Drive your own wind turbine
If you live in a big city in Taiwan the chances are that when you look out your window through steel bars or grating, you are confronted with a view of mostly asphalt, cars and motorcycles. There is a one in three chance you own a car, and probably a motorcycle.
Cars and motorcycles dominate people’s personal lives. Pollution from these vehicles cause myriad health problems and environmental stresses. The noise they create continuously penetrates through to even the most intimate living spaces. It seems there is never a moment of real quiet. Roads cut through neighborhoods, sacrificing green space. Untold millions of animals are hurt or killed. People are inured to this. It is just the way it is.
People keep their kids inside because it is dangerous for them to play on the street. Each year in Taiwan, cars and motorcycles are involved in more than 370,000 injuries and 2,000 deaths.
Yet people accept the presence of motorbikes and cars in their daily lives without protest. I have never heard any community protests against cars or motorcycles; frightened parents worrying about their children being killed by these “road-monsters,” insomniacs demanding investigations into the health impact of traffic noise, pedestrians stopping by a smoke-belching blue truck, bicyclists questioning the capabilities of the drivers, green groups concerned about wildlife roadkill.
Yet protests citing health and safety concerns against planned solar installation or wind-turbines are frequent and widely reported. Never mind that solar panels and wind-turbines are a lot safer than the average car.
So what is the difference? Wind turbines and solar panels provide directly benefit everyone. They power TVs, run air-conditioning, charge tablets and keep refrigerators cold, with no emissions.
The benefits of turbine and solar panel power has to become clear to communities invested in better energy strategies. In Europe, this concept has been known for many years. Denmark introduced special legislation in the early 1990s to promote the participation of communities in the building and operation of wind farms. The legislation allowed residents easy access to investment capital focused on renewable energy systems and gave them tax exemption on the income from renewable energy.
What resulted was an explosion of renewable energy, with huge spin off effects on the local renewable energy industry. Denmark is now home to the No. 1 supplier of wind-turbines, and Denmark has announced that it will reach a 100 percent renewable economy by 2050. No wonder it is one of the happiest countries in the world.
By literally handing back power to the people, Taiwan could turn around as well. It is time to introduce appropriate, supportive legislation that encourages and rewards citizens and communities who choose renewable energy. Allow people to choose renewable energy sources. New legislation must support easy investment for residents, fast-track permits and guarantee immediate grid connection for communities investing in renewable energy.
Enable people and communities to clean the air and green the land themselves. Let people drive their own wind turbine.
Bart Linssen
John Quinlan
Taichung
Higher education challenges
The 2008-2009 economic crisis resulted in increased worldwide unemployment. It challenged higher education to justify the value of degrees in creating job opportunities for graduates.
Facing this challenge, Britain has increased internship vacancies for college students to cultivate job skills in the wake of the economic downturn.
In Australia, they increased internship opportunities for high-school students so that they can develop career paths earlier. Australian universities collaborate with industry and businesses to enhance the applicability of their academic research. In this way, students can learn the latest skills required by industry.
These are good examples of higher-education transformation. By contrast, higher education in Taiwan focuses on theory and academic research while down playing the value of pragmatism and practical application.
This narrow focus shows in the exclusive requirement for faculty members to get published in the Science Citation Index or Social Sciences Citation Index journals. Fettered by the requirement of academic publication, faculty members lose their motivation to explore what industry needs and what is helpful for students’ job prospects.
We do not need so many people devoting themselves to academic research. We need people with diverse skills to contribute to society. The narrow focus of Taiwan’s higher education is likely to harm the productivity and competitiveness of our nation in the long term.
Chingning Wang
Pingtung
What is in a name?
The UK has changed the name of its representative office in Taiwan from the British Trade and Cultural Office to the British Office (“Representative says British Office name only ‘a rebranding,’” May 28, page 4). The old name reportedly did not adequately describe the services of the office.
Should Taiwan change the name of its representative office in the UK from the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) to the Taiwanese Office?
The new building of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) has posted on the wall a sign in Chinese that reads: American Embassy (美國大使).
For the sake of parity, should Taiwan change the name of its representative office in the US from the TECO to the Taiwanese Embassy in English?
Charles Hong
Columbus, Ohio
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