have to evacuate the city, then you run into different problems like where do those people go if they can’t live there anymore. Instead of waiting for that to happen it would be the best to treat the problem now while they can still fix it.
ReplyDeleteI am not surprised that the air pollution is this bad because of all the factories and industries that are releasing toxins into the air. It is sad to hear the the government is not putting more thought and effort into solving this problem especially because children are being highly affected by the air pollution. Children need to continue to grow and live a healthy life so they can fill the empty job spots that older people will soon be retiring from. I cannot believe that industries are not trying harder to limit the amount of pollution they are letting get into the air since they know they are the ones causing this deadly issue. These industries should find new ways to create their goods that are not polluting the environment as much as they are. I agree with you that we need to find more ways to solve this issue because if we don’t, the air is going to become more and more polluted. Hopefully we are able to put lots of effort into improving the air quality and over time maybe we will be able to save lives.
ReplyDeleteAir pollution is extremely harmful to a country, and can cause for many outdoor activities to be cancelled due to the dangers you’ve presented about the quality of the environment. Sports, recess, walks, or even parties and festivals: all of these events will eventually have to turn to the indoors unless more measures are taken to improve the air quality. While you have already mentioned lessening the pollution from cars, with the example given of Tesla’s, what else can South Korea do to prevent the increasing pollution rates? I feel as though they could cut back on other machines; for example, the citizens could stop using gas-powered lawn and garden equipment, or they could stop using gas in transportation like buses and switch to a better alternative (vegetable oil, non-detrimental materials to the environment). With these reduced measures, I feel as though the pollution rates could begin seeing a larger decrease.
ReplyDeleteAir pollution is one of the dangerous pollution on earth. Air pollution causes harmful impacts on humans health, it could be dangerous for kids because air pollution mostly affects the respiratory system through infections, heart diseases, stroke and lung cancer. Air pollution can affect most on the kids because they have been never exposed to this dangerous type of air. Since South Korea being a large population place the air pollution would make a lot of kids sick. Air pollution affects economy by costing human lives because once you are exposed to dangerous air pollution there is chance of getting lung cancer, which may also kill you. It reduces people work ability, as people are exposed to air pollution there is a chance that they would get sick and would not be able to work.It also affects vital products like food, it damages cultural and historical monuments, it also reduces the ability of the ecosystem.
ReplyDeleteThis story is a truly sad one. Just the fact that the pollution has gotten so bad to the point where now it is unsafe to be outside with a facemask for more than 15 minutes is really sad and I can’t help but wonder how it got this bad and why it had to get this bad before they decided to do something about it? I think this story will shed some more light on the world wide pollution problem, not just the problem in Korea, and hopefully pollution will never get this bad ever again.
ReplyDeleteThis issue is interesting to hear about. Air pollution is certainly not a new problem in east Asia due to the mass amount of production in that region, but now that it is a problem in South Korea is concerning. They are a major producer in technology so now that they have having air quality issues is going to raise a huge issue. South Korea is going to have to start limiting producing to order to reduce that air pollution. In result, the rest of the world's supply of technology is going to suffer and decrease across all sectors. Hopefully they can learn how to solve this problem soon.
ReplyDeleteI was so unaware of what was happening in South Korea. Which is sad because, though we are not in the same country we are in the same world and I had no idea this was happening. I feel for the children that cannot even go outside for recess due to the conditions. That's sad to me because recess was my favorite when I was younger. South Korea is going to have to limit their production to reduce the air pollution as the pollution is such a hindrance.
ReplyDeleteIt is really sad to hear news like this. Previously in economics, we have talked about how to measure the satisfaction of the people living a country and most economists say that the best way to measure this is by the real GDP per capita. But this article just shows that satisfaction can't just be judged on a monetary value, because if it was, South Koreas satisfaction rate would be high. But this monetary value of real GDP per capita doesn't take into account the bad air pollution the people of the country have to suffer everyday.
ReplyDeleteI fear that even though there are improvements being made upon the quality of air that it may not work as well as they think it will. I am sure than a majority of their population consists of people who can’t afford air quality savers such as Teslas. This makes me wonder what issues this could cause for their future, other than the already existing issues such as illness and needing the use of a mask to walk in the street. Are there any other alternatives for clean air? This also makes me think about the United States and how much we pollute the earth. How much worse are we and what makes us so different?
ReplyDeleteAir pollution is becoming a highly severe problem in our world because humans produce more and more toxins that linger in the atmosphere. It is sad to hear that populations are obviously aware of this issue, for example in South Korea teachers cancel recess to protect the kids since the air is so bad, but are not doing anything to reduce the pollution. I agree that we need to find ways to solve this issue, especially in highly populated areas like South Korea. Large populations like this, produce more air pollution, but are also affected the most. It’s humans responsibility to take action and reduce the amount of air pollution.
ReplyDeleteI agree that it’s a horrible fact that air quality is so bad in South Korea. It's so unfortunate that even children can’t enjoy recess anymore because of the negative impacts of their surroundings. Are there any specific plans to combat the pollution besides what individual companies are doing? If so, do you think that they will work and why or why not? Perhaps by raising awareness it will encourage citizens to make small changes on their own that will decrease the output of pollution.
ReplyDelete