As a “young emerging economy,” Taiwan cannot afford to remain outside the global community in combating climate change, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said yesterday at the first sustainable green technology symposium in Taipei.
“In the past 100 years, humans have focused on rapid economic and technological expansion. However, these have brought with them environmental consequences that we must address today,” Ma told the audience.
The future of technology, he said, lies in sustainable development.
The forum was hosted by the National Taiwan University, which invited Taiwanese specialists who work both abroad or locally to discuss the trends in green technology.
Ho Chih-ming (何志明), director of the Institute for Cell Mimetic Space Exploration at the University of California, Los Angeles, said that 200 years ago, humans never had to think about sustainability, as the ecosystem was balanced and could sustain human activity without much change
However, as a result of population increase and modernization, human needs are now tilting the system, he said.
“As such, we can only reach sustainability with the assistance of technology. After all, I don’t think people are willing to go back to the living standards that obtained 200 years ago,” he said.
Tackling the rapid depletion of oil and coal sources through reliance on sustainable energy — including wind power, fuel cells and nuclear energy — was also discussed during the symposium.
Promising global energy alternatives includes cellulosic bioethanol, said Daniel Wang (王義翹), a professor in chemical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
“We are badly in need of oil alternatives. We are not using corn as fuel because it is economically feasible, we are using it because we need it,” Wang said, adding that while “no country in the world [could] afford using edible resource, such as corn, to make ethanol … cellulosic biomasses such as agricultural residues, trees and grass represent great opportunities as feedstock for conversion [although] many technological challenges lie ahead.”
While scientists may devise advanced technology to help us live better, humans still depend on a healthy environment for their survival, the scientists said.
“The world needs a minimum of 0.3 trillion liters of freshwater for human consumption a day. I don’t believe we can rely only on technology to process that amount,” Ho said.
“The only way we can make the system work is if we sustain a sound, natural ecosystem and combine it with artificial industrial system — in other words, we have to work with nature,” he said.
ALIGNED THINKING: Taiwan and Japan have a mutual interest in trade, culture and engineering, and can work together for stability, Cho Jung-tai said Taiwan and Japan are two like-minded countries willing to work together to form a “safety barrier” in the Indo-Pacific region, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday said at the opening ceremony of the 35th Taiwan-Japan Modern Engineering and Technology Symposium in Taipei. Taiwan and Japan are close geographically and closer emotionally, he added. Citing the overflowing of a barrier lake in the Mataian River (馬太鞍溪) in September, Cho said the submersible water level sensors given by Japan during the disaster helped Taiwan monitor the lake’s water levels more accurately. Japan also provided a lot of vaccines early in the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic,
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) on Monday announced light shows and themed traffic lights to welcome fans of South Korean pop group Twice to the port city. The group is to play Kaohsiung on Saturday as part of its “This Is For” world tour. It would be the group’s first performance in Taiwan since its debut 10 years ago. The all-female group consists of five South Koreans, three Japanese and Tainan’s Chou Tzu-yu (周子瑜), the first Taiwan-born and raised member of a South Korean girl group. To promote the group’s arrival, the city has been holding a series of events, including a pop-up
TEMPORAL/SPIRITUAL: Beijing’s claim that the next Buddhist leader must come from China is a heavy-handed political maneuver that will fall flat-faced, experts said China’s requirement that the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation to be born in China and approved by Beijing has drawn criticism, with experts at a forum in Taipei yesterday saying that if Beijing were to put forth its own Dalai Lama, the person would not be recognized by the Tibetan Buddhist community. The experts made a remarks at the two-day forum hosted by the Tibet Religious Foundation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama titled: “The Snow Land Forum: Finding Common Ground on Tibet.” China says it has the right to determine the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation, as it claims sovereignty over Tibet since ancient times,
Temperatures in some parts of Taiwan are expected to fall sharply to lows of 15°C later this week as seasonal northeasterly winds strengthen, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. It is to be the strongest cold wave to affect northern Taiwan this autumn, while Chiayi County in the southwest and some parts of central Taiwan are likely to also see lower temperatures due to radiational cooling, which occurs under conditions of clear skies, light winds and dry weather, the CWA said. Across Taiwan, temperatures are to fall gradually this week, dropping to 15°C to 16°C in the early hours of Wednesday
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