Student Corner The Sooner The Better
By Jung Soo-im
Recently, I saw the documentary ``An Uncomfortable Truth’’ made by Al Gore, the former vice-president of the Bill Clinton administration. Gore made the movie of his lecture and slideshow tour around the world informing people of the reality of what is happening to the world’s natural environment.
The movie showed that large petroleum and coal companies, which make money selling fossil fuel, lobbied Bush’s administration so that they could make more money by destroying nature.
Global warming is an uncomfortable truth to the companies and they don’t want people to realize its seriousness. Al Gore mentioned Mark Twain’s saying that ``What gets us into trouble is not what we don't know. It's what we know for sure that just ain't so.’’
I really agree with the saying. The worst-ever oil spill into waters off Taean County is a good example, though the crew of the tanker and the tugboat might not have known the result of the incident. The oil spill caused huge damage not only to fish farms and beaches but also directly to human health, causing illnesses such as laryngitis and bronchitis.
Global warming is also a good example. Although we may think our actions are insignificant and won’t have any effect on the world, the problem is that all of us think this way. As a result the earth’s temperature has already risen about 1 degree Celsius during the last century.
You may think that that is not a great figure, however, we have to know that the temperature of the earth has been maintained without climatic changes over the last 10,000 years. Because of the small change in temperature, a series of calamities such as droughts, floods or melting glaciers have occurred around the world.
With the rise of the seas’ surface temperature, evaporation has increased resulting in typhoons becoming more powerful and taking place more frequently than before.
This is why typhoons affecting Korea have become stronger since 2000. Actually, the sea surface temperature around the Korean Peninsula is increasing at about 0.02 degrees Celsius per year. Other countries including America, Japan and China have seen a similar phenomenon.
This is about a world disaster. Because of El Nino and La Nina, droughts and floods have devastated areas all over the world. The extraordinary phenomena of melting glaciers at the South and North Pole are now familiar occurrences.
Many people don't know how serious such phenomena are. People may cope with sudden change quickly, but they don’t notice it when change occurs gradually.
Many scientists expect that if this situation keeps going, the perpetual glaciers of the South and North Pole will disappear within the next 50 years. Nobody knows what will happen after that. I think that the main cause of global warming is human beings. People have burned a lot of fossil fuel during the last half a century.
Then, what can we do for nature? We already know the solution. For example, use air conditioners less, or travel on foot instead of driving cars. We need to give up some of the comforts that damage nature.
Now, the earth has started its revenge on us, but it isn’t too late yet. As the proverb says, ``better late than never.’’ We have to put into action what we know for our descendants and ourselves. We should realize the truth that each individual is the principal criminal in global warming. The sooner, the better.
Jung soo-im is a third-year student at Jungang High School in Geoje City in South Gyeongsang Province.