Environmentalists yesterday asked the public to save coastal wetlands in Changhua County by purchasing land to prevent it from being sold to a petrochemical company to build oil refineries.
The Kuo-kuang Petrochemical Technology Corp (KPTC), a subsidiary of CPC Taiwan Corp, plans to build refineries on coastal wetland in Dacheng Township (大城), Changhua County, near the mouth of Jhuoshuei River (濁水溪).
The plan has sparked controversy, with many residents — especially oyster farmers — worried that a petrochemical plant would bring pollution and destroy the oyster farming industry.
Environmentalists worry that the planned refineries would be disastrous for the diverse wetland ecology — notably critically endangered pink dolphins.
Opponents of the petrochemical plant want to block the plan by purchasing the most sensitive 200 hectares of the 4,000 hectares that the KPTC would like to buy.
“According to the National Property Administration, the current value of the land in the area is only NT$100 [US$3] per square meter, so why don’t we put our money together to purchase 200 hectares of the most sensitive land?” Taiwan Environmental Protection Union Changhua Division director Tsai Chia-yang (蔡嘉陽) said.
Tsai said they are calling on the public to purchase a share of the land for NT$119 each.
Since the group started the campaign on April 11, more than 22,000 people have written letters of intent to express their willingness to purchase more than 850,000 of land.
“We will file an application for charitable trust by the end of the month,” Tsai told a press conference yesterday. “I’m not sure if it will be approved, but if it is turned down, it will be turning down the will of tens of thousands of people.”
Changhua-based poet Wu Sheng (吳晟) accused the government and KPTC of “covering up their hearts” when making the decision to set up oil refineries on the wetlands.
“It’s not just about saving the endangered pink dolphins, [refineries] will also destroy a farming and fishing culture passed down from generation to generation for hundreds of years,” Wu said.
“Big corporations and government keep tricking us with a bunch of numbers — they tell us about increases in GDP, employment and economic prosperity the oil refineries would bring — but they never tell us what we would lose,” he said. “And let me tell you, what we would lose would be much more than what we gain, so we don’t want this kind of GDP growth.”
Diane Wilson, author of the book An Unreasonable Woman, who started a campaign against Formosa Plastics Oil refineries along her native gulf coast in Texas, also shared her personal experience of the environmental catastrophe oil refineries can bring, and said she would stand in solidarity with Taiwanese who are against the planned KTPC refineries in Changhua.
INCREASED CAPACITY: The flights on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays would leave Singapore in the morning and Taipei in the afternoon Singapore Airlines is adding four supplementary flights to Taipei per week until May to meet increased tourist and business travel demand, the carrier said on Friday. The addition would raise the number of weekly flights it operates to Taipei to 18, Singapore Airlines Taiwan general manager Timothy Ouyang (歐陽漢源) said. The airline has recorded a steady rise in tourist and business travel to and from Taipei, and aims to provide more flexible travel arrangements for passengers, said Ouyang, who assumed the post in July last year. From now until Saturday next week, four additional flights would depart from Singapore on Monday, Wednesday, Friday
Taiwan’s three major international carriers are increasing booking fees, with EVA Airways having already increased the charge to US$28 per flight segment from US$25, while China Airlines (CAL) and Starlux Airlines are set to follow suit. Booking fees are charged by airlines through a global distribution system (GDS) and passed on to passengers. Carriers that apply the fees include CAL, EVA, Starlux and Tigerair Taiwan. A GDS is a computerized network operated by a company that connects airlines with travel agents and ticketing platforms, allowing reservations to be made and processed in real time. Major players include Amadeus, Sabre and Travelport. EVA Air began
The Ministry of National Defense yesterday reported the return of large-scale Chinese air force activities after their unexplained absence for more than two weeks, which had prompted speculation regarding Beijing’s motives. China usually sends fighter jets, drones and other military aircraft around the nation on a daily basis. Interruptions to such routine are generally caused by bad weather. The Ministry of National Defense said it had detected 26 Chinese military aircraft in the Taiwan Strait over the previous 24 hours. It last reported that many aircraft on Feb. 25, when it spotted 30 aircraft, saying Beijing was carrying out another “joint combat
When Paraguayan opposition lawmaker Leidy Galeano returned from an all-expenses-paid tour of six Chinese cities late last year, she was convinced Paraguay risked missing out on major economic gains by sticking with longtime ally Taipei over Beijing — a message that participants on the trip heard repeatedly from Chinese officials. “Everything I saw there, I wanted for my country,” said Galeano, a member of the newly-formed Yo Creo party whose senior figures have spoken favorably about China. This trip and others like it — which people familiar with the visits said were at the invitation of the Chinese consulate in Sao Paulo
RSS