Assignment task: Discuss any similarities in the regional evidence from this writing and in Wisconsin's climate. Note any additional global implications you could add to their evidence.
Air Pollution in South Korea (specifically Seoul and surrounding areas) is ranked in the top 10 worst areas in the world. There is much debate that a vast portion of it comes from nearby China in the form of Particulate Matter (PM). Regardless of this, South Korea is in the top ten emitters in the world of CO2 greenhouse gases (GHG) due to large percentages of industry and the country being powered by fossil fuels in a dense area. These greenhouse gases are a huge contributor in the depletion of our ozone layer and climate change globally. These high air pollution levels are causing widespread illness in the local populace in the form of diseases and conditions like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lung cancer, strokes and respiratory infections. The health hazard conditions have been made globally and fear is that is will even begin affecting tourism and travel in and out of the region.
Though air pollution from one country does not seem like a small change to the global system, the fact that South Korea ranks in the top ten air pollution countries, contributors of GHG, and sheer size of the country itself in comparison to neighboring countries, it has an enormous impact on the global climate system. I think that, to a degree, yes a small climate system can overtime have a global impact.
Works Cited:
Phillips, D.; Jung, T.Y. An Alternative Co-Benefit Framework Prioritizing Health Impacts: Potential Air Pollution and Climate Change Mitigation Pathways through Energy Sector Fuel Substitution in South Korea. Climate 2021, 9, 101.