Seoul, Inchon, and the metropolitan area suffered massive flooding due to torrential rain that hit the central region for several days from the 8th. Thousands of vehicles were flooded and the city stopped functioning to the extent that roads and subways were paralyzed. It recorded the highest hourly precipitation ever recorded, resulting in loss of life and property.
This spring, a large-scale wildfire on the east coast surprised many. The fire did not go out for a whopping 213 hours, causing serious damage to forests and private homes. It was also the largest ever recorded and the longest wildfire on record.
Not just this year. In 2020, two years ago, the rainy season lasted 54 days. At that time, it rained every day for over a month: 'This rain is not a rainy season, it is a 'climate crisis' became popular on social media.
In 2018, an unprecedented heat wave swept the Korean Peninsula. The highest temperature in Gangwon-do soared to 41℃, and Seoul also recorded 39.6℃ for the first time in 111 years of meteorological observations. The number of heatwave days was 31.2 days.
This extreme weather in recent years is no longer unusual. Regardless of the adjectives we use, new climate change threatens our daily life every year. The problem is that the impact of this climate crisis hits the poorer and weaker people first.
As you are well aware, the torrential downpours in the central region this year killed three family members living in a semi-basement of a multi-family house. It hurts the writer to say that one of them was suffering from a developmental disability. In the wealthy areas, expensive imported cars are flooded and new cars are bought with the insurance money. However, more than 320,000 people in semi-underground houses across the country felt their lives threatened by heavy rain.
Our society is experiencing the same climate crisis, but the damage is not the same for all. The term "climate inequality" has now emerged where the weakest and the poorest are at greater risk. The climate crisis has become a daily routine! Extreme weather events occur so frequently that people living in jjokbang villages (rooms smaller than 2 square meters, don't require a deposit, residents share communal toilet and kitchen) are endangered by the heat wave, and those living in the semi-underground rooms by torrential rain. Obviously, we can't close our eyes to people's problems. We need to stop the climate crisis before it's too late, and we need to advance carbon neutrality more boldly.
We all need to reduce the frequency of meat we eat, the number of times the car is used, the number of disposable products used, and be concerned for our neighbors.
We pray that God will comfort those who lost their lives and suffered property damage in the torrential downpour. In addition, he hopes that ecological conversion will be accelerated to overcome climate inequality.
