Italian Composer Ludovico Einaudi Plays on the Arctic Ocean

Two weeks ago, Italian composer and pianist Ludovico Einaudi performed on a floating glacier in the middle of the Arctic Ocean. This performance was not for his own good, but for the good of the world, as his ultimate goal was to help save the Arctic.

Scientists have warned that the Arctic has been melting much faster than expected. The main causes of this phenomenon are destructive fishing and oil spilling. However, why do people worldwide care so much about the Arctic? The Arctic is home to several unique animals, including polar bears, regulates the climate, and is said to be a global treasure. Recently, Greenpeace, a non-governmental environmental organization, stated that "the Arctic Ocean is the least protected sea in the world, its high seas currently have no legal safeguards."

In order to raise awareness of the danger the Arctic is in, a Greenpeace ship with over 8 million voices set off from the Netherlands to the Arctic. Along the way, the ship stopped by Norway and picked up Ludovico Einaudi, who brought along a grand piano. What Einaudi did was unimaginable. He played his own composition, "Elegy for the Arctic," which was sponsored by Greenpeace. His performance was undoubtedly majestic and within weeks, many people started becoming alert to the current situation of the Arctic.

However, Einaudi's performance was not simply purposeless. It coincided with a special occasion that took place this last week. From the 20th to the 24th of June, OSPAR (an international environmental committee of 15 countries) held a meeting in Spain to come to a unified conclusion. Their proposal was to safeguard 10% of the Arctic Ocean. Although this may seem like an easy decision, three countries, Norway, Denmark, and Iceland are against the proposal. Unfortunately, the power and influence these countries hold are great, and somehow, they need to be persuaded to changed their opinions.

Although we live extremely far away from the Arctic, the impact of this region is enormous. What Einaudi did was only part of many people's voices. However, it touched many people's hearts around the world, and hopefully, the three countries will change their opinions. 10% may not seem much at first, but it is a great start to protecting the polar-white Arctic.

Save the Arctic!

By Soo Lee

1st EcoSave Workshop "Endangered Species and the environment".

Our club was planning workshop series to educate pressing environment issues to local elementary children and discuss plausible solutions from children's perspective. The motivation was planting an awareness from the early age so that the younger ones could get acquainted with environmental issues and be conscious about them. We put advertisements in local residential housings and 15 children age from 8 to 11. First, we started the workshop with a children friendly issue, 'Endangered animal species.' PPT presentation on the topic and small group teaching and children's feed back presentation were coordinated. Fun games and goody bags for the hard working(?) children were the final events of the workshop. We received great feed backs from our young students, boosting our confidence to plan coming workshops during summer break. Engaging age appropriate topic and explanation could catch young ones attention to get involved with serious environmental issues, that was our humble learning.

EcoSave Workshop "Endangered Species and the environment".

Our club was planning workshop series to educate pressing environment issues to local elementary children and discuss plausible solutions from children's perspective. The motivation was planting an awareness from the early age so that the younger ones could get acquainted with environmental issues and be conscious about them. We put advertisements in local residential housings and 15 children age from 8 to 11. First, we started the workshop with a children friendly issue, 'Endangered animal species.' PPT presentation on the topic and small group teaching and children's feed back presentation were coordinated. Fun games and goody bags for the hard working(?) children were the final events of the workshop. We received great feed backs from our young students, boosting our confidence to plan coming workshops during summer break. Engaging age appropriate topic and explanation could catch young ones attention to get involved with serious environmental issues, that was our humble learning.

Korea Air Pollution – Whos’ to Blame?

Summer vacation season in Korea is a busy time. We’re visited by endless stream of visitors from neighboring countries such as Japan and China. Korea has benefitted enormously from theses visitors economically. Unfortunately, tourists are not the only visitors from China during the summer seasons, the summer season also is a time when yellow dust from China arrives in Korea. Chinese factories along with gobi dessert are seen as the culprits of these unwanted guests – but are they really to be blamed for Korea’s smog? 

Recently team of scientist sponsored by NASA arrived in Korea and together with Korea’s National Institute of Environmental Research started six weeks project to determine what causes the grey smog we often see in Korea’s air. Flying around in a vintage DC8, they collect data the whole peninsula. While they say it is too early to determine all the findings, they have said that they detected specific signature of factories in Ulsan, home of Hyundai Heavy Industries and Hyundai Motors. They have also found pollution originating from southeast where Korea’s huge steel plant, Posco is located. Along with these industrial factories, Korea also has enormous amount of motor vehicles on the street. In April alone, 130,591 cars were registered in Korea according to Trading Economics. Along with cars, Korea also has many motorcycles which is seen as a major source of air pollution. Recently MBC reported  motorcycle represents only 10% of all registered vehicles, however, they cause 25-35% of air pollution in Korea. 

Korean government has said for many years that China is the cause of air pollution in Korea. However, scientists on board of the DC8 stated that fine dust particles are originating from within Korea. Speaking to CNN, one of the scientist Jack Dib said, “We think a lot of it is going to be mixture of pollution from the power plants and the cities with an awful lot of stuff coming from the forest, natural biogenics so we’re looking to see if that’s what’s really happening.” 

We may not be able to determine definitively the origin of air pollution in Korea, but we do know that it’s bad and it’s having detrimental effect on all of us. In a recent study by Yale University, South Korea ranked 173 out of 180 countries for air pollution. 

Instead of blaming China, Korean government must take drastic measure to improve Korea’s quality of air. Our lives depend on it. 

Posted by Daniel Kim