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Parade raises awareness of global warming issue

A large crowd including many children joined the ranks of environmental activists in a parade in Taipei yesterday to declare their support for anti-global warming efforts.

Titled "A Walk for the Next Generation," the parade was held simultaneously in 10 cities and counties around the country.

With flags and homemade flyers in hand and wearing bright yellow anti-global warming bands tied on their heads, participants chanted carbon reduction slogans.

"Anti-global warming shouldn't be written off as only an environmental or political issue -- it is also a social issue, a you-and-I issue," said Jack Wang (王喜德), a 26-year old accountant who was among the participants.

Wearing a "no carbon emissions" sticker on his forehead, 12-year-old Kao Miao-pang (高苗榜) said he came with his teacher, "because I worry that with global warming I will not be able to survive on the Earth when I get older."

"In social studies we learned that big factories are producing water and air waste that cause the global temperature to rise," he said.

Allen Hung (洪貫倫), a college freshman from Shih-hsin University, agreed.

"Children of my generation will have to think about the implications of global warming more and more as the problem progresses," he said. "I've worried about the situation since middle school, when I learned that glaciers are melting and sea levels are rising."

Green Party Taiwan legislator candidate Pan Han-shen (潘翰聲) said the parade was organized to raise public awareness.

"The children in Yunlin County's Mai-Liao Township (麥寮) have to wear masks to school because of Formosa Plastics Group's (FPG, 台塑集團) Sixth Naphtha Cracker Plant in their neighborhood," he said. "However, people can help by voting against environmentally unfriendly people and policies."

Shih-hsin University Department of Public Policy and Management assistant professor Tu Wen-ling (杜文苓) said that the public can also help by remembering that "everybody and every day counts."

"This may include walking more, eating local foods, traveling by mass transportation and educating our children about the importance of resource conservation," she said.

Addressing the crowd, Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) said one can start with as little as saying no to bottled water and instead carrying water bottles from home.

"Bottled water containers derive from fossil fuel. If Taiwanese average 48 bottles of water per person per year, we consume 1.1 billion bottles a year -- enough to wrap around the island 23 times," she said.

Citing UN statistics that the sea level will rise 18cm to 59cm in this century and that "at the rate that the glaciers are melting, the situation may be even worse," Lu said that "for the survival of humankind, we need to learn to respect nature, cherish our resources and love each other and the Earth."
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