{"id":43346,"date":"2026-06-06T03:22:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T03:22:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/43346\/"},"modified":"2026-06-06T03:22:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T03:22:11","slug":"young-south-koreans-embrace-plogging-to-cope-with-climate-anxiety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/43346\/","title":{"rendered":"Young South Koreans embrace \u2018plogging\u2019 to cope with climate anxiety"},"content":{"rendered":"

As South Koreans<\/a> brace for another sweltering summer, a grim joke has taken hold in casual conversation: \u201cThis will be the coolest summer for the rest of our lives.\u201d For many young people, that line is no longer dark humour but a blunt summary of how the climate crisis feels \u2013 relentless, immediate and deeply personal.<\/p>\n

Among South Korea\u2019s young generations, a wave of what experts call \u201cclimate anxiety\u201d is reshaping their daily lives, from how they exercise and shop to whether they plan to marry or have children.<\/p>\n

Rather than taking to the streets with placards in protest, many are turning their unease into what they describe as \u201cliveable\u201d eco-friendly lifestyles woven into ordinary routines.<\/p>\n

A 2024 study by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs found that more than 90 per cent of adults feel anxious about the climate crisis. Young adults in their twenties recorded the highest scores among all age groups.<\/p>\n

\"AA poster invites participants to join Saturday morning plogging in Seoul\u2019s Hongdae area. Photo: Instagram\/srekker_official<\/p>\n

Researchers also noted a \u201cfunctional\u201d side to this anxiety: the more worried people were, the more likely they were to adopt eco-friendly behaviours, rather than disengage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As South Koreans brace for another sweltering summer, a grim joke has taken hold in casual conversation: \u201cThis…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43347,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[25892,25891,25885,25889,18356,15182,25886,25887,31,25894,25893,15910,25888,14413,112,33,6743,25890,15908],"class_list":["post-43346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-south-korea","tag-arbor-day","tag-black-yak","tag-climate-anxiety","tag-climate-sensibility","tag-climate-crisis","tag-instagram","tag-k","tag-kim-ji-eun","tag-korea","tag-korea-institute-for-health-and-social-affairs","tag-mount-bulam","tag-myeongdong","tag-mzeco","tag-plogging","tag-seoul","tag-south-korea","tag-south-koreans","tag-the-north-face","tag-uniqlo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43346\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}