The IPAT equation first introduced by Ehrlich and Holdren in the 1970s and conveyed that human impact (I) on the environment increases with population (P) and affluence (A) while corresponding with the development of technology (T). Human intervention in the ecosystem, no matter now trivial or insignificant it may seem, can be disastrous; humans? negligence and blindness towards the fragility of the ecosystem has ruined various parts of our ecosystem in many dimensions. China, Korea, and Japan—three nations in Southeast Asia—also had to pay the price to their inconsiderate urban development. By understanding some of examples of Southeast Asia, the rest of the world should take the lesson and prevent further ?mistakes? from repeating.

In the late 1950s, Mao Zedong initiated the Great Leap Forward (1958-1966), hoping transform China into an egalitarian society through all economic development in agriculture and heavy industry. The four goals of the movement was to stimulate ?all-around? development through 5 year plans, mass mobilization, political unanimity and zeal, and decentralization of power to provide more government control at the local level. To carry out his goals of increased agricultural productivity, he ordered sparrows to be eliminated since they feed on grains that were harvested for production. Also called the ?Four Pests Campaign?, his massive elimination of sparrows resulted in sharp decrease in the number of them, pressuring it to near extinction. Unfortunately, the Chinese government at the time misunderstood the ecosystem?s mechanism and instead ended up with dire results in the agricultural sector; killing all sparrows did no good, but added another animal to the endangered list.

For Japan, its animals and plants are still suffering from the consequences of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident in 2011. Scientists revealed that plants and animals in vicinity were exposed to radioactive doses up to 100 times greater; fish and algae are exposed to 1000 times greater doses. These dose rates were more than sufficient to reduce the reproductive success of species such as birds, rodents, and plants, especially pine and spruce. Though the long-term effects on the ecosystem remains controversial and should be further researched, we cannot deny that human intervention and technology has tortured the living organisms to a certain extent.

           Korea is absolutely not an exception. In April and May of 2015, dead porpoises were consecutively found in the Han River, a place where they do not belong in. There were three suspected reasons: either they were troubled due to consuming polluted fish, or failed to adjust to the river ecosystem after failing to return to the sea, or swam up to the Han River in avoidance of the severe pollution of the East coast. Whether which factor contributed the most, this clearly indicates that the pollution in Korean waters has reached a point that exceeds living organisms? tolerance levels.

           Though nature has the capacity to take in some pollution to its ecosystems, crossing the line can result in dire consequences that may be irreversible. Man activity is the number one cause to species becoming more and more endangered each day; even at this moment, tigers, frogs, and bears of the world somewhere are suffering, suffocating, and shivering as a result of ignorant human activities that don?t take the environment and its resilience into consideration. This negligence must stop, not tomorrow, not later, but now.