EcoWorldly

International demand for solar energy has been steadily growing by 20-25% a year for the past two decades. In the United states, solar energy growth is about 60% a year. Looking at how fast solar energy plants are growing and how large they’re becoming year by year is reveals that the future for solar is shining bright.

World’s Largest Photovoltaic (PV) Solar Power Plants (Proposed and Operational)

By 2011, Deming, New Mexico, USA will be the home of the world’s largest solar power plant. This 300 Megawatt solar facility will be 15 times the size of the current largest solar plant on the planet. New Solar Ventures and Solar Torx are the companies behind the project. The solar energy plant will cover as many as 1,300 hectares and employ between 300 and 400 people. The project’s planners estimate that the plant will supply enough energy to power 240,000 homes. (Photo: Flickr. Source: Reuters.)

The Solana solar plant, 70 miles from Pheonix, near Gila Bend, Arizona, USA, will compliment the Deming plant when both begin operations in 2011. It will produce 280 megawatts of energy, provide 1,500 jobs, and cover an area of 769 hectares. The solar power facility will be the child of Abengoa Solar and Arizona Public Service Company. However, the project depends on the United States Congress to renew clean energy tax credits, which would otherwise expire at the end of 2008. (Photo: APS. Source: Newlaunches via EcoFuss.)

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“Are you Russian?” asked a middle-aged Korean man hopefully to an American English teacher. Translation: are you a prostitute?

“Are you Japanese?” she retorted. And that was that.

It’s the best rebuff I’ve heard to the bevy of Korean men who equate blonde hair with instant gratification. But why did it repel him with such shear efficiency? Or, put another way, what’s so bad about being called Japanese?

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Dear Readers,

Our goal this week was to help , bring you eye to eye with people of many nationalities to explore what environmental issues motivate each of us to care and inspire us to take action.

In case you missed it or are coming back for more, here’s our week in review:

Sam Aola Ooko offered a Kenyan perspective from the streets of Nairobi.

Pem Charnley reflected on the rise of the Industrial Revolution in the UK and its implications for the world and environment.

Mark Seall went to the Swiss Alps, wondering why the idea of personal responsibility for the environment is lacking, then to the streets of Switzerland for a taste of some real attitude.

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1. You care about wellbeing, but you still smoke. Give yourself 1 point.

Over 40% of Korean men smoke. And this is the good news. Before the recent wellbeing trend, the number was almost 60%. Smoking seems less common among Korean women.

2. When you eat cow you call it cow. Give yourself 1 point.

Koreans love meat and the don’t mince words when talking about it. You’re not eating “steak” and “prosciutto;” you’re eating “cow” and “pig.” Especially popular are variations on galbi, which ranges from Korean BBQ to stir-fried meat and hot peppers. There are, however, a modicum of vegetarian and even vegan restaurants in Korea.

3. You ride the bus and the train, but you still love Hyundai. Give yourself 2 points.

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Korea’s rapid industrialization can be felt everywhere, from the coastal landscapes, which are dotted with factories, to the large cities–Seoul, Busan, and Daegu–which often have air quality so poor that skylines are swallowed in smog.

Now, the outgoing government of Korea has passed new legislation to combat this pollution and join in the international battle against climate change.

The aptly named “Act on Climate Change” will establish an emissions trading market, raise the bar for renewable energy, assist in reducing industrial, home, and vehicle emissions, and increase carbon capture.

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The best way to find out how important the environment is to Korean youths, I thought, is to ask them. Luckily, I happen to know a number of Korean youths: they’re my English students. Ah! A captive audience.

So, I handed out strips of paper to each student and asked them to anonymously mark the answer choice that they agreed with. On the paper were three lines:

• Protecting the environment is very important to me.
• Protecting the environment is a little bit important to me.
• Protecting the environment is not important to me.

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My “I’m a Californian, so what could I learn about recycling from Korea?” attitude was shattered on my first day in Seoul. It happened innocently enough. I just dipped into a corner store and was drop-jawed at what I found out: every food store in Korea has customer recycling and compost bins.

In fact, homes and businesses all over Korea recycle and compost as a general rule. More than 40% of solid waste is recycled and about 55% of food waste is composted as fertilizer and feed. Still, the recycling laws behind these successes are only part of the puzzle. Koreans, it seems, don’t fully appreciate their country’s recycling system; and it’s hurting recycling efforts.

Many believe that recycling and compost is either burned, buried, or dumped at sea. In fact, this is a common skepticism the world over that’s preventing better recycling. Despite growing up watching Mr. Rogers on TV visiting and explaining recycling plants (come on… we all think Mr. Rogers is cool, right?), too many people secretly suspect that their separated recycling and waste all gets burned or buried together in the end.

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What do you do when fisheries collapse? With a quarter of the world’s fish stocks depleted, there’s concern that by 2050 we’ll have no other fish to fry. This may be the biggest fish crunch in history. Still, it’s not the first.

When fishermen in Sinnam, South Korea started pulling up empty nets, they did the only logical thing. Finding themselves in a hard place, they erected huge penis statues.

It turns out that not long before the fishing scare, a young woman–still a virgin–had drowned near the village within sight of her lover. Locals feared that her frustrated spirit was spooking the fish away.

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While Mark’s Green Team blazes its way through Europe by high-speed rail, I start my public transportation journey through South Korea in a slightly more humble place: in front of a dried squid.

The squid is between a pair of tongs, which an elderly Korean woman holds over an indoor propane stove. As the squid crisps, I look around. I’m standing in front of one of the dozens of shops and small restaurants lining the spacious hallway of the main bus terminal of Gangneung, a city on the Sea of Japan, where my trip begins.

Already, we’ve come the first advantage of car-free travel: outside of a car, you see things that you probably would never see inside a car. BBQ squid, for example.

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In December, Samsung was responsible for the worst oil spill in Korea’s history, a spill about 45 times larger that the recent spill in California. The oil caused widespread economic devastation up and down the coast and affected some of the most delicate marine ecosystems in the Yellow Sea. Still, nearly two months later, the electronics giant remains silent on its role in the spill, hoping, maybe, to sidestep its financial responsibility for the spill.

Last weekend, fish sellers affected by Korea’s massive oil spill held a protest calling for financial support as they try to recover their livelihoods. The protest turned tragic when one protester committed suicide by lighting himself on fire to demonstrate the severity of the troubles caused by the spill. His was the third such suicide since the spill.

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