By The EcoWorldly webpage has a posting up with 17 reasons you may be a Korean environmentalist. Here are the Top Ten reasons:
1. You care about wellbeing, but you still smoke.
2. When you eat cow you call it cow.
3. You ride the bus and the train, but you still love Hyundai.
4. You may be a vegetarian, but you eat pig (not pork… see above).
5. You’ve visited a Korean environmental web page other than this one.
6. You recycle and compost, but you’re not sure why.
7. You can locate an organic grocery store in your city.
8. You know at least one person with a solar water heater.
9. You conserve water at home, but love the community spa.
10. You use almost all compact fluorescent light bulbs.
You can read the rest of the list with details via Asian Offbeat as well. Some of the items on the list are strange because I have never had a Korean tell me, "Do you want to eat cow or pig?" Koreans that speak English will say beef or pork but more often then not will use the Korean name for the food such as Bulgogi.
As far as composting here is my favorite Korean composting story. I’m sitting in my Bradley out in the field "defending" a road from an imaginary enemy and we were parked adjacent to a rice paddy that was behind a small restaurant. While parked there my crew and I saw an older woman from the restaurant walk into the rice paddy and take a crap right in front of us and then walk back into the restaurant. She came out later and then tried to exchange MREs from us for ramen and ice cream cones. I don’t know if she was an environmentalist, but it sure was funny.
Here are some other things EcoWorldly can add to there list:
- You believe you need to wear a decontamination suit to visit a local USFK installation
- You believe that formaldehyde diluted with water and processed through two water treatment plants can cause cancer.
- You believe this same formaldehyde is responsible for creating a monster in the Han River.
- When Korean corporations pollute and dump toxic chemicals into the Han River you could care less.
- You are linked to a North Korean spy scandal.
Anyone else have some ideas to add so we can make the EcoWorldly list more accurate?
2:02 am on February 29th, 2008 1
This comment is not specifically on topic so don't read on if you are looking for on topic responses.
The formaldehyde thing got me to thinking back to earlier times I had in Korea. All the soju and beer manufacturers in Korea used to put a touch of formaldehyde at the very tops of the soju and beer bottle as the formaldehyde would float on top of these beverages and apparently was added for preservation purposes. That's why you still see some older Korean men who instinctively spill off just a little bit of the top of their soju/beer before they pour it into their glasses.
Just a bit of unrelated nonsense for you to read here. Thanks for reading.
Tim in Angeles sendzzzzzzzzzzzz
6:25 am on February 29th, 2008 2
My goodness GI
Put away the Hateraid
12:54 pm on February 29th, 2008 3
Formaldehyde and Beer
http://www.beer-faq.com/beer-basics/formaldehyde-…
I don't know about Green Koreans but I had two stinking hippie English "teachers" argue with me that a shower every day is a waste of water (not to mention how daily washing was bad for your skin and overall health).
I could smell the guy and the girl, from Seattle, was certainly ratty… and proud of it! Unbelievable.
While I am not unversed in the art of debate, you just can't argue with stupid. I'd personally strip mine the whole planet before walked around with oily hair and flakes on the shoulders of my stinky shirts.
The best I could do was try to explain to them how many liters of water is wasted to produce a single cup of coffee… but, no… talk of limiting coffee made them defensive and angry… showers were still optional.
How about these entries…
You might be a Korean environmentalist when…
…you will buy a product made of powdered uranium, filled with dioxin and produced in a big, smoky factory next to a preschool as long as it says, "For Most Green and Joyful Living of the Wellbeing Mind" on one of its 6 layers of indestructible plastic packaging.
…you only eat Korean rice because "Korean rice is better for Korean person" even though it is produced by an old, eczemic farmer using a smoke-belching 2 stroke engine, downhill from a lead recycling yard, downstream from a mercury processing plant and downwind from a pig farm.
…you hate Japan because they transformed Korea from a natural paradise where man lived close to nature into a concrete-covered megalopolis dotted with factories, swarming with luxury cars and webbed with power lines.
…you recognize that fermentation releases incredible quantities of the global-warming greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide… so you refuse to eat kimchee or drink soju… even Green soju.
…because of pollution, it angers you that Korea is the world's 5th largest producer of car, 3rd largest producer of steel and largest producer of ships in the world… not to mention semiconductors and machinery… and you feel Korea peaked around 1953 when so many of the cities had been returned to a natural state.
…"close to nature" means "climbing" a "mountain" with 700 other people in matching red vest so you can yell "Yaaaahoooo" from the top… scaring the bejesus out of any remaining wildlife not yet displaced by 47,000,000 people covering everything they see in concrete while the government chants, "Have more kids, have more kids".
…"close to nature" also means standing shoulder to shoulder at the beach with a few tens of thousands of other nature-lovers and proudly eating any critter that wasn't able to get away… while smiling and saying, "Ahhh, beddy presh!"
…you feel only shame in all the potential marine habitat that Dok-do displaces.
…you shut the fan off every night… to conserve energy… not, of course, because you are deathly afraid of it.
6:49 pm on February 29th, 2008 4
I realise that all of them are not to be taken seriously, but what the hell.
Number 7 sounds a bit dated, considering how every supermarket in Korea has a huge organic section these days. And a true environmentalist would know that Korea's minimal labelling laws mean that 88% of "organic" food is anything but (see the link below). Number 10 also out of date, partially, because while promoters of new-fangled light bulbs like to point out that 90+% or so of the electricity used in old-style bulbs is wasted as heat, that heat in turn means less energy spent on central heating. The new bulbs still work out better for the environment in the end, but not to the extent often claimed.
If had to think of a "you do good X, but Y bad thing" example, it would be "You religously recycle all your cardboard and paper, but won't think twice about receiving your fries from Burger King in a small bag in a medium bag in a big bag, and will regularly spend 3000 won in Morning Glory on a paper bags, just because they have Mashimaro cartoons on the side of them."
Sorry, I would think of a wittier example, but I think I'm doing pretty good for my 5th whiskey and coke, yes?
Forgot to thank you for all your links to my blog sorry. Better late than never!
http://koreabeat.com/?p=540
2:39 am on March 1st, 2008 5
RE: formadehyde in Korean beer
I'm not a beer drinker, but I understand that American beer manufacturers have resisted putting ingredient information on the labels. Some of ingredients used in American beers include propylene glycol, alginate, barley malt and corn syrup as sweeteners, amyloglucosidase, and potassium metabisulfite. Mmmmm! Soft drinks should be avoided as poison, for among other harmful ingredients, most are preserved with sodium benzoate, which can damage DNA and is linked to cancer.
3:49 am on March 1st, 2008 6
Hmmm, maybe that was one too many drinks last night. I meant better I thank you later rather than never, sorry!
10:56 am on March 1st, 2008 7
Sonagi, the big US brewers make crap that is so truly unlike real beer, it should be called something else. They don't dare put the ingredients on their labels.
Real beer contains water, malted barley (and potentially wheat), hops and yeast. Depending on the particular style, various natural adjuncts may be added. For example, Hoegaarden, which is found in many Korean Maekju Jips, also contains trace amount of orange peel and coriander seed.
Barley malt is not used as a sweetener, but rather food for the little yeasties with which they create alchohol and carbon dioxide. Amyloglucosidase is an enzyme that is not used in real beers, but has a potential value in low-dextrine (adjunct (corn, rice, others) heavy) pseudo-beers. Potassium metabisulfite is a stabilizing agent that is heavily used in winemaking and has applications in brewing which can be a hazardous substance if large quantities were ingested. No real beer contains corn syrup. Plenty is added to that undrinkable crap known as Budweiser in the form of malted corn. Korean beers are seriously cut with rice and have very little hop presence.
Just to be sure the point is made and since I'm firmly off-topic already: Bud, Miller, Coors, OB, Hite, Cass, et. al., are not real beers in the traditional and true sense of the words. None would qualify under the German Beer Purity Law.
Thanks for the leeway, GI.
4:47 pm on March 1st, 2008 8
Oh, and I forgot to mention that if you don't care to ingest formaldehyde in any form, you might want to avoid consuming anything with aspartame, which breaks down into formaldehyde in the body.
12:57 am on March 3rd, 2008 9
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6:54 am on October 13th, 2010 10
solar water heaters are great for reducing electricity bills and you also help the environment'.-
8:14 am on October 13th, 2010 11
I've been using compact fluorescent lamps (CFL) for many years. They use less power than incandescent lamps and they last longer. Light-emitting diode (LED) lamps are now available but pretty expensive. They use even less power than CFLs, and they're supposed to last longer. I have one LED in my house, because I just wanted to try it. Meanwhile, I'm very happy with my LED flashlights. Incandescent lamps are obsolete.
9:32 am on October 13th, 2010 12
11 Glans, what a good little "greeny" you are. Congrats!
"incandescent lamps are obsolete" So is the M1 Garand. But it still does the job.
I'm sure you know this glans: Which bulb is worse for the environment, when disposed of after use? I don't know and don't care enough to look it up.
9:36 am on October 13th, 2010 13
#7, That explains why I drank beer when in Germany and can no longer drink American beer.
What about Whiskey? Love my Jim Beam & coke.
11:22 am on October 13th, 2010 14
Yeah most American big manufacturer beer is complete crap. When in the USA I hated beer, over here I got the chance to drink the German / European imported stuff and was amazed. That sh1t tastes good, I mean it actually has a texture and flavor that doesn't consist of sour piss. About the only US brand beer I could ever stomach was MGD, and that by the tiniest of margins.
CFL's while using less power also happen to contain small amounts of mercury. Tossing them in the trash is a very very bad idea as the mercury will leak into the ground once it gets to the land fill. The incandescent bulb on the other hand is just glass, metal, cotton and some phosphorous. LED bulbs are probably the absolute best but their way expensive currently.
5:26 pm on October 13th, 2010 15
Retired GI 12, I don't know which bulb is worse for the environment, but I'd have to suspect the incandescent, because you need to dispose of so many of them. After I switched to CFL, my electric bill went down, and, even better, I don't need to change them as often. I used to keep a supply of incandescent bulbs, but I don't bother stockpiling CFL. Their lifetime is so long that when I finally need a new one, new improved versions are available. When the price of LED comes down, I'll buy more of them, my electric bill will go down again, and I'll very rarely have to replace them.
5:32 pm on October 13th, 2010 16
someotherguy 14, the mercury doesn't just happen to be there, it's an essential part of the design. Do not eat used fluorescent lamps! Send them to Retired GI.
5:33 pm on October 13th, 2010 17
Yes but regardless of the amount of disposals the effect on the environment is null. It's glass + aluminum + cotton + phosphorous. All those are natural elements that have no negative impact on the environment. You could dig a hole in your back yard and dump a hundred crushed / compacted bulbs in there and it'll never cause a problem. Try that with CFL's and you'll have an environmental disaster on your hand. The energy usage is the interesting part of the debate, 52% of our power is from coal fired plants, most of the rest from petroleum / natural gas.
8:56 pm on October 13th, 2010 18
someotherguy 17, mercury is a natural constituent of the earth. There are traces of it in coal. It was formerly used in thermometers, tooth fillings and antiseptics. It is still used in sphygmomanometers. If you have any mercury you don't want, just send it to Retired GI.
10:00 pm on October 13th, 2010 19
I love you "greeny types" Glans. You're so easy to pick on. Point out some negative to what greenies are doing and they keep repeating your name.
Kinda like a well worked woman. 
Just to point out the obvious (to all but you), I don't use the Mercury bombs. You use them.
I've heard of Mercury poisoning. Haven't heard of Phosphorous Poisoning.
But by all means, keep yaping about sending me something I don't use. Really makes a good impression on those thinking about the "green movement" I'm sure.
Poison that well. Doing my job for me! 
7:36 pm on October 24th, 2010 20
solar water heaters are also energy savers, they help me save electricity bills from each month','