Environmentalists yesterday accused the presidential candidates of paying insufficient attention to pollution issues in southern Taiwan, saying that they refused to sign a pledge drafted by environmental groups calling for the termination of energy and pollution-intensive development projects in southern municipalities.
A coalition of environmental groups sent the pledge to the Taipei headquarters of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the People First Party (PFP) earlier this month.
They asked that the parties’ presidential and legislative candidates endorse a combination of proposals, including stopping the expansion of the Southern Taiwan Science Park in Tainan and Kaohsiung, the establishment of an oil refinery area in Kaohsiung and the expansion of China Steel Corp and the state-run oil refiner CPC Corp.
Photo: Taipei Times
Taiwan Water Resources Protection Union spokesperson Chen Jiau-hua (陳椒華) said that none of the presidential candidates signed the pledge, while only the DPP campaign office replied to the coalition’s proposals.
Chen said the response of the major parties was unsatisfactory.
Chen said that the DPP lacked a complete understanding of the environment in southern Taiwan, as the party, in its reply, said that the science park expansion projects would not add to air pollution or cause water shortages.
However, Chen said that the water shortage that farmers in Tainan experienced this year showed that there is no surplus water in the area for the park to utilize.
The DPP said it would strive to strike a balance between residential justice, environmental justice and industry justice when planning the oil refinery zone in Kaohsiung’s Siaogang District (小港), but Chen said that the party has ignored the fact that there is an active fault line in the district.
The city has already been designated as a class-three air quality zone — where the air pollution is most severe according to the Environmental Protection Administration’s three-class category — and has no capacity for oil refining, she said.
“Voters in southern Taiwan should cast their ballots for people willing to sign the pledge, instead of wasting their votes on the DPP or the KMT,” she added.
Tainan City Environmental Protection Alliance director Huang An-tiao (黃安調) was equally critical.
“Most legislative candidates of major parties did not sign the pledge or reply to the coalition’s proposals, or they made a uniform reply drafted by their parties. The cold shoulder response from the major parties shows that most candidates are not willing to take on environmental responsibility,” Huang said, questioning the eligibility of those candidates to represent their constituents.
Candidates of minority parties, such as the Green Party-Social Democratic Party Alliance, New Power Party and Trees Party, were more responsive and willing to sign the pledge, Huang said.
The coalition said it would launch an anti-pollution protest in Tainan on Sunday and called for candidates who have not yet signed the pledge to do so.
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