Hongrak Kwon
Bump
E603A
22 September 2009
My Passion: Environmental Politics
Environmental challenges such as the global warming, deforestation, and ozone deflation are prominent in today’s political agenda. Ordinary people put in the effort to preserve the environment by recycling and other small things, but real changes are made by the world leaders creating policies to reduce pollution, find alternate source energy, and develop renewable energy. And I am interested in saving the environment; hence, I am naturally interested in politics, especially Korean.
My passion for the environment sprouted in eleventh grade when I took the environmental science class. Mr. Northcut, the teacher, made the class extremely interesting by making jokes, doing fun-filled labs, and showing environmental videos. I especially liked the road trips we made to the recycling plant, marsh, and landfill because they were first-hand experience and, first and foremost, fun! Furthermore, I learned many things about the current environmental issues by reading Grist, satirical online news on the environment, for the class, and I still read Grist articles from time to time to be up to date on environmental problems. Through this class, I learned that the environment is a valuable asset for the world and that there is great business potential in the green business. Most importantly, thanks to Mr. Northcut’s entertaining class, I developed a passion for the environment.
My passion for the environment triggered my passion for the politics. As I read articles about the environment, I learned about the policies that world leaders implement to help the environment; however, some decisions made by the world leaders sacrificed the environment for the sake of development or business. I realized that each individual’s and organization’s effort to better the environment is great and even have some impact on the environment, but political decisions make the greatest impact on the environment, whether it be positive or negative. To learn more about politics, I digressed and read more news articles about politics. I became interested in other aspects of politics such as corruption.
Interest in corruption in politics directed my attention back to my home country, Korea: because Korean politics is relatively young, it is rather disrupt and corrupt. Coincidentally, I read an article about a fist fight that broke out during a congressional meeting in Korea. Because my roots lie in Korea, I readily took interest in Korean politics. I enthusiastically followed presidential election in Korea. News articles were my only source of information about the candidates, and most of them were pro-Lee Myung-Bak; according to them, Lee Myung-Bak was a genius politician who revived Seoul and was ready to revive Korean economy. However, most of the newspapers are pro-Grand National Party, the party affiliated with Lee Myung-Bak. Thus, I weeded out the biased newspaper articles and read articles only from sites known to be unbiased politically. The conclusion I drew from unbiased articles were far different from the sugar-coated image asserted by the popular media: he was a Japanese-born criminal, who committed a major stock market fraud, running for presidency. In fact, he was charged with fraud and was under trial during the election. Somehow, the trial ended abruptly, and he was exonerated few days before the voting day. Even after the criminal charges, he managed to become the president of South Korea. However, I still cannot understand one thing: how did he run for presidential election? Because he was born and raised in Japan, he should not have been eligible to run for presidency. He was not only not eligible, but also a criminal. Just how did he manage to win the presidential election? I do not understand now and never will understand that one.
Because I was furious with the result of the Korean election, I scrutinized President Lee’s every move. I disapproved him from the first day of office, and, as the days passed, I disliked him even more. One of his first moves as the president was to import older American cows. Due to great fear towards the potential spread of the Mad Cow disease, Korean citizens heavily objected the decision to import older American cows. Perhaps President Lee was right, and the potential threat of the Mad Cow disease was exaggerated—and perhaps nonexistent; however, I do not like the way he dealt with the situation. Many citizens detested the fact that he made a decision without following proper steps, and others just did not want to get the Mad Cow disease. Whatever their reasons may be, many citizens attended candle rallies with hopes that the president will listen to their needs. Instead, they were met with the violent riot-control policemen. Candle protests lasted for months, but President Lee did not once confront the mob in any way. Eventually, heated protests sizzled down and disappeared. He successfully avoided confrontation and got what he wanted, but cowardice is not an admirable characteristic for a leader.
Recently, he announced a ridiculous plan to build a canal. His grand scheme was to build a canal that will connect Seoul and Pusan, hence the name Grand Korean Waterway. He asserted that this project will boost the Korean economy. From the start, his project was full of flaws. Many of the scientific and statistical data used to support the project turned out to be either exaggerated or plain false. Strangely, the congress passed his half-assed plan even though it did not pass the requirements that other government projects need to pass. He claimed that he could finish this grand scale construction within his term in office; however, canal constructions of similar scale done in Germany and Netherland show that such construction will take decades to complete. Yet, President Lee and his supposed hundred researchers were at a stage where they had not even figured out the correct depth of the canal, so how would they know such grand scale construction will take decades to complete.
Not only was it poorly planned, canal is not necessary in 21st century economy. Estimated to cost at least fifty billion dollars, the Grand Canal project was the most expensive construction project in Korean history, yet politicians did not even bother to question its necessity. In today’s economy, in which time is everything, canal is an outdated mode of transportation that has little demand. Back when roads were underdeveloped and airplanes were small, waterway was in great demand, for it was the only way to transport large shipments with the least cost. However, in today’s world, where everyone is competing to expedite deliveries, canals just cannot compete with roads—ships are just too slow compared to cars. Thus, why should Korean government spend fifty billion dollars to build unnecessary junk? Other countries take about a week or two to travel such distance on a canal, but President Lee promises an unprecedented time of 48 hours. He claims that with some discount and government funding, about half the shipments will choose the canal over the highway. However, nothing could be more unrealistic than his claim; in the case of the Grand Canal project, ships have to either go through or above a mountain, and such process is extremely time-consuming. Thus, more realistic projection of traveling time is around two weeks. Therefore, even with the price cut, smart businessmen will choose the highway over canal any day.
Actually, it is the environmental aspect of the project that fired me up. The canal will increase the potential of flood, pollute the drinking water, change the local weather patterns, and leave permanent environmental damages. Advocates of the plan argue that building dams and weirs will prevent flooding and improve water quality; President Lee even made a point that the rotating propellers of the cargo ships will stir the water and improve water quality. However, neither claim is true. Even high school students know that still water will go bad, and dams and weirs create still water; therefore, dams and weirs do not improve—if not worsen—water quality. The problem is that two-thirds of South Koreans drink water supplied from the rivers that are being affected by the construction. Furthermore, dams and weirs do not reduce the possibility of flooding because it is hard to coordinate all the gates to prevent flooding. Rather, the damage from flooding increases because there is more water stored. Also, dams and weirs increase the humidity in the area that local areas experience fog and rain more frequently. Lastly, this construction will leave permanent scars on Korean landscapes. Beautiful waterways that formed after thousands of years will be destroyed overnight, mountains will have either gigantic holes or cement waterways ruining their aesthetic sceneries, and animals will lose their natural habitat. These changes, once made, cannot be undone, and because later generations will have to live with our mistakes, today’s people should consider and reconsider before making any lasting changes to the environment.
The impacts I have already mentioned in earlier paragraphs are local and affect only South Korea; however, environmental impact of this disastrous plan is worldwide. Changing the environment at such rapid pace can affect the world as a whole. Some studies show that this construction will affect the weather in China at the very least. Such changes will trigger other chain of events and eventually the world will have to face the consequences of the abominable plan.
On the bright side, Korean citizens were smart enough to heavily detest the Grand Canal project, and President Lee agreed to abandon the plan. However, cunning President Lee cleverly changed the name of the project to Four Rivers Restoration project. Because it has a positive name, it has gained more supporters—why would anyone protest restoring four rivers. He plans to carry out his grand scheme of Grand Canal under a pseudonym of Four Rivers Restoration projects, and construction will start soon. I hope to preclude such environmental disaster from ever taking place.
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