Korea is highly dependent on coal power, and the air pollution shows it. Korea is fourth in the world for ultra fine dust levels, behind India, China and Vietnam. More fine dust blows in from China to add to that produced in Korea. No wonder those protective face masks are sold everywhere.
The country has stated policies to reduce coal dependency and there are targets to increase the use of renewables. The Korean government recognises the problem with coal, but industry continues to use coal cause..... it is cheap. There are moves to move public transport to renewables and we saw plenty of renewable powered buses in Seoul.
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| No flip-flop energy policy just a clear intention to reduce reliance on fossil fuels |
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| There is a city bike program but due to lack of bike lanes and heavy traffic it is not a viable means of mass transit, |
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| Tom and Terry did a city ride - dodging pedestrians on the busy streets. |
But I write this post from the KTX, Korea’s fast train, based on France’s TGV, which is electric powered, sourced from coal. Oh well, at least it is more environmentally friendly than driving, or flying, and infinitely more comfortable.
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| Tom relaxes on the KTX |
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| Poster for the k0pop boy and girl bands proliferate in the subways |
And now to explain the ‘How good is’ theme to this blog, (no it is not random), and the link to coal. Planning this trip with Cathy and Terry over a few glasses of wine we got a bit silly and started extolling the virtues of all the things we were hoping to encounter- how good is the beer in Korea, how good is the fried chicken, the trains, weather etc ... until we realised we were aping Scomo’s now famous parliamentary ‘how good is coal’ stunt. So the theme stuck.
Oh, and just in case it is not clear, coal is NOT good.
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