My time in South Korea so far has been great; however, S. Korea has a major air pollution issue going on. More than half of of the populations in South Korea is exposed to dangerous levels of fine dust.
South Korea is ranked 173rd out of 180 countries in term of air quality. That is very bad. However, I do not let this deter me. I see a lot of manual labor on a day-to-day basis on my campus which is an uncommon sight in my hometown. There are a lot of elderly people around my campus, and each morning they would use a broom to sweep the whole campus Instead of the lawn blowers I'm familiar with back in the U.S.
I have not seen enough to be able to comment on how the environment impacts the lives of Koreans. As of March 2019, the South Korean government passed emergency legislation in an attempt to reduce the ongoing pollution.
