A coalition of environmental and Aboriginal campaigners yesterday staged a climate emergency demonstration in Taipei, calling on the government to hold a national conference to propose concrete climate action.
The march was mainly organized by the Air Clean Taiwan (ACT) to echo worldwide movements inspired by 16-year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg.
Participants started gathering outside the Legislative Yuan in Taipei at 1pm, and marched to the Democratic Progressive Party headquarters and the Executive Yuan to submit their appeals.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
Students and advocates in other cities also gathered to form the characters 1.5°C on campuses or in public squares for aerial photographs.
Global temperatures are likely to rise by 1.5°C by some time between 2030 and 2052 if global warming continues at its current rate, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned last year.
By 2030, human-induced carbon dioxide emissions would need to fall by about 45 percent from 2010 levels, to reach “net zero” by about 2050, it said.
To shape a carbon emission-free society for younger generations, the government should announce a state of emergency and convene a national conference in three months to tackle the effects of climate change, ACT chairman Yeh Guang-peng (葉光芃) told a news conference before the march.
“We hope that Aborigines in mountainous areas can pass every rainy season safely,” said As Li-i Mali, a Papora member of the Central Taiwan Pingpu Indigenous Groups Youth Alliance.
The Pingpu people, also known as plains Aborigines, have traditionally lived in Taiwan’s lowland areas, but have not yet obtained legal status.
Extreme rainfall last week caused landslides in Nantou County’s Renai Township (仁愛) and obstructed local roads to the point that children could not go to school and farmers could not transport their produce to markets, she said, asking if Taipei residents were aware of their predicament.
The 32-year-old — who is also known by her Chinese name, Su Hsin (蘇莘) — last year gave speeches at side events during the 24th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, along with the Taiwan Youth Climate Coalition.
“Aborigines would not overuse the land, cut down trees randomly or use pesticides on crops, because they are aware that they have to protect Mother Earth,” she said, adding that she hopes to share Aboriginal ideas about disaster prevention that put less emphasis on cement structures.
Former premier William Lai (賴清德) and former New Taipei City mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) attended the march separately.
However, some people accused Lai of failing to protect Taoyuan’s algal reefs from a liquefied natural gas terminal project during his premiership.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
RSS