By Bae Ji-sook
Staff Reporter
Wearing long johns may not look hip to the eyes of fashion-conscious people, but it is helping the world fight climate change, a state-run institute said Tuesday.
According to the National Institute of Environmental Research, wearing thermal underwear has the effect of raising the thermostat by 2.4 degrees Celsius.
This could mean saving tons of fossil fuels used in electricity generation, thereby reducing carbon footprints, if a drive to wear long underwear was taken up nationwide.
The researchers compared wearing long johns and sweatshirts in a room where the thermostat was set at 19.6 degrees.
The finding shows that thermal underwear traps bodily heat and has effects of bringing the room temperature up to 22 degrees.
"It means the longer and thicker underwear enable people to keep themselves warm at a lower room temperature," said Ryu Ji-wan, the institute's researcher.
On a larger scale, lowering the thermostat by 2.4 degrees Celsius in public places alone could save up to 1.1 million tons of heating oil a year, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 3.4 million tons, the institute said.
The government has long campaigned to encourage people to wear thermal underwear in winter.
President Lee Myung-bak recently said he has managed to lower the room temperature by three degrees in his office after wearing additional underwear. Local governments have also requested their staff to wear thermal underwear, while campaigning for their residents to do the same.
In summer, corporations and government offices ask their employees to wear short sleeves and leave their ties at home, also part of an energy-saving effort.
"If more people wear long johns on the top of the success related to our 'no-tie' campaign, 1.5 million tons of oil a year can be saved. You need 2 billion pine trees to filter CO2 emissions from that," Ryu said.
The Ministry of Environment held fashion shows last year to portray fashionable ways of promoting warm underwear.
"In Japan, where the no-tie movement was first conceived, underwear for winter and short sleeve suits for summer have seen a huge potential for the green clothing market." Environment Minister Lee Maan-ee said.