See Nature Through the Lens of “Nature = Resources”

“Protect nature, save the environment.”

As the familiar slogan goes, protecting nature and saving the environment are very important. But we need to think seriously about how to protect them and how to save them. Many argue that nature should be preserved as it is, but preserving it exactly as it is is a primitive approach and amounts to neglect.

North Korea has many barren mountains. Is leaving them as they are really nature conservation? As desertification spreads in China, South Korea suffers damage from yellow dust every year. Rather than leaving that land untouched in its natural state, planting trees to stop desertification is what makes it possible for people to live there.

To make nature more truly natural and to properly restore the environment, capital must be invested and management must be thorough. With a clear awareness that “nature = resources,” we must develop and utilize it systematically and professionally so that it can be preserved more cleanly and safely.

In the summer of 2023, severe torrential rains caused rivers to overflow, resulting in major damage. Sediment accumulates in rivers over time, so rather than leaving them alone, they should be dredged. Flood damage can be prevented only by investing capital in rivers, dredging them in a timely manner, installing weirs where necessary, and reinforcing embankments. A river is a path through which water flows. Protecting and managing nature means enabling water to flow properly so that a river can fulfill its function as a river.

The Four Major Rivers Project for river management was an excellent decision. This is evident from the fact that there was no flood damage in the areas where the project was carried out. The next step should have been to manage tributaries, but when the Lee Myung-bak administration ended, the project was not continued. It required the resolve of leadership, and amid continued attacks, an important project was halted. As tributaries have been neglected, problems are arising during extreme rainfall. Even now, resources should be投入? Wait no. Need translate only. Let's continue properly.

Even now, resources should be invested to begin systematic tributary management.

Rivers should be viewed from the perspective of logistics. Tourist boats can enter them, and water taxis can operate on them. Rivers should be seen as resources to be managed and developed; leaving them neglected while treating them only as objects of preservation is a waste of an important resource.

Like rivers, the sea and the sky—which are central to logistics and transportation networks—are also resources. Only by building ports at sea and large airports where planes can take off and land can a country connect with the world. Without ports and airports, society would become closed off. If the sea and sky had been regarded merely as nature and left undeveloped, we would have become an isolated society. That is precisely why, when war breaks out, ports and airports are destroyed first to block sea routes and air routes.

Roads, ports, and airports are all infrastructure. We must create ways to use them effectively so that they make convenient lives possible.

Eliminating roads and turning those spaces into parks is not desirable. At the time Cheonggyecheon was developed, traffic volume was still at a level that could be sufficiently handled even after the removal of the Samil Elevated Road. Strictly speaking, the demolition of the Samil Elevated Road placed more weight on restoring Cheonggyecheon than on simply removing a road.

But turning the Seoul Station overpass into a park and removing the Seodaemun overpass made that area chronically congested. It was also a mistaken judgment to remove one side of the road in Gwanghwamun and create a park there.

Whatever is undertaken should be done in a way that prepares for what comes next and allows things to function smoothly. If roads are reduced without alternatives in place, everyone suffers inconvenience. If roads are to be reduced, it is only proper to first build underground roads and then implement the change.

River development, air routes and sea routes, road construction, buildings—all of these should be viewed in terms of resources. What is natural is not necessarily best; nature should be seen as a resource, and capital should be invested to achieve the best possible results. If we interpret the world from the perspective that rivers, too, are resources, then the real solution to protecting nature and saving the environment will come into view.

Sung-no Choi, President of the Center for Free Enterprise (CFE)

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Original title: '자연=자원'이라는 관점으로 바라보라

Author: Sung-no Choi

Date: 2023-10-19

Source: https://www.cfe.org/bbs/bbsDetail.php?cid=column&pn=3&idx=26079