In the 1990s, developing countries in Asia also suffered from the problem of acid rain.
The recent acid rain report released by Taiwan's EPA also reveals that wind-blown pollutants from China and South Korea account for 25 percent of sulfur oxides in Taiwan.
NCU professor Lin adopted a method called Long Range Transport Model Simulation to study what happens when northeasterly winds blow in winter. He concluded that it takes 48 hours for air pollutants to reach Taiwan from South Korea and 72 hours from northeastern China.
"The frosty cross-strait relation between Taiwan and China doesn't stop the transmission of airborne pollutants," Lin said, referring the necessity of joining international organizations such as an acid rain monitoring network made up of countries in eastern Asia such as China, Japan and South Korea.
The real situation in China
"Taiwan's admission to many international organizations has been blocked. However, the acid rain problem cannot be solved until all countries work together, exchanging local monitoring data and research information," Lin said.
Lin added that it was very difficult to know the real air pollution situation in China and its possible effects on ecosystems in Taiwan and other countries.
According to a report in the New Scientist magazine in February 1999, a US scientist, Gregory Carmichael, predicted a massive ecological disaster from acid rain in Asia.
He said, based on his study, that the acid rain falling on vast regions of eastern and southeastern China, the Korean peninsula and Japan would overwhelm the soil's' ability to cope by 2020, if there is no change in existing emission-control policies.
An article in Time magazine last March indicates that the burning of high-sulfur coal in southern China produces a poisonous drizzle, which affects 30 percent of the country.
A 1993 study, cited in the report, found that nearly one-quarter of vegetable crops in the Chongqing area had been damaged by acid rain.
What can be done locally?
Lin said a cross-strait conference on acid rain will be held here in May, co-sponsored by the Mainland Affairs Council. He said that this would be an excellent opportunity to exchange information with experts in China.
Yuan agreed that such a conference would have beneficial results.
"At several cross-strait conferences on air pollution, scientists from both sides of the Taiwan Strait have tended to put forward their own government's position on the issue instead of focusing on the issue itself," Yuan said.
Yuan said that a scientist from Fujian province once stated that 30 percent of wind-blown pollutants in Fujian came from Taiwan without providing any precise scientific data.
"Based on the lack of pollutant monitoring data, scientists would not be able to reach such a conclusion," Yuan said.
However, Yuan stressed that several acid rain prevention strategies could be carried out locally to limit hazardous gas emissions and adopting the use of low-sulfur oil products.
RSS