By Park Woo-na
Don’t you think we are seeing too many construction sites? In front of apartments, on the roads, around subway stations even in schools we can see many such developments.
These busy sites give us a convenient life, but on the other hand, they also bring about the destruction of nature, separating is from natural ecosystems.
Think about how we can connect with nature. When was your last chance to feel “real” nature? Some of you may have answers, but try focusing on the word “real.” I don’t mean urbanized nature like parks in apartment complexes. Human beings are born in nature, and we should protect and harmonize with it. We are losing our chance to be close to our natural surroundings.
I believe we can’t see real nature; we just see an urbanized variety.
Therefore this environment has an effect, even on our children. For example, my five-year-old cousin believes strawberries come from department stores. Even though his thought is cute, I think this is pretty serious situation.
In general, how many children have visited a real strawberry farm?
I’m sure most have only seen one on the Internet. We live too far away from nature, and even though nothing can substitute for it, we have neglected to protect it.
When looking around the city, we see many construction sites. Admittedly, we live in the middle of such areas, and some work betters our lives.
But on the other hand, some of it is unnecessary. For example, sidewalks in the city are always being replaced every year. This unnecessary work destroys nature and also wastes our city budget; so we should stop unnecessary construction now.
On top of this example, there are still more problems. Development has sometimes destroyed natural surroundings even though it has a good purpose. We used to neglect preventing such damage for convenience, and this trend does not seem to have disappeared.
It’s time to change our development style. I believe the solution is “eco-development,” where we can develop society without hurting nature.
Eco-development is both pro-nature and pro-development, and is a win-win situation all around.
Fortunately, many companies have started to join this campaign, and I more will do so in the future.
In conclusion, I must say we live too far away from nature even though we are born into it. We have usually given up on nature, but now we should stop this behavior as our situation has changed. We should stop unnecessary development and move toward eco-development.
The important thing is how to connect our life with nature. If there is to be any hope for nature, we must protect and care about it before it turns away from us.
Park Woo-na is a student at Dongguk University, Seoul campus, majoring in fine arts.