<Reporter Shim Young-koo>
The longest and most damaging East Coast wildfire ever recorded, this is Uljin, Gyeongbuk, which suffered the most.
About 250 km2, which accounts for more than 40% of Seoul's area, was tentatively counted as being burned, but the scale of damage may increase once the investigation is complete.
The ever-growing and lasting wildfires are not just a problem in our country.
The wildfire in Australia last year lasted for six months and burned a larger area than the Korean Peninsula, and last year's wildfire in California in the United States last year continued for more than three months, destroying forests six times the size of Seoul.
Bigger wildfires that occur longer, louder and more frequently, and climate change that are drier and warmer are the top causes.
A UN report published last month pointed out climate change as the cause of the wildfire threat and warned that if left unchecked, the number of large-scale wildfires would increase by 14% by 2030 and another 50% by the end of the 21st century.
Climate change is looming even in the coldest places on Earth.
Let's go to Antarctica.
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<Reporter Goo-Hee Jeong>
All the snow around Sejong Station in Antarctica has melted in summer.
Far away, across the sea, the glacier tells us that Antarctica is.
The ice wall of Marian Soman, where Sejong Base was located 34 years ago, and was always visible from up close.
However, it disappeared as Sinavh, and recently the ground covered by the ice caps, bedrock, was revealed.
[Park Sang-jong / Senior Researcher, Atmospheric Research Division, Polar Research Institute: The fact that there is such a white ice band is in fact the appearance of the ice wall collapsing just before this and the broken ice spreading.]
Compared with satellite images from the 1950s, the ice wall is noticeably larger. It has decreased, and now you have to drive 3km to see it.
As the ice caps melted, large ice caves and small streams were created here and there.
In February of this year, the temperature at Sejong Station soared to an all-time high of 13.9℃.
An unusually warm north wind is blowing, and we are analyzing the cause with bases around the world in Antarctica.
[Park Sang-jong / Senior Researcher, Atmospheric Research Division, Polar Research Institute: The first one is strange.
At the moment when the maximum temperature broke, I just came to Sejong Base and was now active.
(But) it was bittersweet fact that the highest temperature was renewed again] On the other hand,
the average temperature in Antarctica, where the average temperature rose from 1990 to 2000, actually dropped from 2000 to 2010, and there was a debate as to whether warming was really progressing.
However, since 2010, a sharp increase in temperature has been observed at all Antarctic bases around the world, and on average, the temperature rises very steeply by 0.2 degrees per year.
The area of Antarctic sea ice this year is 1.92 million square kilometers, and twice the area of ice in Korea has disappeared compared to five years ago.
Penguins are also getting harder and harder to live, and they are heading south to the colder temperatures.
When it rains instead of snow, the baby penguins can't regulate their body temperature and sometimes die.
Antarctica is clean with no sources of pollution, but the carbon dioxide concentration has recently exceeded 410 ppm and there is no significant difference from the global average.
This is because regions are only boundaries divided by humans, and the Earth is one in the end.
Let's go back to Korea.
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<Reporter Seo Dong-gyun>
This is the foot of Seongpanak Mountain in Jeju Island.
It is a colony of gypsum trees, which are endemic to Korea.
Conifers are trees that grow above 1,400m above sea level, and our reporters have climbed up to 1,700m above sea level to see conifers.
Groups of conifers begin to appear around the trail.
However, there are only bare trees to the extent that the word “community” is insignificant.
[Byunggi Choi/Dr., Research Institute of Warm Subtropical Forest, National Academy of Forest Sciences: When the tree dies and dries, the bark (barks) is all peeled off, and now there is only a little left…
.
(Are you saying that they were all there in the first place?) The original appearance is that the whole thing is covered very tightly.]
Looking from the sky, it looks like a huge wooden tomb.
Comparing this with satellite images from 20 years ago, you can see at a glance that the number of coniferous forests has decreased significantly.
A recent survey by the Korea Forest Service showed that the number of young trees was reduced by less than half in just two years.
As Mt. Halla has warmed due to climate change, cypress trees that live in cold places have been hit hard.
Alpine plants, such as conifers, are more at risk in the future.
Recently, an overseas team of researchers studied the effects of climate change on alpine plants and found that genetic diversity within the same species decreased.
It means that some of the various traits that trees have will disappear, and in particular, the genetic traits necessary for adaptation to warm places will first disappear, making them more vulnerable to global warming.
[Choi Byung-gi/Dr., Warm Subtropical Forest Research Institute, National Academy of Forest Sciences: Various plants that live alongside cypress trees exist.
.]
How about the sea?
At this time of year every year, the sea of Jeju is enriched with squid that come to spawn.
Around sunset, when the squid fishing began, reporters followed.
I threw a fishing line with 20 baits 15 times and caught only 3 fish.
[Lee Gi-bong/Seonju: (Is this about the middle size?) It’s not the middle.
I can't.
(Is this not even halfway?) Yes, it's not even halfway.
(Are you saying you caught a lot of bigger ones in the past?) Yes.
If you put 20, this box is small.
The box is small, but now I can't even fill 20 of these.]
For the past 30 years, the water temperature in the sea area of Jeju Island has risen steadily.
By 2030, it is predicted that squid spawning grounds will decrease by up to 30%.
[Kim Jung-jin / Dr. National Fisheries Science Institute: If an appropriate environment is not created beyond the water temperature range, even if spawning occurs, the mortality rate increases in the early stage...
.]
We are gradually moving the main stage of Bengengdo, which comes to mind when we think of Moseulpo Port in Jeju Island.
[Moseulpo Port Matchmaker: A lot of anchovies and other things like this that were not caught on land (side sea) are now caught on land.
(The food) is there, so they don't need to come down here.]
[Chung-il Lee/Professor, Department of Marine Ecology and Environment, Gangneung-Wonju National University: Fish and these are all cold-blooded animals.
Organisms respond to even small changes in their environment.
(If climate change continues) We are at a greater risk than any of the many changes we have experienced so far...
.]
Mountains and seas, the things I always saw are disappearing.
Climate change is no longer a distant story in a book.
(Video coverage: Jeong Seong-hwa, Kang Dong-cheol, Kim Tae-hoon, video editing: Choi Hye-young, Hwang Ji-young, Jeon Min-gyu, Lee So-young, Park Ki-duk, design: Choi Ha-neul, Kang Kyung-rim, Kim Jeong-eun, Shim Su-hyeon, Seo Dong-min, Eom So-min, Jo Su-in)
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<Reporter Jang Se-man>
All districts Regarding the hostile climate crisis, Pope Francis, the head of the Catholic Church, said:
[Pope Francis/Earth Day 2020 message: God always forgives.
Humans forgive sometimes.
But nature never forgives.]
It is a warning that if climate change becomes more severe and exceeds the Earth's resilience, it could lead to irreversible catastrophe.
Fortunately, last year, after a long struggle, the international community reached an advanced agreement on the issue of greenhouse gases, the main culprit of the climate crisis.
In Korea, the Basic Law on Carbon Neutrality was also enacted, and it went into effect for the first time from today (25th).
In all sectors of the economy, such as energy and industry, carbon reduction is much more intense than in other major countries, and it is expected that there will be big changes that have not been experienced before in economic growth and jobs.
SBS will check the reality of the climate crisis and decarbonization countermeasures and seek solutions through the annual climate exploration report, <1.5 degrees Celsius, last warning> to mark the first year of carbon neutrality implementation in 2022.