Monday, April 12, 2010

Yellow Dust


No, this picture is not something out of "The Day After Tomorrow," or "An Inconvenient Truth," though it has been considerably inconvenient. It is a springtime phenomenon in Korea known as "Yellow Dust," and it is vile.

Every spring, the dry sands of the Mongolian and Chinese deserts are blown across East Asia, where they end up in Korea, and consequently, my lungs. This is a huge environmental problem caused by deforestation, industrialization and unsustainable urbanization. According to "The Granite Tower," Korea University's English Magazine, this dust contains silicon, aluminum, copper, cadmium, and lead! Absolutely foul! Now I'm starting to understand why so many Koreans wear those protective masks...Luckily, Gwangju is far South so it been as "dusted" as badly as Seoul and other northern parts of the country, but it's still been noticeable, and I can't wait for "dust season" to be over! I guess it's true that April showers bring....YELLOW DUST!

1 comment:

  1. Cool picture man! That shit looks foul man. Remind me of "red tide" in Florida. It's a natural chemical produced by this type of algae in the ocean that makes it impossible to breathe. How long does yellow dust last for?

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