TRUTHOUT
Thursday, 07 March 2013 10:34
Holding the line against the Kubuchi Desert.
One hundred groggy Korean college students stumble off the train in Baotou, Inner Mongolia, blinking in the bright sunlight. A 14-hour train ride from Beijing, Baotou is by no means a popular destination for Seoul’s youth, but then this is no shopping excursion.
A short, elderly man in a bright green jacket leads the students through the crowd in the station, hurriedly giving orders to the group. In contrast to the students, he does not appear tired at all; his smile is unimpaired by the journey. His name is Kwon Byung-Hyun, a career diplomat who served as the Republic of Korea’s ambassador to China from 1998 to 2001. Whereas his portfolio once covered everything from trade and tourism to military affairs and North Korea, Ambassador Kwon has found a new cause that demands his full attention. At 74 years of age, he has no time to see his colleagues who are busy playing golf or for indulging in hobbies. Ambassador Kwon is in his little office in Seoul on the phone and writing letters to build an international response to the spread of deserts in China – or he is here, planting trees.
Kwon speaks in a relaxed and accessible manner, but he is anything but easy-going. Although it takes him two days to get from his home in the hills above Seoul to the front line of the Kubuchi desert as it makes its ineluctable way southeast, he makes the trip often, and with enthusiasm.
The Kubuchi Desert has expanded so that it is just 450 kilometers west of Beijing
One of the most remarkable comics that I have seen of late comes from the “Survival ” (살아남기) series published by I-Seum. This comic, “Surviving Climate Change” explains in considerable detail, with reference to scientific data, the process of climate change. The “Survival” series includes several quite powerful comics that blend relevant facts with an entertaining narrative.
“Surviving Climate Change” is notable in that it draws the attention of children to the concrete challenges we face. Such writing for children is absolutely critical in our age as they will be the ones who will struggle with the consequences of our decisions.
The comic is divided into three sections. A humorous, slightly slapstick, dialog between the protagonists, a crisis that the protagonists encounter that brings them face to face with the consequences of climate change and a more detailed description, including actual photographs and statistics, that supports the arguments made in the comic.
I spoke with a senior professor the other day about the future of human civilization and the challenge of climate change. He made the same remark that countless others have made to me over the last decade: “I can’t worry about climate change. I will be dead by then.”
It is a great mystery how so many of America’s best and brightest somehow think they have no responsibility to work for future generations. Perhaps the attitude is born of a consumer culture in which the highest value is consuming for oneself and ignoring the past and the future. Most Americans do not even realize they suffer from this affliction.
If we look back at the best of the American tradition, we stumble upon the “Constitution of the Iroquois Nations.” This fine constitution could serve as a model for the United States:
“In all of your deliberations in the Confederate Council, in your efforts at law making, in all your official acts, self-interest shall be cast into oblivion. Cast not over your shoulder behind you the warnings of the nephews and nieces should they chide you for any error or wrong you may do, but return to the way of the Great Law which is just and right. Look and listen for the welfare of the whole people and have always in view not only the present but also the coming generations, even those whose faces are yet beneath the surface of the ground – the unborn of the future Nation.”
The Huffington Post
January 21, 2013
Emanuel Pastreich
Director
The Asia Institute
Mr. Psy
YG Entertainment
397-5 Hapjeong-dong Mapo-gu
Seoul, Republic of KoreaDear Psy,
Congratulations on your monster hit “Gangnam Style!” Your music video is the first in history to reach one billion hits on the Internet and it has shaken the world to its core. You have seized the zeitgeist by the horns, channeling the vitality and the contradictions of Seoul’s nouveau-riche south end into some of the most stunning dance routines and biting parodies of life in the fast lane I have ever seen. Bravo!
태평양으로의 전환에서 녹색 혁명으로
From Pacific Pivot to Green Revolution
외교정책 포커스
Foreign Policy in Focus
2012년 10월 4일
(원본)
(이성길 번역)
존 페버, 임마누엘 패스트라이쉬 John Feffer and Emanuel Pastreich
중국 내몽골 다라터치의 산뜻하게 페인트칠한 농가 뒤편으로는 완만하게 이어진 낮은 구릉이 펼쳐지고, 들판에는소와 양들이 한가로이 풀을 뜯고 있다. 그러나 농가의 서쪽 방향으로 100미터 정도만 걸어가면 이런 전원적인 현실과는 동떨어진 풍경과 마주하게 된다. 바로 눈 닿는 곳까지 끝없이 펼쳐진 모래의 물결, 생명의 징후가 전무(全無)한 쿠부치 사막이다.
기후변화가 초래한 흉악한 산물인 쿠부치 사막은 지금도 800킬로미터 떨어진 베이징을 향해 가차 없이 동진(東進)하고 있다. 만약 사막의 동진을 이대로 둔다면 머지않은 장래에 중국의 수도인 베이징마저 점령당하게 될 것이다. 워싱턴에서는 아직 쿠부치 사막이 보이지 않지만, 사막의 모래는 강한 바람을 타고 베이징과 서울은 물론, 일부는 미국의 동부 해안까지 이동한다.
사막화는 인류의 삶을 심각하게 위협하고 있고 모든 대륙에서 사막은 점점 더 빠른 속도로 커지고 있다. 1970년대초기에 서아프리카 사헬 지역이 그랬듯이 미국도 1920년대 대평원에 불어 닥친 먼지폭풍(Dust Bowl)으로 엄청난생명과 재산 손실을 입었다. 그러나 기후변화는 아시아, 아프리카, 호주, 미주 전역에서 수백 만, 궁극적으로는 수십억 명의 환경 난민을 초래하는 등 사막화를 새로운 차원의 위협으로 키워 가고 있다. 말리와 부르키나파소에서는확장하는 사막으로 인해 전체 인구의 6분의 1이 이미 난민으로 전락했고, 유엔환경계획(UNEP)에 따르면 소리 없이확대되는 모래 사막으로 전 세계가 지불해야 하는 비용이 연간 420억 달러에 달한다고 한다.
The Asia Institute Seminar
The Fight to preserve our soil and our future: “Culture is our greatest asset”
December 20, 2012
With David Montgomery
Professor
Department of Earth and Space Sciences
University of Washington
Professor Montgomery, professor of geomorphology and topography at University of Washington and recipient of the MacArthur fellowship, has researched the impact of soil and water on civilizations over the last several thousand years. He has uncovered disturbing long-term implications of our current use of land that should cause everyone to stop and think. His book Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations has garnered international attention for its succinct description of the value and fragility of soil, and argues that soil should be considered as a geostrategic resource. Once soil is gone, he suggests, it cannot be easily replaced, and the rate of the increase in the demand for food in the coming century will force us to consider the sustainability of agriculture to our lives.
Emanuel Pastreich
Why is it that desertification and the loss of soil does not get the attention it deserves at high-level discussions concerning the environment?
David Montgomery
Well, desertification does tend to be the forgotten issue. If we look at the areas of the world that are most venerable to climate change, there are three that immediately come to mind. One is coastal regions that are immediately impacted by rising sea levels. The second is the boreal regions where the frozen tundra that is now heating up and profoundly effecting the environment. That trend, combined with the melting of the icecaps will have deep implications for our climate. Both of these trends have received substantial attention. The third is the semi-arid regions around the world that get less attention but have the broadest impact for human settlements. Semi-arid regions are quite sensitive to climate shifts and also to even small changes in [more]
Recent Asia Institute Seminars of interest
click for transcript:
Noam Chomsky on Peace in East Asia (October 22, 2012)
Janet Redman on the Environment (December 18, 2012)
Bob Bishop on the environment and security (December 19, 2012)
미국에서 태어나고 자란 임마누엘 페스트라이쉬(49세) 씨는 어려서부터 슈퍼맨보다는 공자, 맹자에 더 끌렸다. 그들의 사상과 가르침을 배우고자 스물두 살의 임마누엘은 눈앞에 높인 쉬운 길을 포기하고 대만으로 건너갔다. 영어를 내려놓고 그 나라의 말과 글을 배우고 그 나라의 말과 글로 그들의 가르침과 사상, 고전문학들을 알아갔다. 그래도 부족했던지 그는 대만에서 일본으로 건너가 일본의 고전문학과 문화를 배웠다. 일본을 거쳐 한국을 찾은 그는 박지원의 소설을 읽고 정약용의 사상에 고개를 끄덕이며 한국을 마음에 담았다. 20대를 대만, 일본, 한국에서 보내고 서른두 살 임마누엘 씨는 미국으로 돌아가 그가 배운 것들을 펼쳤다.
그리고 어느덧 중년의 신사가 된 그는 한국을 다시 찾았다. 젊은 날 그가 배운 한국의 고전문학과 전통을 한국 학생들에게 전하기 위해서다.
The Asia Times
December 1, 2012
“A new kind of scholar breaks ground in Korea”
By Subadra Arvind
An American expat has found an odd niche in Seoul as a commentator on Korean culture, history and policy not for foreigners, but for Koreans. His name is Emanuel Pastreich, and he writes books in Korean and lectures to government and business leaders about how Korea can make full use of its remarkable assets from organic farming to traditional houses.
Pastreich is employed as a professor at Kyung Hee University and is the founder of The Asia Institute, a think tank based in Seoul. In his best-selling book, Scholars of the World Speak out about Korea, he interviewed leading intellectuals like Francis
