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The World Meteorological Organization today announced that the average global carbon dioxide concentration last year was 415 ppm.
The concentration of greenhouse gases has also reached a new high, which leads to global warming and an increase in the sea level.
The video you see now was filmed in the northern part of Java Island, not far from Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia.
Due to climate change and environmental destruction, the seawater rises and the land sinks, submerging the entire village in the sea.
Reporter Min-wook Kim from the Climate Environment Team of MBC is currently covering the scene, so let’s go straight to the scene to see how serious the situation is.
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I am in the village of Bedono in a region called Demak, about 400 kilometers east of Jakarta, Indonesia.
This orange-roofed building behind me was originally an elementary school.
The word here is ‘SD Negri Bedono 1’, which means it is the No. 1 public elementary school in Bedono.
But this school is now closed.
Why?
Take a look here to see why.
The school began to be submerged in seawater.
As the school building was partially submerged in the sea, classes could no longer be held here, so the school closed two years ago and the students moved to another school.
Shall we go inside the classroom?
Fortunately, it’s low tide right now, so the water doesn’t come into the classroom.
Originally, it is said that when the tide comes, seawater fills the inside of the classroom like this.
Let’s take a look at the classroom floor.
Barnacles began to cover the floor.
Normally, when the water rises, it means that the water will fill up the classroom.
At the far end of this school building is the space that was originally used as a warehouse.
But that warehouse space is now always filled with seawater.
If you take a look at this side, there is a building that used to be a toilet.
However, as the sea level rises and the ground inside the toilet sinks, the toilet is now slightly inclined towards the sea.
And here is Mr. Lee Kwan, who is helping us with our coverage here.
(hello.)
“hello.”
Lee Kwan is a fisherman and environmentalist.
Mr. Lee Kwan also graduated from this school.
It is said that when Mr. Lee Kwan graduated from this school in 2000, a total of 180 students from 6 classes took classes here.
However, the students say they are now attending another school a little further down the coastline.
According to Yi Quan, the coastline was originally about 1.5 kilometers from the school.
It is said that even at high tide, the sea did not come within 100 meters of the school.
However, a drastic change occurred in the 20 years since Mr. Lee Kwan graduated, and the school was flooded and closed.
Today, we took a boat with Mr. Lee Quan to cover the flooded villages in the forest seen across the street.
I was able to meet the people who still live there.
The content we covered here will be delivered to viewers soon as a series of reports related to sea level rise when we return to Korea.
This is Minwook Kim of MBC News from Indonesia’s demo so far.
Video coverage: Young-geun Jang/Video editing: Daye Ryu
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