The University of Utah's Independent Student Voice

The Daily Utah Chronicle

The University of Utah's Independent Student Voice

The Daily Utah Chronicle

The University of Utah's Independent Student Voice

The Daily Utah Chronicle

Write for Us
Want your voice to be heard? Submit a letter to the editor, send us an op-ed pitch or check out our open positions for the chance to be published by the Daily Utah Chronicle.
@TheChrony
Print Issues
Write for Us
Want your voice to be heard? Submit a letter to the editor, send us an op-ed pitch or check out our open positions for the chance to be published by the Daily Utah Chronicle.
@TheChrony
Print Issues

Park: Korean Government Attempts to Solve Yellow Dust Pollution

Park%3A+Korean+Government+Attempts+to+Solve+Yellow+Dust+Pollution

The environment has become a serious concern after rapid industrial development occurred globally. Now, the conveniences we enjoy from the newest scientific inventions are destroying nature significantly and at great speeds. One major issue is air pollution.

Korea has been struggling with yellow dust that comes from the Gobi Desert in China during the spring season. The dust is created by the industrialization and the deforestation of China. Even though it carries a harmful substance that can affect people’s health, many do not seem to recognize it as a serious problem. Since citizens weren’t troubled the government started to warn them when the yellow dust concentration grew too high because it could harm people who go outside and breathe the polluted air. Additionally, Concentrations of fine dust are a rising issue. There is a number of days the fine dust rate is measured to be over the danger level for outdoor activities. So, the government and NGOs are suggesting several ways to solve the issue, which could be helpful.

The government suggests that citizens not stay outside for long periods of time to exercise. They also suggest that people wear masks outdoors and wash their hands upon returning home. Young children, older people and the infirm could suffer from the fine dust more than healthier and stronger people. Therefore, they should not go out as much as they can in order to avoid harm.

The funny part of these suggestions is that even an elementary school kid could come up with the solutions the government is asking citizens to follow. They represent such basic knowledge and instinct. As a citizen, we expect the country to protect us in the long run with more complex and effective solutions. The issue is that Korea has been suffering from the yellow dust and the fine dust for a long time, and the government has not come up with any alternative solutions other than these simple propositions. Since the government is not providing a clear and bright idea to fix the issue, citizens are arguing that they need to find their own way of overcoming the issue.

The Korean government, especially the Seoul Metropolitan Government, suggested citizens ride bicycles or public transportation to reduce the pollution. This suggestion is a good idea and an action that has the possibility to have an impact. However, the problem is that there are not many facilities citizens can use when they ride bicycles. Even though the government has instructed to use alternative transportation, there are few options to support citizens without vehicles, making it difficult to abandon their use. There are not many bicycle-only roads, which can be dangerous for riders, and there are few places around the city to park bicycles.

As the matter becomes more serious, Koreans need to feel safe by enacting a professional solution to the problem. The government has done nothing to overcome the issue. The reason why a country and its government exists is for the protection and the welfare of the citizens. In order to achieve that, the government should act effectively to keep its citizens secure and without worries. I hope there will be a significant idea created to overcome the yellow dust and the fine dust as quickly as possible because current solutions are inadequate.

View Comments (2)

Comments (2)

The Daily Utah Chronicle welcomes comments from our community. However, the Daily Utah Chronicle reserves the right to accept or deny user comments. A comment may be denied or removed if any of its content meets one or more of the following criteria: obscenity, profanity, racism, sexism, or hateful content; threats or encouragement of violent or illegal behavior; excessively long, off-topic or repetitive content; the use of threatening language or personal attacks against Chronicle members; posts violating copyright or trademark law; and advertisement or promotion of products, services, entities or individuals. Users who habitually post comments that must be removed may be blocked from commenting. In the case of duplicate or near-identical comments by the same user, only the first submission will be accepted. This includes comments posted across multiple articles. You can read more about our comment policy at https://dailyutahchronicle.com/comment-faqs/.
All The Daily Utah Chronicle Picks Reader Picks Sort: Newest

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

  • Y

    Younggy PaikJan 7, 2019 at 12:03 pm

    What if the U.S. is situated nearby China getting sporadic shower of the Yellow Dust? When I was growing up in Korea, it was a ritual on every onset of spring just pure dust getting blown into my hair, face and mouth for a couple of weeks, but nowaday with China industrializing, the eastward wind from the desert picks up pollutant afloat in the atmosphere on its way to Korean penninsula. Despite that China has been asked to do something about its neighbor’s pain of people inhaling pollutants, Chinese government has not come up with genuine efforts to curtail the severity of the situation. What measure would the U.S. take to contain dust getting blown into? I would think that China’s Gobi desert could have been easily turned into a garbage dump, piled by gabages exported from the U.S. to contain spreading of the dust as a measure.

    Reply
  • D

    Don MacAngusMar 29, 2018 at 6:28 pm

    Chan!

    Keep up the good work, dude!

    Reply