Summer has come with a record-breaking heat wave, so people all over Korea are suffering from it. Almost every city in Korea shows temperatures of over 30 degrees Celsius. Especially some cities in the Gyeongsangbuk-do Province records temperatures of over 35 degrees Celsius every day. Moreover, Seoul which wasn’t a very hot place until last year recorded its highest temperature recently. It’s very surprising that the former record hadn’t been broken for more than 100 years. On August 1st, Seoul’s temperature was the highest of 15 of the world’s major cities. Even Dubai which is near the Arabian Desert was less hot that Seoul that day. Because of this heat wave, more than two hundred people were moved to a hospital and some of them even passed away. Also, hundreds of thousands of animals such as chickens are dead because of the heat. Even some fruits are showing burned scars as well. Now, the heat of summer is not just a small climate change but a serious problem that threatens citizens.

Because of high temperatures all around the nation, the Weather Agency continues to warn people not to do a lot of outdoor activities. The Weather Agency announced, “There will be a shower between August 8th and 9th. The cities where it will rain will be a little bit less hot.” It also added, “However, though the rain will stop the heat for a few days, the temperature will go up again. Then, even humidity will increase, so it will be more difficult for people to bear the heat.” Firefighters are having a harder time than ordinary citizens because of high temperatures. So, Kim Jeong-suk, the first lady of Korea visited a fire station to encourage firefighters. She said, “I’m so sorry that you firefighters are working hard in such high temperatures. I can feel your responsibilities to protect citizens from the heat. President Moon is also worrying about firefighters because firefighters are not only working hard but are also likely to suffer from some mental diseases. “I promise you I will improve the firefighters’ working environment.” She also tried to wear the firefighters’ equipment to experience how hard firefighters work.

Recently, the heat has become a very serious problem. So, Kim Han-jeong, a member of the National Assembly suggested a legislation that includes heat waves, extreme cold, and ozone warnings in natural disasters. Recently, especially this year, there have been many people saying that the heat should be treated as a disaster. According to him, these climates are causing hundreds of patients every year, but the current legislation doesn’t have these causes in the natural disaster list. Due to this, it’s impossible to create nation-scale measures to protect citizens. He said that we should treat them as natural disasters and national and local governments should try to reduce the damage to citizens and make rapid decisions to repair damages. He added that we should define the meaning of disasters again so that it fits recent climate changes and that the government and National Assembly should talk about this problem together. There are other legislation to protect people from heat, too. The government announced that they will make a law that reduces electricity costs. Many people are worried about their electricity costs because we can’t bear this heat without turning on an air conditioner since air conditioners use a lot of electricity. So, the government is preparing some laws that will be able to help people use air conditioners without worrying about electricity costs.

2018.08.08 Jang Ho-yeon