In 1980, conservationists in Taiwan launched a movement to save the mangrove swamp at Zhuwei (竹圍) on the bank of the Tamsui River in Taipei County. The campaign was sparked by Taiwan Provincial Land Development Corp’s plan to drain about 60 hectares of mangrove swamp to build 8,000 units of public housing.
This project threw botanists and environmentalists into a panic. The three national TV stations took up the issue with daily reports. Many academics, myself included, wrote articles denouncing the plan. Thanks to the efforts of many people, the project was called off and the mangroves were saved.
When the Tamsui Line of Taipei’s Mass Rapid Transport system was built, Hongshulin Station was included to allow people of all ages to visit what is now a mangrove nature reserve, a rich ecosystem that provides shelter for egrets and many migratory and protected bird species. This oasis has become one of Taiwan’s top spots for environmental and ecological education and research, and a major attraction for ecotourism. How could 8,000 apartments compare to such a priceless treasure?
The wetlands on the west coast of Changhua County are much larger than Zhuwei, measuring several thousand hectares. They provide an ideal habitat for the Chinese white dolphin (Sousa chinensis), also called the Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin. They are also a paradise for seafood production and are Taiwan’s main source of clams and oysters.
If, as now proposed, this wetland is developed into a heavy industrial zone, farmers and fishermen will be driven out, and Taiwanese will find it hard to get unpolluted seafood. If the proposed eighth naphtha cracker is built, it will emit pollution and cause water shortages, harming agricultural production in Yunlin and Changhua counties. Another naphtha cracker would bring benefits only to big business, not the general public.
Additionally, the cracker complex, once completed, would generate a quarter of all the nation’s carbon-dioxide emissions. How does this fit with President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) policy of cutting energy consumption and carbon dioxide output?
Wetlands have provided a habitat and livelihood for mankind since ancient times. Among all terrestrial and marine ecosystems, wetlands have the highest net primary productivity — the conversion of carbon dioxide into organic compounds — at about 9,000 kilocalories per square meter per year, more than three times the figure for farmland and forest.
Wetlands have a dozen or more useful functions. They regulate water currents, absorb and store carbon dioxide, protect the coastline, store nutrients washed down from upstream, conserve alluvial soil, filter water and remove pollutants, nurture aquatic resources, preserve a diverse gene pool and provide a protective environment for wild animals. They also enrich natural scenery, foster leisure and tourism and regulate surrounding ecosystems.
For all these reasons, wetlands are protected internationally by the 1971 Convention on Wetlands, more commonly know as the Ramsar Convention.
When wetlands are lost, so is biodiversity and aquaculture will decline and perish. Our leaders should not just mouth slogans about cutting energy consumption and carbon-dioxide emissions while giving the green light to industries that pump out greenhouse gasses.
How can the public accept such perversity? I call on policymakers to think carefully about this issue and step back from the brink. It is their duty to choose the path of sustainable development for Taiwan and all mankind.
Chou Chang-hung is an academician at Academia Sinica.
TRANSLATED BY JULIAN CLEGG
The White House’s decision to take a 9.9 percent stake in Intel Corp is looking like very shrewd business indeed. Since the government bought in at US$20.47 a share last August, the US chipmaker’s surging stock price has delivered the US a US$43 billion return. One of the reasons the investment has so far proved so sound is that the White House has made sure of it. According to The Wall Street Journal, Howard personally pushed deals on Intel’s behalf with some of the most lucrative clients imaginable. They include Nvidia Corp, the company at the heart of the AI
A single photograph can cut through a lot of noise, but it can also be used to misrepresent the truth. At the very least, it can concentrate the mind on something that requires further investigation. On Monday last week, Ma Ying-jeou Foundation CEO Tai Hsia-ling (戴遐齡) and former National Security Council secretary-general King Pu-tsung (金溥聰) held a news conference in which they showed a photograph of former foundation CEO Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑), now Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) deputy chairman. In the image Hsiao is seated next to Xiamen Taiwan Businessmen Association chairman Han Ying-huan (韓螢煥). The two men were holding
I first met Professor Ray Jiing (井迎瑞) as a film and documentary student at Shih Hsin University’s (SHU) Department of Radio Television and Film in 1988. The following year, he went on to become the director of the Chinese Taipei Film Archive — forerunner of the Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute (TFAI). Over his eight-year tenure, Jiing rescued and restored over 200 classic Taiwanese films. In 1997, he established the Graduate Institute of Studies in Documentary and Film Archiving at Tainan National University of the Arts (TNNUA), and I joined the program in his third cohort of students. Beyond a
A recent report concerning a student who is suing his teacher posed the question in its headline: Does failing a student in two subjects constitute bullying? The college student in Chiayi County apparently sought NT$2 million (US$63,603) in state compensation, but a court dismissed the case. The first reaction of many might have been to ask: What has happened to students nowadays? Some say that teachers have lost their authority, while others say students are overindulged. Some even start reminiscing over the days when “whatever the teacher says goes.” However, the real issue might be overlooked if emotional reactions like that are the
RSS