One hundred major landmarks around the nation, including Taipei 101, have been invited to take part in this year’s international “Earth Hour” campaign by switching off their lights for an hour on March 31, an environmental protection group said yesterday.
It is also hoped that 1 million people in Taiwan will join the lights-out campaign slated for between 8:30pm and 9:30pm on that day, said the Taiwan-based Society of Wilderness, an nongovernmental organization dedicated to the reduction of carbon emissions.
At a press conference to announce the lights-out activity, the group’s executives said that faced with increasing climate change, people should learn to change the way they live.
Finding ways to adapt to the changing environment and modifying their lifestyles is something everyone will soon be faced with, they said.
Lin Hsien-te (林憲德), a professor at the Department of Architecture at National Cheng-Kung University in Greater Tainan, said that switching off the lights for an hour is a token gesture intended to remind people of the need to protect the Earth.
It is crucially important that people change their behavior, for example, by using “green” materials to build houses, reducing carbon emissions and saving energy, Lin said.
Yangmingshan National Park authorities yesterday urged visitors to respect public spaces and obey the law after a couple was caught on a camera livestream having sex at the park’s Qingtiangang (擎天崗) earlier in the day. The Shilin Police Precinct in Taipei said it has identified a suspect and his vehicle registration number, and would summon him for questioning. The case would be handled in accordance with public indecency charges, it added. The couple entered the park at about 11pm on Thursday and began fooling around by 1am yesterday, the police said, adding that the two were unaware of the park’s all-day live
A former soldier and an active-duty army officer were yesterday indicted for allegedly selling classified military training materials to a Chinese intelligence operative for a total of NT$79,440. The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office indicted Chen Tai-yin (陳泰尹) and Lee Chun-ta (李俊達) for contravening the National Security Act (國家安全法) and the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例). Chen left the military in September 2013 after serving alongside then-staff sergeant Lee, now an army lieutenant, at the 21st Artillery Command of the army’s Sixth Corps from 2011 to 2013, according to the indictment. Chen met a Chinese intelligence operative identified as “Wang” (王) through a friend in November
Yangmingshan National Park’s Qingtiangang (擎天崗) nature area has gone viral after a park livestream camera observed a couple in the throes of intimate congress, which was broadcast live on YouTube, drawing large late-night crowds and sparking a backlash over noise, bright lights and disruption to wildlife habitat. The area’s livestream footage appeared to show a couple engaging in sexual activity on a picnic table in the park on Friday last week, with the uncensored footage streamed publicly online. The footage quickly spread across social media, prompting a tide of visitors to travel to the site to “check in” and recreate the
Minister of Digital Affairs Lin Yi-ching (林宜敬) yesterday cited regulatory issues and national security concerns as an expert said that Taiwan is among the few Asian regions without Starlink. Lin made the remarks on Facebook after funP Innovation Group chief executive officer Nathan Chiu (邱繼弘) on Friday said Taiwan and four other countries in Asia — China, North Korea, Afghanistan and Syria — have no access to Starlink. Starlink has become available in 166 countries worldwide, including Ukraine, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, in the six years since it became commercial, he said. While China and North Korea block Starlink, Syria is not