(photo = Yonhap News)

The 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics had meant a lot for everyone around the world. Some may have won a medal while others may have found a new dream and etc. The picture above may look like an ordinary ski slope. This was the very place where alpine ski in the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics took place. Even the International Olympics Committee and the International Ski Federation complimented this ski slope that it is the best place to hold the Olympics. However there is an important truth behind the slope.

(photo = seachimention)

To create the slope, Korea cut down hundreds of trees of the mountain that is preserved in the National Protection Area. Mt. Galiwang is the 9^th highest mountain in Korea. It is in the middle of the mountains that stretch down from South Korea's northern side to southern side. Mt. Galiwang has been considered a sacred place for about 500 years when we foraged to the mountains to find authentic wild ginseng during Chosun dynasty. The Mt. is the very mountain that had stayed as it is for hundreds of years and where rare plants are still being found. This is our natural reserve area and even pedestrians are not allowed to enter.  However, for the Winter Olympics, Korean government went against the law that they themselves had established and turned this historic place into a ski slope. A lot of environmentalists and local residents disagreed and protested against it but no success.

The government said that they would turn the mountain into the original after the Olympics concluded. But they still haven't started their work yet. They are claiming that if we let the mountain as it is, it would grow again. Even if they would try to restore our forest, how could that become the same mountain as it was before? It has been taking care of itself for more than 500 years and this abrupt change would already have caused too much trouble.

The environmentalists recently found a very interesting piece of information from the International Ski Federation. According to their regulation, we didn't have to build up 800 meter of vertical difference. Ski players are allowed to take the game twice at 350~450 meter vertical difference and they can combine the records. That means, we didn't need to lumber the mountain in the first place.

The ski slump is also receiving critics that it does not have any future usage, even though the Korean government poured the biggest amount of money into building among all the 12 Olympic stadiums. "Korea Research Institute of Industry and Strategy" says that we couldn't avoid 3,600,000,000 won of deficit every year.

Nature is always linked as a cycle of life. This cycle will make our wrong decision come back to us someday eventually and make us deal with the consequences of what we have done wrong. It is time to make a change and start taking care of our sacred mountain.  I hope we all stand up not to harm our environment even with a next international festival.