The heads of the nation's five branches of government, as well as top business executives, were invited to watch the premiere of ±2°C (±2°C ─ 台灣必須面對的真相), a documentary on climate change in Taiwan, at the Butterfly Pavilion in Taipei last night.
TV commentator Sisy Chen (陳文茜), the producer of the film, said she hoped that those who watched the film would write letters to the Presidential Office and ask the chief executive to list climate change as a national security issue.
Chen said she had seen several documentaries on climate change, including An Inconvenient Truth by former US vice president Al Gore and Home by Luc Besson. None of these films, however, mentioned the impact of climate change on Taiwan.
“Don't take that as a cue that Taiwan is exempt from its influence. In fact, people in Taiwan might become the first group of victims of global climate change,” Chen said.
“Many people know that countries like Maldives might sink sooner than other places around the world, but few know that what may happen to the Maldives could also happen to Taiwan one day,” Chen said, adding that some locations in Taiwan might soon be underwater should temperatures and sea levels continue rising.
The film's name came from the consensus reached at the Copenhagen Summit last year, which was to take actions to keep any temperature increases below 2°C, she said.
Emphasizing that the film is a non-profit project, Chen said only wanted to use the film to educate the next generation about the issues surrounding climate change.
Any TV station can broadcast the film free of charge, she said.
Chen said she would also work with local governments so that the film could be shown nationwide. The film runs about 70 minutes and examines the issue of climate change from the natural disasters that have occurred around the world in the past six months to the scientific research and eventually focus on problems on the home front.
The production of the film began after the devastation caused by Typhoon Morakot last August.
An estimated 2 million people are expected to see the film, she said.
The German city of Hamburg on Oct. 14 named a bridge “Kaohsiung-Brucke” after the Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung. The footbridge, formerly known as F566, is to the east of the Speicherstadt, the world’s largest warehouse district, and connects the Dar-es-Salaam-Platz to the Brooktorpromenade near the Port of Hamburg on the Elbe River. Timo Fischer, a Free Democratic Party member of the Hamburg-Mitte District Assembly, in May last year proposed the name change with support from members of the Social Democratic Party and the Christian Democratic Union. Kaohsiung and Hamburg in 1999 inked a sister city agreement, but despite more than a quarter-century of
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COOLING OFF: Temperatures are expected to fall to lows of about 20°C on Sunday and possibly 18°C to 19°C next week, following a wave of northeasterly winds on Friday The Central Weather Administration (CWA) on Sunday forecast more rain and cooler temperatures for northern Taiwan this week, with the mercury dropping to lows of 18°C, as another wave of northeasterly winds sweeps across the country. The current northeasterly winds would continue to affect Taiwan through today, with precipitation peaking today, bringing increased rainfall to windward areas, CWA forecaster Liu Pei-teng (劉沛滕) said. The weather system would weaken slightly tomorrow before another, stronger wave arrives on Friday, lasting into next week, Liu said. From yesterday to today, northern Taiwan can expect cool, wet weather, with lows of 22°C to 23°C in most areas,
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