Air pollution is one of the most prominent environmental issues today, with much discussion on its causes, consequences, and solutions. For South Korea in particular, the country’s rapid economic development over the last several decades has made the country the seventh-largest CO2 emitter from fuel consumption as of 2015, according to the International Energy Agency.

However, the increase in consumption of fossil fuels such as petroleum and natural gas hasn’t been limited to carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. The industrial activities in factories and the rapid increase of cars in the country have worsened the country’s air quality (measured by indicators such as PM10 and PM2.5) to the point where the country scored 173rd out of 180 countries for air quality in the Environmental Performance Index in 2016.

Because, since 2013, fine dust has been determined by cancer as a contributor to cancer, South Korean citizens fear that bad air quality may lead to illnesses like lung cancer in the long term. In addition, fine dust (defined as dust particles less than 10 micrometers in width, thus PM10) is known to increase the chances of skin rashes, cerebrovascular diseases, depression, dementia, and more. The smaller the particles are, the more dangerous they are in infiltrating parts of the body (Korea Herald).

Additionally, some citizens also feel that much of the fine dust comes from the neighboring country China, but scientists say that, although the so-called yellow dust is influenced by winds from China, the main cause is the industrial activity in South Korea, given its own economic development. 

So what are the solutions to this issue? One policy that has been implemented in Korea (during times of poor air quality) is the license plate regulation. This regulation consists of having cars with license plates with odd or even last digits driving on even or odd numbered days, respectively. So far, it has been implemented on the cars of government officials during times of poor air quality, but the Ministry of the Environment plans to consider expanding this solution to a larger group of car owners. However, issues about the difficulty of catching cars not following the regulation need to be resolved in order for the solution to be better followed through by the citizens. 

Other solutions such as carbon taxes or carbon cap and trade schemes, which are aimed towards reducing the consumption of fossil fuels and thus the micro dust levels, could also be implemented to address air pollution in a national scale. Yet realistic, local solutions that we as youth can participate in could be to raise awareness about the magnitude of air pollution in South Korea. We can consider setting up air quality indicators and sharing daily air quality levels to people around us, which will add up as more people make choices (i.e. public transportation, reusable products) in their everyday lives to then use less fuel and help improve the air quality.