Even though the Dragon Boat festival -- which traditionally marks the start of summer -- is still 19 days away, the country is already feeling the heat.
After three Chiayi County farmers died on three consecutive days from heat exhaustion, the Bureau of Health Promotion warned farmers not to go into their fields in the midday sun, especially if they are wearing heavy protective gear for spraying pesticides and herbicides.
But a Chiayi fourth farmer died on Wednesday -- from pesticide poisoning, not heat exhaustion -- after he sprayed his fields with insecticide in the middle of the day without wearing any protective gear.
"There is no way to spray safely in the midday sun when it is this hot," bureau official Tseng Te-yuan (
For some people, the response to the hot weather has been to crank up the air conditioning. Using more electricity, however, not only hurts the environment, it will be hard on the wallet.
Taiwan Power Co's has raised its electricity rates, effective today, and the summertime pricing program will run through Sept. 30.
Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄) sent a message to government officials and the general public on Monday when he appeared without jacket or tie at a press conference. He called on bureaucrats to leave their jackets at home for the summer to beat the heat without cranking up the AC.
The Central Weather Bureau said it was too early know whether the scorching days that ended last month foretold an unusually hot summer. However, on May 24th, the bureau's Taipei station posted a reading of 37.2oC -- the second hottest temperature recorded for that day ever recorded in Taipei.
"It has been warm recently," said Daniel Wu (
"Taiwan is not exempt from the global warming phenomenon," he said, noting that the last 10 years have been generally warmer.
Taiwan would benefit from more integrated military strategies and deployments if the US and its allies treat the East China Sea, the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea as a “single theater of operations,” a Taiwanese military expert said yesterday. Shen Ming-shih (沈明室), a researcher at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said he made the assessment after two Japanese military experts warned of emerging threats from China based on a drill conducted this month by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Eastern Theater Command. Japan Institute for National Fundamentals researcher Maki Nakagawa said the drill differed from the
‘WORSE THAN COMMUNISTS’: President William Lai has cracked down on his political enemies and has attempted to exterminate all opposition forces, the chairman said The legislature would motion for a presidential recall after May 20, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday at a protest themed “against green communists and dictatorship” in Taipei. Taiwan is supposed to be a peaceful homeland where people are united, but President William Lai (賴清德) has been polarizing and tearing apart society since his inauguration, Chu said. Lai must show his commitment to his job, otherwise a referendum could be initiated to recall him, he said. Democracy means the rule of the people, not the rule of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), but Lai has failed to fulfill his
A rally held by opposition parties yesterday demonstrates that Taiwan is a democratic country, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, adding that if opposition parties really want to fight dictatorship, they should fight it on Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) held a protest with the theme “against green communists and dictatorship,” and was joined by the Taiwan People’s Party. Lai said the opposition parties are against what they called the “green communists,” but do not fight against the “Chinese communists,” adding that if they really want to fight dictatorship, they should go to the right place and face
A 79-year-old woman died today after being struck by a train at a level crossing in Taoyuan, police said. The woman, identified by her surname Wang (王), crossed the tracks even though the barriers were down in Jhongli District’s (中壢) Neili (內壢) area, the Taoyuan Branch of the Railway Police Bureau said. Surveillance footage showed that the railway barriers were lowered when Wang entered the crossing, but why she ventured onto the track remains under investigation, the police said. Police said they received a report of an incident at 6:41am involving local train No. 2133 that was heading from Keelung to Chiayi City. Investigators
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