On Earth Day yesterday, representatives of five environmental organizations met with President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to give him suggestions on environmental issues, including the protection of endangered species and laws to encourage environmental protection.
Since 2010, a number of environmental groups have held annual meetings with Ma on Earth Day. This year, environmental groups disagreed among themselves on whether to meet with Ma. Some groups were determined not to meet with Ma to express their dissatisfaction with the government’s treatment of the Sunflower movement, while some groups said that while civic movements are important, it is also important to make changes by influencing policymakers.
Among the five environmental groups’ representatives yesterday was Society of Wilderness president Lai Jung-hsiao (賴榮孝).
He said the suggestions he gave to Ma were based on results gathered from 2,157 valid responses in a survey about the public’s attitude regarding events held to mark Earth Hour and Earth Day this year.
Lai said the public thinks that the government should protect forests, as well as marine and wetland habitats that can regulate the climate, make corporations more responsible for environmental issues and establish “green” manufacturing models, as well as making laws regarding sustainable national land use.
The Wild Bird Federation Taiwan, the Taoyuan Local Alliance and the Pingtung County Environmental Protection Union also gave suggestions on wildlife habitat protection, strategies for greenhouse gas reduction, pesticide control, conservation of endangered species and other issues.
Representatives from the Life Conservationist Association gave suggestions on the protection of animal rights, including asking Ma to visit animal shelters to better understand the conditions stray animals experience.
Life Conservationist Association founding chairperson Shih Chao-hwei (釋昭慧) said she asked Ma about his opinions on the safety inspections and the proposed referendum about the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Gongliao District (貢寮).
Ma replied that the plant would not start operations if it does not pass inspections, and even if it passes, he is in favor of deciding the plant’s fate through a referendum.
“I told Ma: ‘You are not only the leader of the pan-blue alliance, but also the leader of our nation, so I hope you can love everyone in your role,’” Shih said.
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