It was with a guilty heart that Premier Yu Shyi-kun went to Orchid Island yesterday to communicate with the Tao tribe on the issue of moving the nuclear waste stored on the island. Past governments told them too many lies and seriously destroyed the local environment, causing the Tao people to face the crisis of extinction. Naturally, they have been forced to loudly condemn irresponsible government behavior over the years.
The Taiwan government stealthily deposited the nuclear waste, seen by the Tao people as an "evil spirit," on Orchid Island, without ever considering the impact the radioactive waste would have on the local people and environment. Today, facing strong resistance from the Tao people, the current government is looking for stopgap measures. However, the painful lessons of seeking economic development at any cost still does not seem to be dawning on the legislators who support the construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant. Therefore, we will be creating even more nuclear waste in the future and the people of Taiwan still stand to have more regrets.
To seek Taiwan's sustainable development and to leave behind a pure land for future generations, we should pay attention to Taiwan's environmental protection and ecological conservation as we seek economic growth. Economic development in many high-income countries of the world has long proven that it is not necessarily in conflict with environmental protection as long as the government and the people put efforts into planning. In fact, they can sometimes be mutually complementary. In the past, we overly stressed economic growth, leading to today's serious industrial pollution. Polluted materials and excavated earth are dumped everywhere while mountain slope development continues, causing underground water sources, seaside and ocean ecologies and forests to face catastrophe. For the survival and convenience of a handful of people, the entire population is paying a heavy price.
Meanwhile, the government is simply helpless in the face of motor vehicle and motorcycle exhaust pollution. Unable to come up with an effective solution, it continues to allow the public to be exposed to poor quality air. At the same time, the news about cadmium and mercury pollution that comes out every year also causes the people of Taiwan to live in fear. Forests are wantonly cut down everywhere, resulting in reduced water resources in summer. Water shortages and the fight between the central and local governments for water have now become this month's major event. However, once a typhoon comes, people will once again have to suffer floods and mudslides. As evident in these problems, policies that neglect environmental protection and seek economic revenue at the expense of the health and security of the people of Taiwan are unwise.
Therefore, apart from listening to the Tao people, the significance of Yu's visit to Orchid Island also includes expanding one's vision and sincerely reviewing Taiwan's past direction in economic development. The people of Taiwan will use strict standards to measure the performance of the DPP, which calls itself a "green government." The policy differences between the new and old governments in the area of environmental protection will inevitably become one of the key considerations in the voters' choices.
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