Taiwan and the US should cooperate further in the “green” industry amid growing concerns about climate change and global warming, Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Cho Shih-chao (卓士昭) said yesterday.
Both Taiwan and the US have advanced technology in the field and can work together in developing green solutions to global warming, including clean energy and green buildings, Cho said in opening remarks at a forum in Taipei aimed at promoting sustainable development.
The forum brought together nearly 100 people from the public, private and academic sectors of Taiwan and the US to share their insights on environmental issues, said one of the organizers, the Bureau of Energy at the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
Developing the green industry not only helps the environment, but also drives economic growth and creates jobs, Cho said, adding that the government has passed several acts and implemented various energy-saving programs over the past few years toward this end.
American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Director Christopher Marut told the forum that the US has stepped up its scientific research and development in the field.
Since 2008, the US has doubled the amount of energy it uses from renewable resources and become the world’s leader in clean energy investment, Marut said.
Citing the new AIT office under construction in Taipei’s Neihu District (內湖) as an example of a green building, Marut said the compound is to have several modern green features, such as rainwater harvesting systems, solar cells, LED perimeter lighting and energy-efficient elevators.
“It’s really imperative that we take personal responsibility for protecting the environment,” he said. “Working together, we can build pathways to a better, cleaner and more sustainable future.”
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching