Thanks for the links to the update on Saemungum. I went there and took some photos in 2003. It was a beautiful place.

I’d be interested to know if there is any concert or any other Korean-run event to promote further awareness about the situation there.

But for your comment on Korea and the Live Earth concert: that article you quoted I think continues further on that Korea is one of only two countries in the world that has ratified both Kyoto AND joined that ’sham pact’ that Gore was talking about. I think if a country only signs up for that pact, it’s a very weak sign. If it’s signed up for both, that’s a stronger sign than only ratifying Kyoto. In the end though, they’re only signs. What the reality of the effort for the environment within any nation is a different question.

It comes back to grassroots activism and what’s happening at a local level.

‘Where the people lead, the leaders will follow.’

Tim Blair’s point is fairly moot:

yeah, okay, there were relatively few people watching the concerts televised publicly in Brisbane. Maybe they were part of the 2 billion watching on TV or online, and more so since the end of the concert, because they’re still available online. Sorry I don’t have the link but one prediction was more would watch actually after the event. The short, punchy clips or info. soundbites that do serve to raise awareness without painful preaching seem for the most part still to be embedded in the performances.

As for your link to that article in the Sun-Times by James M. Taylor of the Heartland Institute, a simple wikipedia read crushes any validity of anything he has to say:

James M. Taylor is senior fellow for environment policy at the Heartland Institute.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heartland_Institute

The Institute was a member organization of the Cooler Heads Coalition which questioned the impact of global warming and felt that climate control policies hurt consumers. The Board of Directors for the Heartland Institute includes Thomas Walton, an executive of General Motors Corporation.
Funding
The Heartland Institute receives donations from over 1400 individuals. No corporate entity donates more than 5% of the operating budget according to brochures from the company. [2]
According to Exxon Secrets.org , The Heartland Institute has received annual donations from Exxon-Mobil in amounts ranging from $100,000 to $200,000. [3]
[edit] Tobacco
The Institute has been actively involved in debate over tobacco policy. The Institute received over $150,000 from the Phillip Morris over three years from 1997 to 1999[4].

Bucheon City distributed mesh recycling bags with draw strings several months ago. Ours went missing within a couple of weeks, and now almost everybody else on the block is back to stuffing the recycling into plastic Emart and Homever bags. I can only assume that the special recycling bags were stolen by people off the sidewalk or are now being used by residents they were issued to for the purpose of storing things in their apartments.

That proposed Saemangeum Project concert is warped.

Anything else is not enough.

Yes, I am in full agreement here - I feel obliged to pay tribute to the Korean perseverance in this matter. The ROK is certainly at the forefront of progress when it come to recyclable materials…