President Moon Jae-in's decision to shut down aged coal-fired power plants is a very encouraging first step toward switching one of the world's largest nuclear-powered countries into a renewable energy leader, the head of the Global Green Growth Institute, a Seoul-based global organization on environmental-friendly development, said. GGGI Director-General Frank Rijsberman said during an interview on Friday in Jeju Island that Korea is quite behind China and Japan in terms of clean energy use, ur

The South Korean government said Monday six dammed reservoirs set aside for irrigation will remain open from Thursday as part of an effort to prevent water quality from deteriorating further.Six out of 16 dammed pools on the "four rivers" built for irrigation will be opened from 2 p.m. in a move to help resolve their serious green algae problems. But they will maintain set water levels in order to provide agricultural water for nearby farmers during the rice planting season which has just begun,

Environment-friendly energy policies pledged by the Moon Jae-in administration are raising concerns among local builders, which fear power plant construction projects may take a hit, industry officials said Thursday.The chief executive said during his campaign that he will stop all new construction of coal-fired power plants and review from scratch those that are less than 10 percent complete. He also promised to cease and cancel nuclear power plant construction and shut down older reactors, whi

The government will send an emergency message to people in Seoul and its satellite cities via mobile phone if severe fine dust is forecast in the region, the public security ministry said Sunday. "Once the message, called cell broadcast service, is issued, public agencies are obliged to follow the government's emergency steps to reduce fine dust in the air, including the introduction of the two-day rotation system for cars and shorter working hours at job and construction sites," the ministry sa

Students in Seoul will be prohibited from participating in outdoor activities when fine dust levels are high, the city’s education authority said Monday, as it steps up measures to prevent health damage caused by air pollution. The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education notified primary to high schools in Seoul to refrain from outdoor activities when fine dust concentration levels exceed 50 micrograms per cubic meter and 25 micrograms per cubic meter for ultrafine dust.(Yonhap)Under the new guid

The Environment Ministry said Wednesday that it will expand a project to prevent wild boars inhabiting Mount Bukhan in Seoul and neighboring Gyeonggi Province from entering downtown areas, as the animals have increasingly posed challenges to residents there.The project, which started last year in cooperation with the regional governments of Seoul and Gyeonggi and the Korea National Park Service, calls for capturing wild boars and setting traps or other facilities on their major trails to make it

Exposure to air pollution increases risk of aggravating Parkinson's disease and may cause neurological disease progression, a study showed Friday. According to the study by Kim Ho at Seoul National University, patients with the neurodegenerative disease are more likely to visit emergency rooms during days with high levels of air-pollutant particles.(Yonhap)Data for the study were drawn from 1 million cohort samples of South Koreans provided by the National Health Insurance Service between 2002 a

South Korea has begun an environmental impact assessment of a local golf course ahead of the deployment of an advanced US missile defense system there, the military said Thursday, speeding up the deployment amid growing threats from North Korea.  The defense ministry picked a firm in December to conduct the assessment of the site in Seongju in the southeast, which will host the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system. Late last month, the company began looking into the location to see if THAA

The government will strengthen nationwide monitoring of hepatitis C as part of efforts to prevent a mass outbreak from recurring, officials said Monday.Hundreds of South Koreans were infected with the virus between 2015 and last year, which causes both acute and chronic infection.There is currently no vaccine, though about 15 to 45 percent of infected persons are known to spontaneously recover and clear out the virus within six months of infection without treatment.The Ministry of Welfare and He

More than half of captive marine mammals raised since 1990 in Korean aquariums are killed, data showed Tuesday, prompting concerns about the sub-par conditions in their breeding facilities.Out of 98 lives sent to Korean aquariums since 1990, 52 died of diseases while caged, according to environmentalists.“The remaining 41 marine mammals should be released to their homes,” said a member of the Korean Federation for Environmental Movement in a press conference in Seoul, Tuesday. (Herald DB)The cas

An endangered species of bats has been found in caves in Gangwon Province, a study showed Tuesday. The recent study by Inje County in Gangwon Province indicated that three species of bats -- the brown long-eared bat, eastern long-fingered bat and greater horseshoe bat -- had been found in caves across the province. The brown long-eared bat is listed as an endangered species level II, whereas the other two are believed to be the most common bat species in the nation.  A brown long-eared bat (Gaya

South Korean health authorities said Tuesday that there is very low risk that the avian influenza virus strain in the country will infect humans.The H5N6 strain of AI is not very contagious when it comes to people, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. South Korea has yet to report any human infection of the flu.The announcement comes as the country has struggled to contain the animal disease for nearly three months.(Yonhap)The KCDC said it intentionally infected a weasel wi

South Korea is confirmed to have more than 47,000 indigenous species of animals and plants for the first time in 20 years, with more than 100,000 native species presumed to exist on the entire Korean Peninsula, a state-run think tank said Thursday.The National Institute of Biological Resources, affiliated with the Environment Ministry, put the number of the country's indigenous biological species at 47,003 as of December last year, which it has listed as part of a project to establish a comprehe

Amid growing public anxiety over the Korean Peninsula’s gray skies and health risks linked to air pollution, more than half of South Koreans find themselves unsatisfied with the government’s countermeasures against fine dust, a survey showed Wednesday.According to the poll conducted by the state-run Korea Environment Institute, 53.1 percent of Koreans said the government’s fine dust countermeasures are unsatisfactory, while another 55.2 percent said they worry about the current fine dust level h

Seven out of 10 aquatic mammals accidentally caught in nets or poached in South Korea are finless porpoises, designated as a maritime mammal to be conserved by the government last year, with the number of such victims reaching some 1,300 on average annually, the coast guard here said Thursday.According to the Ulsan Maritime Security Police, a total of 9,710 whales were trapped in nets or illegally captured inside the South Korean waters between 2011-15.  (Yonhap)Of the total, porpoises took for