‘Change now, not later!’: Thousands of Koreans march for climate justice through Seoul
“I don’t want there to be any more endangered species. They’re like us.”
In the 907 Climate Justice March along Seoul’s Gangnam Boulevard on Saturday, 14-year-old Kim Seo-eun performed a dance in a stork mask. Speaking with Hankyoreh in a telephone interview on Sunday, she explained, “It makes me so sad to think that we and the babies that are born in the future will be living in an increasingly worse environment.”
During the march, the second-year student at Yeonggwang Girls’ Middle School in Yeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, stood on meter-high stilts dressed as an Oriental stork, one of Korea’s most recognized endangered species. As she energetically flapped her wings with fellow middle school students dressed as storks, she was astonished at the spectacle of the march through the heart of Gangnam.
“Standing on the stilts, I could see that it was absolutely packed with people all the way into the distance on both sides,” she recalled, adding that she “really got a sense of how many people are concerned about the climate crisis.”
Kim was one of a number of young people in the Yeongju and Sangju regions of North Gyeongsang Province who attended a performing arts camp by Namoodak Movement Lab, which works in the field of environmental theater. For the march on Saturday, they appeared dressed not only as storks but as long-billed plovers — another endangered species — and as huinsumaja (Gobiobotia naktongensis), a native species of fish that can only live in Grade 2 water environments or higher.
All of these animals were ones that used to be common in Naeseong Stream, a body of water near Kim’s home in Yeongju. In the past, Naeseong Stream was a clean waterway with sand flowing through, but its face changed after the building of the Yeongju Dam as part of the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project.
“I have a friend who developed a skin condition after swimming in the Naeseong Stream by my home,” Kim explained.
“As I saw the water in Naeseong Stream becoming dirty in a way it wasn’t in the past, I got the sense that environmental pollution is getting worse, and that this relates more broadly to the climate crisis,” she added.
She went on to say she would “definitely take part in next year’s climate march if I have the opportunity.”
An estimated 30,000 people marched in the Gangnam area that day. The 907 Climate Justice March organizing committee said the total was “well above” the 20,000 participants it had initially predicted.
Indeed, the site was filled to capacity as participants began arriving in droves from throughout Korea around 1 pm.
For their march, attendees started at the Seoul metropolitan subway’s Gangnam Station and proceeded toward Samseong Station, passing by Yeoksam and Seolleung Stations and POSCO Intersection along the way. The route in question is home to the headquarters of many major corporations responsible for large shares of greenhouse gas emissions.
In particular, the march featured vocal participation by members of future generations: the young children and adolescents who are expected to be directly impacted by the climate crisis.
One attendee, Youth 4 Climate Action member Yoon Hyeon-jeong, referred to an Aug. 29 judgment by the Constitutional Court that found a framework act for carbon neutrality to be “inconsistent with the Constitution.”
“Now is when things really start. We need to create a front line to protect our lives,” Yoon said.
Lee Jae-in, a 14-year-old resident of Seoul’s Mok-dong neighborhood, said, “I’ve heard that if the climate crisis gets worse, we’ll never get to see any more of those polar bears that I’ve seen as Coca-Cola mascots since I was little.”
“My friends and I decided to take part in the march after thinking about what we could do for the Earth,” she explained.
Her friend Cha Ha-yun, 13, said, “In one of our classes at school, we saw a video on how trees keep disappearing from the Amazon. The hot temperatures this summer gave me a real sense that the climate change topic isn’t just something affecting faraway countries.”
Young people have been taking part in ever greater numbers in the climate marches, which started in 2019 and marked their fourth edition this year.
“Participation by young people was definitely up this year compared with past years,” said Lee Yeong-gyeong, leader of the organizing committee’s planning team.
“In particular, there have been more and more attending through climate and environment clubs, as schools, or through youth groups,” she added.
“In the past, we had a lot of cases of alternative schools where [participants] attended in [entire] school units, but now there are more people coming from regular schools,” she explained, saying that the students “arrived with hand-made banners with the school’s name written on it.”
“Some of the people who were here last year just as participants are back flying flags or volunteering in other ways,” said Kim Bo-rim, an activist with Youth 4 Climate Action. “It feels like there’s been a definite surge in participation by young people.”
“Especially while working on the national opinion canvassing campaign during the climate lawsuit, I realized that there were a lot of young people who were participating in a range of activities in their own neighborhoods and trying to effect real change.”
“Of the 5,000 people who took part in the campaign, 90% were in their teens or 20s,” she said.
Climate action by young people is undeniably linked to the impact that climate change will have on their lives. The teenagers of today will be on this post-climate change earth longer than those who are adults today. For them, the climate crisis is a human rights crisis.
“We who stand on the front line of the climate crisis are not ‘future generations,’ but citizens who are making change right now,” said Su-yeong, 17, an activist with Youth Rights Society NAEDA who helped write the “Youth Rights Climate Justice Declaration” that was announced ahead of the march.
“In the end, youth rights are connected to climate justice. Bringing an end to the structure in which humanity exploits nature, resources and animals in one way of enacting climate justice,” she said.
