YRE Competition 2017

Best Article

Category : Article 19-21 years old Individual

As the global concern of fine dust increases, it is imperative to understand the current status of fine dust and to need countermeasures about major emission sources in China and the korea.

In recent years, instead of blue skies, clouds of fine dust covered the Korean sky. Every day media outlets have been reporting the seriousness of the fine dust. The fine dust was designated as Class 1 carcinogens in the WHO and The Ministry of Environment defined as air pollutants because it is fatal to the human body.

The Ministry of Environment revealed that more than 80 percent of the fine dust is coming from China and a study published in the journal Nature(2007) showed that about 30,000 people from Korea and Japan died prematurely due to the fine dust from China.

The picture shows the relationship between the fine dust and early death studied by international researchers. The higher the red one, the higher the relationship.(NATURE)

In addition, according to the Korea Environment Corporation on March 30, This year, the number of fine dust special reports released nationwide has increased by 84 % compared to the same period last year. But the uncooperative attitudes of the Chinese authorities and the belated response by the South Korean government are puzzling.

In order to solve this problem, the government should focus more on environmental cooperation, such as joint research and cooperation with China and the current standard of atmospheric environment should be raised to the recommended criteria of the WHO too. Also, it is necessary to encourage citizens to take part in a change in lifestyle, such as drinking water and wearing masks by using advertising and campaigns.

In the domestic transportation sector, it is required to control the list of air pollution sources like the U.S. clean air policy or the government should impose fines on individuals, corporations and should implement enhanced ‘automobile day’ system like Japanese automobile emission, fuel quality control policy. In korea's coal burning power generation case, The world's largest concentrated type power station is running and there's a lot of concern.

It is time to shut down the additional plans and stop the operation of the old plant and concentrate on eco-friendly energy.

Author : An Gi Hun

School Name : Kyungpook National University