Earth Day passed by unnoticed on April 22, as Taiwan's water shortage worsened. Since Typhoon Herb in 1996, through the 921 earthquake and onward, this land has experienced no peace. Either we are drenched in too much water, or we don't get enough. This is certainly one of the effects of global climate changes. We may continue to see irregular and unbalanced rainfall, and climate changes will become even harder to predict.
In fact, given the speed with which the environment is deteriorating around the world and in Taiwan itself, it is likely that we have already said goodbye to the favorable weather and timely winds and rain that we enjoyed in our childhood.
More pessimistically, if you are dissatisfied with this year's weather, what lies in store for us next year might be even worse.
Icebergs in the South Pole are melting. Excessive amounts of ice and snow in the Himalayas are melting, causing great quantities of water to flow into Xinjiang. All this implies that the Earth's "refrigerator" is breaking down, depriving it of a mechanism to suppress temperatures that are increasing every day. Because Earth has a fever, the bitterly cold winters of the past has become warm winters. Instead of the damp plum rain season, we just see gray skies. Many scientists even suspect that the high frequency of earthquakes in recent years might also be related to global warming.
Earth's fever has disturbed the order of the seasons. More than 160 nations signed the Kyoto Protocol in 1997 in the hope of abating the effects of global warming by restricting emissions of carbon dioxide. Deplorably, this goal might now not be achieved after the US withdrew from the pact.
To bring down the fever, humanity must put an end to the devastation it is inflicting upon the earth and give the globe some breathing space. We must face the problems of the "three e's" -- environment, energy and ecology. Development in Taiwan over the past 50 years has caused the nation's environment to degenerate. Wetlands, lakes and rivers disappear or shrink; underground water levels gradually fall; farming land and water sources are polluted; the ground we walk on sinks; and surface soil is incapable of retaining water. From one point of view, environmental resources belong to our descendants. Since we take out an advance on these resources, we must be prepared to pay it back.
Development also leads to the over-consumption of energy, which is another reason for Earth's illness. Traditional coal, gasoline or nuclear energy have either polluted the air, emitted massive amounts of heat, exacerbated global warming, or caused radioactive pollution. Some energy sources are actually on the brink of depletion. We should follow the US, the UK and Japan in doing our utmost to develop "white" energy -- using wind power, wave energy, temperature differences and ocean currents to generate power.
The disappearance of forests is the main factor affecting our ecology. Forests are the lungs of the planet, as well as the most effective tool for retaining water. The loss of forests not only leads to weather imbalances but also to mudslides, desertification and sandstorms. The plants and animals -- the main sources of human food and medicine -- which used to inhabit the woods also die out as a result.
If high-tech research -- which is currently of so much importance worldwide -- cannot contribute to resolving the three e's, humanity's technological express train will continue to head into the doldrums of history. Humanity will eventually find out that, for all our creative capabilities, we cannot maintain a sustainable existence.
Yang Yeong-bin is the dean of the College of Engineering at National Taiwan University.
Translated by Jackie Lin
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