Cycling in Korea, Arctic to Argentina 2012, TBS 101.3 eFM Seoul, Korea from Brian Perich on Vimeo.
Dang!!!!! What is the "yellow dust"? Sounds like Korea is taking
its toll on you! Rest up! I will try to get some shots of your bike
in the next week or so. You sure you want it taken out of the
nice packaged box????
Sent via Facebook Mobile
Take a ride!!! And get photos!!! That bike is designed for
60,000km+ (40,000 mile+) rides, service it, and keep riding!!!
If you take detailed pictures of the kit (tools, extras included),
closeups of the components, etc
you'll see the HELL I've been going through for the past
1.5 months...
Brian in Gangneung
Brian in Gangneung
en.wikipedia.org
Asian Dust (also yellow dust, yellow sand, yellow wind
or China dust storms) is a seasonal meteorological
phenomenon which affects much of East Asia sporadically
during the springtime months....
Effects
Dust deposition in Beijing during the 2006 season.
Areas affected by the dust experience decreased visibility
Dust deposition in Beijing during the 2006 season.
Areas affected by the dust experience decreased visibility
and the dust is known to cause a variety of health problems,
not limited to sore throat and asthma in otherwise healthy
people. Often, people are advised to avoid or minimize
outdoor activities, depending on severity of storms. For those
already with asthma or respiratory infections, it can be fatal.
The dust has been shown to increase the daily mortality rate
in one affected region by 1.7%. Although sand itself is not
necessarily harmful to soil, due to sulphur emissions and the
resulting acid rain, the storms also destroy farmland by
degrading the soil, and deposits of ash and soot and heavy
metals as well as potentially dangerous biomatter blanket
the ground with contaminants including croplands, aquifers,
etc. The dust storms also affect wildlife particularly hard,
destroying crops, habitat, and toxic metals interfering with
reproduction. Coral are hit particularly hard. Toxic metals
progagate up the food chain, from fish to higher mammals.
Air visibility is reduced, including canceled flights, ground
travel, outdoor activities, and can be correlated to significant
loss of economic activity. Japan has reported washed clothes
stained yellow. Korea Times has reported it costing 3 million
won (US $3,000), 6000 gallons of water, and 6 hours to simply
clean one jumbo jet.
Dave B. April 9 at 12:47am
Wow!!!! You would think they (Korea/china) would care
about their emissions? But hey all they care about is
cheap labor and trying to make a buck off it!
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Yeah, I don't think the Chinese were/are thinking,
this dust is coming from the growing wasteland in
the Gobi Desert. Since the Chinese long-ago deforested
many bordering regions, the Gobi Desert actually grew
larger and uncontrollable desertification is the direct
result. With massive storms (wind and sand storms)
every spring that sand and dust sweeps across all of
East and Southeast Asia (Northwesterly winds). My lungs
are still jacked 5 weeks later, 4 different broad-spectrum
antibiotics, allergy pills, respiratory therapy, and about
7 doctor visits (ENT-Ear Nose and Throat Specialist).
The doctor's office has a regular cue of about 20 people
continuously throughout the day, and he's making a back
off each and every customer (subsidized by the government...
the visit is about $2.50 and medication can run about $5.00
which is reasonable to walk-in and see a specialist without
an appointment and the pharmaceudicals are cheap in Korea).
But who the hell wants to be sick all the time, dependent
on drugs to fight the infections deep down in the lungs,
and have exposure to cancer-inducing toxic materials and
biohazard materials (picked up across China's vast industrial
wasteland)??? Not me, and I'm fighting for my life, drain of
my energy that should be spent in spring training, not to
mention the 5 weeks of diarrhea as a bonus, as the antibiotics
destroy all the healthy bacteria in the digestive system,
you deal with that outcome on top of everything else.
In short, it's a total f&^%ing nightmare out there in the air,
it's the dust you can't see that will kill you if your pushing
hard on the lungs doing continuous aerobic activity.
I'm staying indoors so I won't have to cough up a
lung or start chemo-therapy for cancer in the
near-future, however, if I keep training outdoors
here in this season, I might as well start digging my
early grave!
This serious seasonally occurring health and environmental
problem lays destruction in it's wake. Dave, I could go on
and on, it's like being kicked in the chest by a horse, choked
by a boa constrictor, and food poisoned all packed into one.
I'm definitely planning an escape route for the expedition in
2012-2013, this is a powerful experience to live through to
try to recover on the other side (North, Central, and South
America) while riding my bicycle for healthy renewal/charity
funding/non-profit two-wheeling. Well, I'm about prepped
for mid-term examinations now, still thinking about
riding this weekend, but wondering what it will cost
me to do it, a few more days of my life shaved off???
Thanks China! We are watching that nation destroy the Earth
piece by plastic/manufactured/toxic producing piece, and it's
not getting better over here in Korea either, we lay our own
waste into the sky through filthy industrial practices, fossil fuels,
and 50 million people moving about in a very small landmass.
The whole world is producing and consuming waste, we will
reap what we continue to sow, and it tastes like an industrial
farm that's killing us slowly.
It's time to THINK GREEN, REDUCE, REUSE (I mean it),
and WALK or CYCLE, start using HPV's
(Human Powered Vehicles) or alternative fuels
(Hydrogen, Solar Power) as a way to reduce,
recycle, and reuse the limited "clean-burn" resources
we have left on this Earth....
A living planet that is being trashed by humans.
The Korean Peninsula extends for about 1,000 kilometers
southward from the northeast Asian continental landmass.
Roughly 300 kilometers in width, climate variations are more
pronounced along the south-north axis. Due to these variations,
marked differences in plant vegetation can be seen along this axis.
Generally speaking, the southern half of the peninsula is warmer
than the northern half.
The total area of the peninsula, including the islands, is 22,154
The total area of the peninsula, including the islands, is 22,154
square kilometers of which about 45 percent (99,313 square kilometers), excluding the area in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), constitutes
the territory of South Korea.
News Updates on the Yellow Dust in South Korea
(US Military Monitoring system) which tends to be
"shutdown" or blocked by Korean/US authorities when
levels are at danger levels...we've seen the index well
over 500 this year alone, not a place for humans living
green, a place for machines and refuse.
http://www.korea.amedd.army.mil/webapp/yellowSand/Default.asp
Peace Dave, this is a great blog update, I will post there later!
Brian Perich "Dust can kill you, LOL!"
http://www.korea.amedd.army.mil/webapp/yellowSand/Default.asp
Peace Dave, this is a great blog update, I will post there later!
Brian Perich "Dust can kill you, LOL!"
Wow Brian, Yellow Dust that is crazy. The weather is a bit wild here too, this morning it snowed, last week it was 80 degrees (in Northern Michigan, US.) But Yellow Dust sounds like a nightmare --how long has it been going on? I agree with your plug for being green! Thanks for keeping us up to date...
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