Greenpeace new office in Seoul, South Korea

According to Mr.Mario Damato, the Executive Director of Greenpeace East Asia(GPEA), Greenpeace will launch a new office in Seoul, South Korea and work on creating positive change for the environment in Korea.


Its main activity will be focusing on nuke plants in Korea. Also, Mr.Damato says Greenpeace will not concern 'Four river development plan' in Korea because the plan itself is a regional matter.

Rainbow Warrior will be visiting the port of Inchon on coming June4 and June5 as a part of East Asian tour.

Source: Chosun Daily, Greenpeace home

Eco-Generation Green Interview with Ricky Kim(리키 김)

Mr. Ricky Kim is an actor, model and TV personality in Korea. He has appeared in 'Dream Team'(Season2) these days, and become very popular.  He's originally from Kansas, and he tells the Eco-gen about his take over environmental issues.

Eco-Generation Street Campaign

Today, we participated in a large street campaign with other Eco-generation ambassadors. This two-and-a-half hour long activity took place in Itaewon, a small part of Northern Seoul. The campaign began at 1:00 P.M. From then to about 2:20 P.M. we all ate a nice, fulfilling lunch at a nearby Outback Steakhouse. Since there were almost twenty people, we had to use about ten connected tables and eat from about forty different plates.



During the massive lunch, all of the eco-generation ambassadors discussed how to promote environmental awareness through campaigns, green articles, videos of interviews with environmental experts, and possibly advertisements. We stood out in the cold weather on a raised platform next to a major metro station. There, we handed out pamphlets about our organization and gave an explanation to each passerby. Although some of those around us ignored us and rejected our offers, we were still able to raise awareness among many other people. During this time, I learned many different creative ideas on ways to raise awareness among the general public about all the environmental issues we are facing with every day and in the near future.



 The most important part was the street campaign since I felt many different emotions. Many foreigners seem to care more about the environment compared to the passing Koreans. Out of about fifty passer-bys, only twenty took interest. We seriously need to work on raising awareness.







(In the left photo) This is me standing next to my teacher, whom I surprisingly met at the metro station by pure chance. We took a photo together on the raised platform.

Biodiversity survey results

  We have gathered all our survey results, based on a public of about age ten to twenty, and have analyzed them by making three circle graphs. The first graph (Q1. What is biodiversity?) apparently shows us that the general public does not know about the biodiversity that well; only a third of the people polled knew what it was or heard about it. The second graph (Q2. What is biodiversity related to?) is at least good news since everybody can infer what biodiversity is related to. The last graph (Q3. How much of the world’s plant diversity for food and agriculture has been lost during the 20th century?) brings the worst news for only 15 percent of the public could answer the question correctly. Therefore, in the next meeting we are going to decide what to write in our personal letter to UNEP Korea or possibly the Seoul Metropolitan Government. An option we are considering is to convince the organization to include environmental awareness in the regular school curriculum.

Meeting on Biodiversity Survey

Biodiversity hotspots, such as tropical rainforests in South America, coral reefs of the Equatorial Pacific, and river ecosystems, have been gradually fading away over the years. Even in Korea, the precious wildlife around the Han River, Nakdong River, and many other major rivers are being destroyed every time a factory is built around it. Therefore, in order for us to take action on preserving biodiversity in these areas, we have decided to take a short, but crucial poll. This survey will help us determine how much of the general public knows about these issues.

Therefore, we have decided to have several online meetings amongst ourselves. In the process, we will make graphs and decide on an action plan to help relieve this perilous and aggravating situation, including writing a personal letter to UNEP Korea.

Biodiversity Essay Competition - II

There are several major problems facing the world. One of them is a reduction in the earth’s biodiversity. Biodiversity refers to the variety of life. Natural diversity in ecosystems provides essential economic benefits and services to human society, particularly food and clothing. Without biodiversity, the ecosystem would not be able to sustain itself. Considering the unpredictable future from climate change, biodiversity is a key element to the survival of humans. Even so, reckless human activities have driven a vast number of species towards extinction, thereby threatening human survival.

Agricultural biodiversity has been dramatically changed. The livestock industry, in particular, has experienced a transformative change from small family ranches to large-scale, intensive production, heavily dependent on a very narrow range of high output breeds. As a result, local animals have been driven out. Many breeds with diverse, unique characteristics, such as disease resistance or tolerance to extreme weather, are facing extinction. These breeds include species of the Siberian Yakut cattle that can survive in freezing temperatures and the Namaqua Africander sheep that can survive without water for a long time. If a virus breaks out, attacks our “cattle factories,” and wipes out all the cattle, our hope should lie in a virus resistant breed. If the temperature of the earth drops to freezing point due to climate change, the Siberian cattle species would be our only hope. Without diverse breeds, humans will no longer be able to eat meat.

Overfishing has driven blue fin tuna to extinction. Blue fin tuna is a popular ingredient for sushi. Sushi’s growing popularity has increased the demand for the fish, and hence, the price of blue fin tuna has skyrocketed to over $500,000 per fish. This has caused an increasing number of fishing vessels to adopt highly developed, modern technology. These vessels can detect any trace of blue fin tuna from the deep water over a great distance. People are consuming more tuna than the sea is producing. As a result, its population will not last long. Without an international commitment to preserve this species, humans will no longer see it in the near future.

Here is a great historical example to show the enormous power human activities wield over the nature. The almond we know right now was originally from a poisonous plant. Lots of people died because of not knowing this fact. One day, a boy ate an almond, but he did not die because it was not poisonous. This accidental discovery of the non-poisonous almond led people to begin planting non-poisonous almonds. Therefore, the non-poisonous almonds kept on growing in number and the poisonous ones were crowded out until they no longer exist. This tells us that if human activities focus on a species or a breed and intensively cultivate it, the others will disappear. That is why we need to take diversity seriously.

A real problem lies in our lack of concern for the diversity issue. Many of us do not realize its significance, but the problems have steadily started to get bigger and will seriously affect our lives in near future. In order to stop animals from becoming extinct, we need to wake everyone up to make them realize the imminent disaster from the loss of biodiversity.  By Yeokyoung Alberta Yoo

Biodiversity Essay Competition - I

We participated in an essay competition. The topics were preserving biodiversity or saving energy. I chose to write about biodiversity. This is one of the essays submitted into the essay competition:

Suppose a massive climate change crisis descended upon the world and all our livestock died? How will we obtain protein-rich food? Our only hope is other species that can survive harsh circumstances. Unfortunately, we are killing off these unusual species in order to increase the population of our normal livestock. Therefore, if our current livestock resources would be depleted, we would have no other back-up food source for extinction is an irreversible process. Scientists believe that humans have triggered a mass-extinction of a scale never seen since the last major mass-extinction, 65 million years ago, at the end of the dinosaurs’ epoch. Biologists have estimated that about 30,000 species see their last member die annually. By the end of the century, nearly 500,000 species would have become extinct. It is believed that, in the last 100 years, humans have increased the extinction rate by over 1,000 times.

Biodiversity has been a serious issue for a few decades. Although, many governments and organizations have tried to tackle the problem with several methods, there has been no sign of improvement. All efforts to stop the mass-extinction have been futile. The main reason why there has been no progress is because we have pitted biodiversity preservation and human welfare against each other. For years, preservationists have believed in the hotspots theory, in which twenty-five locations in the world with the most diverse plant life are protected at any costs. Usually, these hotspots are in rainforests. People have lost their homes and wealth while moving out of these national parks. However, plants make up less than one percent of the Earth’s life tree. Hence, it is unreasonable to justify that the more the plant life in a location means the more biodiversity. Recently, numerous conservationists have opposed this theory and have developed ecosystem services strategy. Why place biodiversity and human welfare on opposite sides of the see-saw? This new strategy informs the public about our dependence on the resources of ecosystems and aims to protect biodiversity for the sake of humans. Therefore, we must preserve biodiversity because it is essential to humankind’s survival.

Currently, we owe our terrestrial ecosystems a great debt. Without any of them, humans would become extinct. The raw materials, food, and other resources we obtain from the life around us helps all of us survive. It is safe to state that everything we make or use involves nature’s resources in some way. However, we are using these resources at an uncontrollable pace. In 2000, the United Nations launched the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. Conducted by an international team of more than 1,300 scientists, four aspects of ecosystem services were assessed: provisioning (resources from nature), regulating (nature’s control over catastrophes), cultural (benefits for social relationships), and supporting (basic elements of ecosystems). It was reported that nearly all of these services have not only declined, but have been used unsustainably. Simply put, we humans are fueling our own destruction. The damage of Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004 and Hurricane Katrina in 2005 was amplified by the lack of vegetation on coastlines. In both cases, humans depleted vegetation along coasts, leading to more damage than with vegetation. Moreover, farmers in the Sahara desert are affecting economies half the world away. Every year, several hundred million tons of sand is blown away to the Caribbean Sea, in which coral reefs and local industries are harmed. Natural resources are the backbones of developing economies. Improving the environmental situation is to alleviate poverty for 750 million people. Third, when ecosystems collapse, human health is threatened. Nearly two million people die of water contamination. Wetlands and forests can provide abundant resources of clean drinking water.

Biodiversity is not only helpful to humans now, but it can be crucial in the future. According to scientists all over the globe, there is a 70% chance of a global disaster to occur in the next century. This catastrophe can be a sudden climate change, an outbreak of a universal pandemic, or fluctuations in sea level. Regardless of the case, there is an extremely high chance of our main sources of food to become extinct during the event. Only thirty types of crops provide more than 90% of the world’s calories and 14 animal species that make up nearly 90% of our livestock. Moreover, all of these crucial species are prone to diseases and are sensitive to climate changes. If some of these keystone species die off, the entire world can become dead by a global mass-extinction. Fortunately, there is a solution to this dilemma. There are some relatives of our central plant and livestock species, which can withstand dire conditions, such as diseases and harsh climates. Some examples are the Blanco Orejinegro cattle of the Andes, Namaqua Africander sheep of Africa, and the Yakut cattle of Siberia.

In conclusion, biodiversity must be maintained not only for the sake of other organisms, but also for the sake of humans. Humans heavily depend on the lives of other species right now and will do so in the future. Many ecologists and biologists are starting to think that the Earth still has a chance of reviving itself. Although the extinction rate is rising, it has not yet reached the threshold, which divides sustainable rates and catastrophic rates. Already, many plans are being executed in both developing nations, such as China and India, and developed countries, such as USA and Japan. Many illustrious icons have said encouraging words to the public about the relationship between biodiversity and human comfort. Former U.N. secretary-general Kofi A. Annan said “our fight against poverty, inequality and disease is directly linked to the health of the Earth.” In short, to maintain biodiversity is to protect all organisms on Earth, including us.  By Y.J. Kim