Environment

Korea's environmental policies and challenges

Ben Jackson
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Beyond the Static: Renewable Energy in South Korea

As the sun rises over the mountains of Gangwon Province, the valleys are still full of mist. Cuckoos call and frogs cross the roads. Above the fields of maize and ginseng, another silent crop prepares to gorge itself on the intensifying sunlight. Soon, the thousands upon thousands of photovoltaic panels

Ben Jackson
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US Military Contaminates Central Seoul Neighborhood

Critics of the invasion of Iraq in 2003 claimed the United States was moving into a foreign territory in order to take its oil. But here’s a new one: The U.S. military occupies a swathe of foreign soil for 65 years, fills it with oil, then moves out.

Haeryun Kang
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Gwanghwamun Democracy 2.0: Air Pollution Roundtables

Jongno, where Gwanghwamun Square is located, is one of Seoul’s most polluted and heavily congested districts. So when I heard that a huge outdoor event on air pollution was taking place on the square, I raised my eyebrows. “Isn’t it sad that we’re

Se-Woong Koo
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Four Rivers Project: Explained

President Moon Jae-in has been in office for less than two weeks, but he already has a considerable list of achievements. He made radical appointments for his secretariat and cabinet, and elevated several women to positions of prominence. He ordered the abolition of the much-hated history textbooks, championed by Park

Seohoi Stephanie Park
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Forest Fire Alert: Where Was the Control Tower, Again?

With Moon Jae-in and the presidential election decorating the headlines, it’s easy to forget the natural disaster that hit South Korea last Saturday. Three wind-fed forest fires broke out independently in the northeastern region of the country, destroying over 300 hectares of forestland, evacuating over 500 people and mobilizing

Ben Jackson
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The Damming Verdict on Hong Joon-pyo's Drinking Water Plan

Hong Joon-pyo and his Liberty Korea Party regularly come out the worst when comparing presidential candidates’ environmental manifestos. Be it climate change, energy, fine dust, land and sea management or almost anything else, the conservative candidate routinely fails to provide answers or is slammed for his inadequate plans. Recently,

Ben Jackson
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Which South Korean Presidential Candidates Actually Care about the Environment?

On a global level, it seems more and more people care about environmental issues. But maybe not in South Korea. The 2015 Paris Agreement to limit global greenhouse emissions, Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan in the same year, and China’s 2013 China’s Action Plan for

Ben Jackson
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Truth of Contamination at U.S. Military's Yongsan Garrison Begins to Emerge

South Korean environmental campaigners won a significant victory against the country’s environment ministry on Tuesday. Minbyun (Lawyers for a Democratic Society), a civil rights NGO, had sued the environment minister in a bid to force the disclosure of information about environmental pollution on U.S. Army Garrison

Ben Jackson
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Is Greenwashing South Korea's New Black?

South Korea’s controversy over coal-fired power stations continues to grow, in a country with the largest coal plant in the world. Concerns about air pollution and greenhouse emissions are rapidly darkening coal’s reputation, which powers about 40 percent of the country’s energy.

Ben Jackson
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Coal, Dust and Hot Air: South Korea's Dirty Energy Habit

On the far side of a dry rice paddy, where magpies scratch at the earth, stands Dangjin Coal-Fired Power Complex, the biggest coal plant in the world. Inside its blue-clad towers are ten giant units capable of generating almost 5,900 megawatts of electricity — enough to power some five

Ben Jackson
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Plant Shutdown Puts Nuclear Industry Back in Spotlight

By 2020, South Korea will be home to the largest cluster of nuclear reactors in the world, just a short drive away from Busan. But in a country where fears about Japanese seafood still linger after the Fukushima disaster of 2011, the booming nuclear industry — which produces roughly 30

ké radar
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Another Dolphin Death In South Korea's Aquariums

On its website, Geoje Sea World, an aquarium and marine theme park, describes itself as “second to none in Korea,” a place “expressly designed for cultivating interactive and mutual relationships between human-beings and marine mammals.” Geoje Sea World offers a variety of programs that allow people to swim in pools