● Eco-friendly food

-increasing interest about eco-friendly food

Foot-and-mouth disease, radioactive matter, poor hygiene, and various bacteria… the well-being phenomenon is sweeping over the world as more and more consumers don’t trust food any longer and start to find alternative healthy food. The number of people who avoid junk food and have doubts about drink and food is increasing.

In that sense, the production and consumption of eco friendly food are increasing. The rate of environmentally friendly agricultural products, which was 0.1 percent of all agricultural products in 1999, increased about 87 times to 12.2 percent in 2009. Also, the average per capita consumption has increased from 0.7kg in 2000 up to 48.5kg in 2009.

This figure represents that the well-being phenomenon is not a trend, but a way of life. Preference for well-being food, which is beneficial for just the human body in a limited way, evolves into a beneficial trend for the earth, i.e. the environment.

- Various kind of eco friendly food

Then, what kind of food makes the body stay healthy and is also harmless to the environment?

u  Eco-friendly agricultural product: Environmentally friendly agricultural products are raised in eco friendly ways without giving chemical fertilizer and additives, or at least using these chemicals to a minimum. The government gives certification marks for these eco-friendly agricultural products. This system helps to decrease the environmental pollution.

u  Eco-friendly fruits snack, ‘Apple Crunch and Pear Crunch’: Apple Crunch is made from domestic apples without any chemical additives and dried as it is. This process makes apple crunch’s unique sweet and sour flavor remain. Since this snack is much more nutritious than other common fried snacks, it is very popular for mothers who want their children to eat healthy refreshments.

u  Woorimill(domestic wheat) steamed buns: Woorimill steamed buns are made from 100% domestic wheat. They are also made from domestic eco-friendly materials such as domestic red beans and pumpkins, which are well-known as local products.

u  Eco-friendly baby food: Eco-friendly baby food is very safe food for the baby. It is made from materials which are grown without any agricultural pesticides and chemicals in a right way.

● Eco-friendly energy

- Clean energy

Modern humans use 36.0% oil, 27.4% coal, and 23.0% natural gas as main energy resources. In this figure, we have to pay attention to the fact that the consumption rate of fossil fuels is about 86.4% of all the energy resources. This fossil fuel increases green-house gases like carbon dioxide. It makes the global warming phenomenon worse. For this reason, fossil fuel is the least eco-friendly energy. Now, this energy is running out. Then, what will be the main energy resource which will substitute for fossil fuels and still be eco-friendly at the same time?

Green energy such as solar energy, geothermal power, wind power, tidal energy, synthetic fuels, hydrogen energy and biomass energy, which uses living things as an energy source, are typical clean energies.

- Jeju Global Renewable Energy Center (JGRC)

There is good news in Jeju, which was selected as one of the Seven Wonders in November 2011. The good news is the ‘Jeju Global Renewable Energy Center’. This center is for making the best use of clean energy and commercializing the technical development of clean energy. Due to endeavors of this center, Jeju will become self-reliant and Korea will be more powerful in green business. Researchers will develop the green energy and new technology by using a lot of energy, water, and wind in Jeju in creative ways: seawater desalination, redox flow battery, cooling and heating operation of a sea water source heat pump, offshore wind power, and fuel cell vehicles. In particular, a redox flow battery has 10 times the lifespan of an existing battery. Also, it can be used in many power plants and substations.

Another outstanding technology in JGRC is the district heat providing system using heat of seawater. A heating pump run by heat of seawater makes cool and hot water. The center has a 70kW heat pump system. It can save 42% of energy and decrease emission of carbon dioxide by 50%. In the future, this useful system can be applied to a big city nearby such as Busan. We hope for Jeju to become a more eco-friendly and beautiful city like its scenery.

-Sweden: The most eco-friendly country in the world.

Sweden had the highest rate of using renewable energy in the EU at 44% in 2006. Sweden’s government aims to provide a stable energy source, to use effective, sustainable energy and to remain competitive in business consumption. Actually, Sweden’s government will make specific figures to prepare for climate change and energy policy by 2020. In 2009, reduction of green house gas had been achieved to about 1/5 of the goal due to their effort. Now, Sweden has specific action plans such as green electricity certificates to expand the rate of using renewable energy, expanding generation of electricity from wind energy sources and development of bio gas.

The Swedish government’s active support to establish a sustainable energy system is the secret of the highest rate of using renewable energy. For example, early in the 1990s, it introduced a carbon dioxide tax, an authentication system of electricity, development of bio gas energy, trading in emission, etc. Also, according to climate investment programs, the government is providing subsidies when people change their heating systems into bio fuels or district heating. For a long time, Sweden governments’ various policies have made a clean Sweden with the nation’s active endeavors and actions.

● Eco-vehicles

The world is paying attention to eco-friendly trends today.  The car is one of the biggest obstacles in this stream. The average annual domestic production of cars exceeds about five million. The people want to be eco-friendly, but the car manufacturers don’t practice this. Thus, we can see that the world’s automakers focus on development and investment of eco-friendly cars in order to preoccupy the green car market, which will be big market. If you look at the motor show, this trend can be seen clearly. In the Detroit motor show, which is one of the four main motor shows in the world, eco-friendly cars have been opened to the public.

Then, what are the types of eco-friendly cars? Eco-friendly cars can be divided into three types: hybrid vehicles, electric cars and hydrogen cars. First of all, hybrid vehicles currently account for the largest share of the eco-friendly car market. For this reason, nowadays the word ‘hybrid’ has become a familiar word to the public. A hybrid vehicle is equipped with an engine that is used in an existing car to operate as raw material, and the battery is to operate with electricity. As such, it is able to improve fuel efficiency and reduce car exhaust fumes by up to 90% so that we can look forward to improving the environment of metropolitan areas. The ‘Prius’, from Toyota, is widely known as hybrid vehicle. It succeeded to make the world’s first high-volume production at the end of the 2000s, so it is forming a large market. Because of this advantage, many foreign public institutions are purchasing this car as public vehicles.

The second eco-friendly car is the electric car. The electric car was developed by Joseph Henry in 1830, before the internal-combustion engine vehicle. However, the electric car was not chosen by consumers because an engine vehicle is more convenient. With the coming environmental issues and exhaustion of fossil fuel to the forefront in the 1990s, the electric car was able to upgrade as a result of investment in a storage battery technique by advanced countries. Its advantage is never to emit the exhaust that is main reason for environmental problems. Also, it’s very silent. Although it has very good advantages, it hasn’t become popular yet because of the heavy weight of the battery and the long time to charge it. However, recently the world’s automakers have introduced electric cars for making up for the weak points in motor shows. Therefore, we would see many electric cars on the street soon.

The hydrogen Fueled Car (Hydrogen car) is also one of the eco-friendly cars, but it is not yet popular, as with the electric car, because of technical problems. It has many advantages. First, it doesn’t emit exhaust owing to getting energy through hydrogen, but a little nitrogen oxide is emitted. Also, hydrogen is infinite fuel for using water on the earth and is able to be reused after using it. For this reason, the need for hydrogen cars is surfacing and many countries have put efforts into their development. The most important issue in commercialization of hydrogen cars is the storage of hydrogen. If you use liquid hydrogen, it is difficult to liquefy the hydrogen, and it can disappear during storage. Hydrogen storage alloy is very heavy, so you need an amount of energy for moving it. However, we can see hydrogen cars on the road sooner or later. As many countries and automakers are putting an effort into their study and development.

● Eco-warriors

 They were originally established to oppose the French nuclear tests and to protect whales. Also, it is an organization made through the Rainbow Warrior incident in July 1985. That is Greenpeace. Maybe if you are asked who represents an eco-warrior in the world, you will say ‘Greenpeace’. First, they boycotted Norway products that violated a whaling ban treaty with thousands of people, promoted cars that don’t emit exhaust to the world, and contributed to passing the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) in the United Nations General Assembly. The group is operated by donation of members. Its headquarters is in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Although it doesn’t have a branch in Korea, you can see its activity through the internet.

While Greenpeace is a world famous eco-warrior, Green Korea United is famous in Korea. It has worked to protect the environment since 1991. After changing into its current name in 1996, it put forth an effort to make Korea a green country. It is especially leading to resolve the environmental problem for Koreans. First, it introduced the importance of nature, history and culture in Baekdudaegan (Baekdu Great Mountain Chain) and restored the damaged Baekdudaegan. It also is endeavoring to supply and develop renewable energy, to protect violation of human rights from environmental problems and to spread environmental education.  

● Eco-CBNU

CBNU makes an effort to protect the environment in an eco-friendly stream. The university itself is carrying forward diverse projects such as creating a campus without cars, building a campus for reducing energy, demolishing fences, and so on. Besides, the school runs a company, Eco-Housing, which produces from small furniture to solid wood housing through eco-friendly dwelling materials. CBNU operates a New & Renewable Energy Development Center and Education Center for Renewable Energy Industry. Also, CBNU runs a special graduate school to cultivate manpower to reduce greenhouse gases. It enforced the “bike mileage movement” for an eco-campus in 2011.

Nature is to humans what the tree in The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein is to the boy. In the book, a boy in his early childhood was given apples and was provided with the bottom of a tree at long last. Nature also has given everything to the humans. However, humans don’t know gratitude for nature, so they shave mountains, and destroy mud flats just for increasing their land. Nature is different from the tree in the fairy tale. Also, the boy just had a rest at the tree’s bottom, but humans are in a different situation. Of course, we in the modern times don’t live without vehicles and energy, but we don’t just get fruit and fish from nature like long ago. Thus, we should look into Eco-friendly food, energy, cars and Eco-warriors from now on. We find eco-friendly things show that nature can be getting better gradually. Therefore, the only thing left to do is to fulfill Eco-friendly activities as mentioned above. Of course, we know that they need a lot of time and costs. However, if we think of nature again and run sustainable development, we will show descendants that the freely giving tree is real.