Former Academia Sinica president Lee Yuan-tseh (李遠哲) yesterday spoke out against a Kuokuang Petrochemical Technology (國光石化) development project, saying the nation would head in the wrong direction if the plant were to be built.
Lee’s appeal to cancel the plan was endorsed by 18 Academia Sinica members, as well as 1,173 university professors in Taiwan and the US.
Building the plant contradicted a global consensus on reducing carbon dioxide emissions, he said.
“We always pray for timely wind and rain and favorable weather, but that wish seems almost impossible,” Lee said. “In the past 50 years, typhoons have become increasingly powerful, and last week we saw floods in China and Pakistan.”
Although the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change recommended in 2007 that the world strive to reduce the density of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to lower the risk of natural disasters, Lee said the latest research showed there was a 50 percent chance that the Earth’s temperature would increase by 2ºC.
“Many people are clueless about the consequences of the Earth’s temperature increasing by 2ºC,” he said.
In related news, officials said yesterday that the Taipei High Administrative Court’s decision to halt construction of two high-tech zones has set off a wave of complaints from businesses.
The court on Friday ordered that all building activity in two zones — Cising (七星), Houli Township (后里), Taichung County, and Erlin (二林), Changhua County — be immediately stopped because the environmental impact studies were incomplete.
Executives and officials criticized the decision, saying it had put a series of projects worth several billion US dollars into limbo.
At stake are a NT$100 billion (US$3.1 billion) flat-screen plant planned by Au Optronics Co (友達光電) and a solar cell factory designed by Sunner Solar Corp (旭能光電), among others.
While the ruling is not final, firms said they were in “shock.”
“Taiwan may be the only country in the world where national policy can be easily overturned,” AU Optronics chairman Lee Kun-yao (李焜耀) told the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper). “I’m afraid that not only the industry’s, but the country’s competitive edge, may be negatively impacted … Even worse, investors could be scared away.”
However, Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) yesterday said businesses located in the third-stage expansion project at Central Taiwan Science Park in Houli would not be affected by Friday’s ruling.
“AU Optronics and other firms that have set up factories or begun operations do not need to stop operations,” he said.
Wu’s remarks were a departure from three separate injunctions issued by the Taipei High Administrative Court that ordered the suspension of the fourth-stage expansion project in Erlin, the suspension of further development in Houli and the suspension of production, also in Houli.
Wu cast doubt on the judges’ professionalism, saying there was a possibility they “did not fully understand issues related to environmental impact assessments.”
Also See: EDITORIAL : Government lacks compassion
Also See: AU Optronics says plans under threat
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique