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Editorial: Taiwan's environmental lessons

The World Summit on Sustainable Development closed on Wednesday in Johannesburg after 10 days of meetings. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in his closing speech, "You must not expect a conference like this to produce miracles." Even so, people who live in seriously polluted regions still expect miracles -- that the air will be fresh, that their drinking water, rivers and oceans will be clean and that natural disasters such as typhoons, floods and droughts will plague them no more.

Even though the universe is boundless, so far only the planet Earth has been found suitable for human habitation. If we trample on its forests and pollute its waters, our future generations may have to migrate, like in Hollywood movies, to other planets, where living conditions would be much more difficult. However, only rich people can afford such dreams and ordinary people may as well not entertain them. When the Earth's environment deteriorates, a majority of people on it will have nowhere to escape.

It is worth noting that not only industrial pollution, a traditional target of criticism, came under attack during the summit. The widening gap between rich and poor was also a key theme. In the "Johannesburg Declaration," the 189 participating nations reiterated their vows to lift the world's poorest 2 billion people out of poverty and to rebuild and protect the environment in which they live. The declaration also pointed out that the gap between rich and poor countries remains a major threat to prosperity, peace and stability around the world.

We can see that addressing the problem of poverty has become an important issue in preventing the continued destruction of the world's ecology.

Poverty once forced many countries to adopt short-sighted policies. Some governments even complained that the livelihoods of their peoples had not improved because their countries did not have enough polluting industries. However, countries that have experienced relatively fast industrial development, including Taiwan, are now discovering that polluting the environment for the sake of overcoming poverty has yielded only temporary benefits in terms of industrial growth and economic gains. The damage done by these methods is difficult to repair and nature frequently takes revenge with floods and mudslides. Fishing hauls are shrinking by the year, as are harvests of rice, wheat, potatoes and other staples. People's health is also deteriorating. In the process of greedily exploiting nature, people are depriving themselves of a healthy life and a good environment.

Because the price of industrialization has been very high, environmental groups have been mushrooming in many countries, including Japan, Taiwan and South Korea. Such awakening to environmental protection can serve as a lesson for less-developed countries. Killing a hen that lays eggs will only make life more difficult for future generations. Industrially advanced countries should know that they can no longer allow polluting industries to migrate to poorer countries. Nor should they sit back and watch as poor countries erode their natural resources.

It is good that a Taiwan delegation was able to participate in the Earth Summit as a non-governmental organization and that the delegation members have established a "Johannesburg Club" to promote the summit's experience in Taiwan. However, a more effective measure would be to strengthen research and development in environmental technologies, so that Taiwan can also contribute to the international community's efforts to protect Earth.
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