World Environment Day
By Hyunseok (Elliott) Lee
Today (June 5th) is a day that isn’t exactly ‘well-known’ around the world. June 5th is the United Nations ‘World Environment Day’, a day used by the UN to encourage awareness and action for the protection of the environment. While it is garnering more and more attention each year, it remains relatively unknown among the public.
Celebrating its 50th year today, the World Environment Day is being celebrated across the globe, though not widely. I was able to attend an event here in Seoul, more specifically the Han River Park. I was quite surprised by the pure scale of the event, as a large portion of the park near the bridge was reserved solely for this day. Lots of small games and sub-events were prepared, a good tactic to grab the attention of park walkers. 
I took part in some of these games and they were definitely quite entertaining. But more importantly, they were able to really pique my interest in the event itself and its purpose. The event at the park emphasized the 3 R's (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle), and more specifically need to reduce waste (most commonly plastic). I took part in a park cleanup activity where everybody was given a bag and a reach extender to pick up as much trash around the park as they could.
I took part in some of these games and they were definitely quite entertaining. But more importantly, they were able to really pique my interest in the event itself and its purpose. The event at the park emphasized the 3 R's (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle), and more specifically need to reduce waste (most commonly plastic). I took part in a park cleanup activity where everybody was given a bag and a reach extender to pick up as much trash around the park as they could.
While I understood why they had created this activity, I initially questioned the true purpose of it. Having taken part in many pickup activities before, I felt that not much could be gained from it education-wise or moral-wise. I was also reluctant to head on the grueling journey to clean up the litter-filled area of the park. However, the entire filthy portion was tidied up entirely in a matter of minutes, which came to my surprise. I realized that the main purpose of the pickup activity wasn't to clean the park, but to show how easy it was to clean it. While I always follow the 3 R's and clean up after myself, I know a substantial amount of people who fail to do so. I felt that this event could prove incredibly useful to those who do not usually use public areas cleanly.
The event was closed off with a couple musical performances that took place in the cleaned areas of the park. It was refreshing to listen to the calming and beautiful sounds while enjoying the spotless and pleasant park views around me.
Overall, I had an amazing experience at the Han River Park. It really made me think about how these entertaining methods could perhaps be more successful in encouraging people to care for the environment than certain lectures or forced activities. I hope that our group is able to hold a large-scale event similar to this one day as it can certainly bring a new perspective to large amounts of people.
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