Nature Around Us

A campaign for the marine cleansing of the Keralim Bay, the first biological marine protected area in Korea, was held on 15th by the Korean Federation for Environmental Movement.

KFEM(Korea Federation for Environmental Movement) argues ▲ Reducing the annual amount of marine litter to 180,000 tons ▲ Expanding that the marine wildlife sanctuary by more than 10% and carried out garbage collection and separation.

Marine Environmental Supporters of the KFEM cleaned the Beolchunpo Beach for 2 hours.

They collected more than five trash. Large quantities of fishery waste such as hydrogen peroxide cans, rock cans, fishing lines, and ropes were collected. Besides, household waste such as shampoo barrels, ramen bags, and firecrackers, which were considered to have flowed from the nearby camping sites, were found.

"After cleaning up the sea today, once the tide is gone, new waste is collected from the sea again," said the activist. "We are allowed to work in the marine life protection area for spotted seals, The problem is serious, "he said.

Park Bum-jin, who participated in the campaign today, said, "It is a pity that one hundred people will pick up garbage that one person accidentally throws away."

"For marine protected areas to function properly, we must prohibit activities that could pose a threat to biological protection, such as fisheries," the activist said. Currently, fishery and catering are allowed in the marine life protection area of Korea.

Korea is a member of the Convention on Biological Diversity and has agreed to achieve up to 10% of marine protected areas by 2020. Currently reported Korea's marine protected area is 1.63% as of 2018. According to the World Conservation Union, the World Marine Reserve is 7.26%, and 30% or more for biodiversity conservation is active. To this end, it is expected that Namyang Bay of Mars will be designated as a marine protected area. However, measures should be taken for the environment where plastics and fishing line are reported to threaten marine life.

Marine Environment Supporters The Marine Supporters is a citizen volunteer corps that participates in and promotes marine protection campaigns carried out by the Korean Federation for Environmental Movement.

If you read about environmental protection, you would meet the word 'ecological footprint'.

  'Ecological footprint?
   Does it means how many footprints you remain in your ecology? What is the footprint?'

Easy to say, The ecological footprint is a term that converts the money we need to live to the amount of land we need. 
It is how much resources we need to accomplish what happens in the process of eating, sleeping, writing, moving, enjoying and playing.

If you hear someone says 'We need 4.5 planets to live like Americans',  it means ecological footprint.

There is only one earth on this cosmos, and you need more than three earth to enjoy life like this!!

The higher this number, the more likely it is that environmental destruction will become more serious.

The advanced countries' ecological footprint count is high. 

How much is my ecological footprint?

Do you wonder how much is the ecological footprint of you?

Then go to Global Footprint Network (https://www.footprintnetwork.org/ )and give it a try!

Use "Calculate your footprint" in the top right corner to calculate!

Have you checked once?

Someones think that it is lower than they thought, and someones think that it is higher than they expected.

(In my case, I was shocked when my footprint was '4.1' and now I am down to 1.7 because of my hard work.)

And you may have noticed that there are many things that we can do to make our ecological footprint less stressful than we think in the questions.

What can we do for a sustainable life on Earth?

3 Less

I suggest that you try to reduce the three things you can easily do.

• Less Meat: Reducing Meat once. Change your meal to vegan once a week.
• Less Car: One more ride on public transport
• Less Plastic: Reducing the use of plastics made by petroleum

It is easy. Practice will make us keep our life on earth.

More information about ecological footprint can be found at Global Footprint Network(https://www.footprintnetwork.org/).

Plastic, plastic ... Doesn't we talk about this issues too much?

NO, It is not enough.

it may be thought that it is discovered by chance and dramatized.

'We've all lived without problems. but why are you trying to stimulate sympathy?'

But it does not.

I see the documentary I am about to introduce now, I thought we were doing something terrible to Earth.

So I want to share this documentary to you.

With open heart, I want you to look at what is happening on this planet.

A Plastic Ocean

2012

Director : Creig Lesson

Many creatures are suffering now like the albatross at here and there

Everyone is connected to earth.

It's up to all of us.