While the humankind has been immersed in economic growth and development, the temperature of the planet earth has gradually risen. The nature has sounded alarms about the future by means of unbearable heat waves, intolerable torrential rains, and inextinguishable bushfires but the humankind ignored them and faced the worst climate crisis and COVID-19 pandemic. The international community set the common goal of suppress the rise of the earth’s average temperature below 1.5℃, and countries are implementing laws and policies to accomplish carbon neutrality. While the climate crisis is a matter of survival and a word that is spoken daily, what can we do in preparation of the future? We met two SNU people who have observed the earth’s changes for about 20 years, Professor Jeong Sujong of the Integrated Climate Science Lab and Producer Kim Jin Man. 

Unpredictability of Climate Change has Caused Bigger Damages

Jeong: The most serious problem of climate change is that unpredictable events are occurring too often. The climate models* that were developed in early 2000s have predicted none of the problems we see today. For example, the bushfire that happened in Australia in September 2019 continued to the next year and it burned about 14% of the whole forest in Australia until February 2020, but nobody was able to predict that. Besides, big bushfires are occurring one after another in Greece, Turkey, Algeria, United States and other parts of the world. In fact, bushfires were always there, but it was not so difficult to extinguish them. On the contrary, the bushfires we see these days are so violent and continue for a long time, and we humans cannot control them. These are all the consequences of dry air caused by climate change.

* Climate modeling: One of the methods for predicting climate. Climate modeling is performed by entering to a computer system the time-dependent change of climate as physical laws to predict climate.

Kim: As you mentioned, bushfires were always there. In view of the nature, bushfires are necessary for the trees of the mountains grow healthier in an ecological sense. However, bushfires used to continue at most one month, but they continue too long and they are huge. When the Australian bushfire occurred, I was traveling to Uluru, the rocky mountain in the northern Australia. My plan was to start from Brisbane and pass through Sydney and Melbourne. I visited the Greater Blue Mountains Area, which is one of the UNESCO World Heritages. The name Blue Mountains came from the blue color of the Eucalyptus leaves throughout the whole mountains. I stayed there for a long time, but I have never seen a blue mountain. The bushfire made it difficult even to open my eyes. After the fire was extinguished, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) reported that almost 3 billion wild animals in Australia, including about 143 million mammals, were killed or injured by the impacts of the bushfire.

Jeong: Right. Things that we have not predicted may happen continuously. The loss of permafrost in the Arctic and Antarctic regions is also one of the severe examples of climate crisis. The permafrost refers to the land that is frozen for two consecutive years. It is normally frozen even in summer. However, the yearly average temperature of the ground surface in the Southern Siberia and the Northern Europe was above zero recently, and so the ice in the soil is melting rapidly. There are warnings that the sea ice in the Arctic sea may completely disappear within 30 years. The loss of the permafrost is dangerous because not just it causes flooding but also it releases the methane and carbon dioxide entrapped below. The amount of carbon in the permafrost is almost twice as much as the carbon included in the atmosphere now. The release of such a large amount of carbon within a short time will speed up climate change uncontrollably.

Kim: Ten years have already passed since I produced the documentaries, Tears of Amazon and Tears of the Antarctic. The situation was already serious at that time. When we were making Tears of the Antarctic, we saw 1,500 fledgling Adelie penguins suffer a massive death. Due to the melting iceberg, their parents who went out to get food failed to come back on time, and as what was in the belly was all digested, the fledglings starved to death. When we visited Kaktovik in Alaska to shoot the documentary Bear in 2019, since there was no ice due to the rise of the sea level, polar bears were coming to the Innuit towns to find what to eat. These are still the problems to the animals, but they can be the problems of humans. And, that’s not so far away.

The bushfire in Australia that started in September 2021 burned up the forest over 11 million hectares, which is wider than the entire territory of South Korea and 46% wider than the forest burned up by the bushfire in Amazon. 

Climate Crisis to Be Overcome Together Through the Public Participation

Jeong: The causes of climate crisis have become crystal clearly by the pandemic. As COVID-19 limited the mobility of the people in the world and shut down the factories, the environment began to recover. My lab has installed a greenhouse gas measurement device at the top of the Namsan Town and measured the carbon dioxide concentration in Seoul in the unit of a second. Reviewing the changes after the outbreak of COVID-19, we found that the greenhouse gas concentration was considerably decreased when the social distancing was intensified. As the vaccines were provided and the restrictions are lifted up, the concentration started to increase again. That showed that concentration of greenhouse gases or air pollutants is increased by human activities.

Kim: You’re right. There are other examples. A brown bear, which was considered as having been extinct about 150 years, was discovered in a national park of Spain. Many wild animals came back to the Yosemite National Park in the US, as nobody visited there. At the end of last year, I was making a documentary about the aquatic ecosystem of several rivers in Korea, and the water was clearer than ever before. I also learned that it is human activities that affect climate change.

A polar bear family at Kaktovik in Alaska, coming down to the town to find something to eat. About 10 years ago, polar bear was not an animal that could be easily seen at Kaktovik. As they have lost their place of living due to climate change, dozens of polar bears come into the town, destroying cars and plundering food. 

The Integrated Climate Science Lab installed a greenhouse gas measurement device at the top of the Namsan Town in 2018 and has measured the carbon dioxide concentration in Seoul.

‘Environment Information’ Gaining More Value When Shared More

Jeong: You have produced documentaries that deeply impress people’s hearts, including Tears of Amazon, Tears of the Antarctic, Insects: the Great Instinct, and Bear. I’m wondering what made you produce a series of documentaries about environment.

Kim: My first documentary about environment was Tears of Amazon, which was broadcast in 2009. In fact, I was not so much interested in environment, and the documentary was initially planned as one devoted to a cultivation history including the stories of the tribes. However, what I encountered there in Amazon made me think more. Not a day passes without a bushfire in Amazon. To make huge pastures and farms, they continuously make fires. Because of that, Brazil became the world’s top exporter of beef and soy, passing over US. I wanted to let people know that the nature is destroyed by human greed. While information is generally considered as valuable when it has rarity, the information about environment and human rights gains power when it is shared by more people. I wanted to form a consensus about environment through documentaries.

Jeong: I really agree to what you just said. The same has motivated me to continue the studies about climate change. I am often rewarded when I predict what the future holds, share the information with others, and look for solutions to problems. Talking with you today, I was able to think more about the directions of my future studies. I learned many things from you, and I feel the sense of responsibility because efforts are continuously carried out in various areas to overcome the climate crisis. I’m looking forward to watching your new documentaries on environment.

Kim: I also had a great time with you. Whenever we produce documentaries about environment, we think about how we can scientifically show things that are happening. Based on this opportunity to meet you today, I will ask help from you positively (haha). I hope that I can communicate with the public with better commentaries and stories that can arose more sympathy.