This article analyzes why people don’t recognize fine dust, the dangers and causes of fine dust, and the role of Korea’s responsibility and media in the fine dust problem.
I’d like to ask you if you’ve ever felt like you’re breathing fine dust, and I bet you haven’t. It doesn’t taste or smell like anything. Even if you did, you wouldn’t recognize it. If so, take a look around the street. You can easily see people wearing masks. Do they wear masks because they can taste it? If not, how do they know it’s there?
It’s not that long ago that people started to recognize particulate matter. In recent years, people have become more and more aware of fine dust, and this is not just because of environmental pollution, but also because people have become more informed. In fact, with the advancement of science and technology, we have access to a wide range of information about the environment in real time. With smartphones and the internet, we can easily access information about the weather, air quality, particulate matter concentrations, and other information we need in our daily lives. This increased access to information has made people more aware of environmental issues and prepared to respond to them.
If I were to ask a person wearing a mask on the street why fine particulate matter is dangerous, he would likely quickly look it up on his smartphone and say something like this “It’s too small to be filtered by the respiratory system, so it accumulates in the lungs and is deadly to humans.” Then I would ask: ”Do you know what caused the particulate matter? “Do you know what caused the particulate matter?” He’ll spend a little more time searching, and then he’ll say something like this “Because the deforestation caused by China’s rapid industrialization has eliminated the vegetation to fix the soil.” If I finally ask him how he knows how much fine particulate matter is in the air, he might respond with a blank look and say, “Don’t you watch the news?” At first glance, this is an innocuous answer, but it’s important to realize that not seeing the problem can be a problem.
Let’s look at China for a moment. China has grown at a rate unprecedented in human history, industrializing a huge population of 1.3 billion people in less than 30 years. This has required the use of exponential amounts of fuel, which has taken a heavy environmental toll on the country. However, due to over-industrialization, this damage is not only in China, but also in Korea. The damage is fine dust, so it can be said that the fine dust damage in Korea is due to China’s industrialization.
However, it would be narrow-minded to blame the problem of fine dust only on China’s industrialization. Korea has also experienced rapid industrialization and urbanization, which has contributed to air pollution. Automobile exhaust, factory fumes, and dust from construction sites are all contributing to the deterioration of the environment around us. Blaming external factors while ignoring our own internal problems will not help solve the problem. Furthermore, by blaming China for the fine dust problem, we may neglect our own environmental protection efforts. So, to solve the problem of fine dust, we need to work together with China, but we also need to work on our own.
As I said earlier, I can’t help but wonder if Korea is to blame for the fine dust problem? Is China’s industrialization, which is reported daily in the news and emphasized by the media, the only cause of fine dust? We know that Korea is also an economic powerhouse and there are many industrial processes taking place. So why does the media tend to blame China, not Korea, as the main culprit of fine dust, and why are there so many advertisements and promotional articles in the media about fine dust? Perhaps this is because the media reduces citizens facing the threat of fine dust to mere “consumers” rather than risk tacklers working to reduce the underlying causes.
Actual particulate matter concentrations have been on a downward trend since 2007, and in 2013 they remained similar to previous years, with no significant increase in particulate matter concentrations. However, in 2013, the amount of coverage of fine dust began to increase significantly, which may have led to an increase in people wearing masks. Knowing these facts and looking at the phenomenon of wearing masks, I have a strong feeling that masks are not blocking fine dust, but blocking the mouth. It covers the mouth that can face the truth and make the right sound about it. We may be wearing these masks not only for the problem of fine dust, but also for various problems in various aspects of society.
It’s not that I think wearing a mask is a problem in itself. It’s just that we’re afraid that once we put them on, we won’t be able to take them off, and we’re afraid that we won’t be able to see the truth about other issues. In our daily lives, we tend to turn away from or ignore the truth for a variety of reasons. This comes from the psychology of choosing a comfortable lie over facing an uncomfortable truth. However, this attitude can eventually lead to bigger problems. If you’re not careful, you may never be able to take off the mask you’re wearing.
