Disastrous air pollution
One particularly insidious consequence of Taiwan’s disastrous energy policy is its devastating effects on human health, namely air pollution (“Disastrous energy policy,” Aug. 14, page 6).
Despite a change in government, the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) seems to continue in the same vein of attention-grabbing, but ultimately ineffective fig-leaf environmental policies whose hallmark was also the previous administration’s main achievement over eight thumb-twiddling years (“And here they go again,” Sep. 21, 2014, page 8).
The latest proof in the pudding that not much has changed is the EPA’s newest intended ban (“EPA eyes ban on two-stroke vehicles,” Aug. 12, page 4). Besides coming about a decade too late, this ban would reduce air pollution by perhaps a few percentage points.
However, if during the same period, overall traffic volume increases, then air pollution would effectively remain the same. The same lame-duck attitude applies to the utterly senseless burning of ghost money (“EPA ad promotes greener worship,” Aug. 12, page 3).
Instead of banning this practice which harms everybody’s health, the EPA makes a television commercial which is of course ignored by almost everybody and so air pollution continues unabated.
The EPA continues to fail in its duty to protect public health; instead it protects irresponsible worshipers.
What would be an effective policy? For example, the government promises Taiwanese that they will breathe healthy air within 20 years, meaning that every five years, air pollution must decrease by 25 percent.
Once that goal has been set, the EPA then figures out the most cost-effective and politically desirable way of achieving it, and then continuously monitors air pollution. If it does not decrease, then more efforts are made until the goal is reached.
Most politicians would probably call such a policy unrealistic, but then, nobody had cellphones 20 years ago, and now almost everybody has one, so why should a change from zero to 100 percent be any more difficult to achieve than a change from 100 to zero percent? It is not, except for political expediency, bureaucratic inertia and public apathy.
On the last point, consider how much time have Taiwanese have recently spent on Pokemon Go and how much time on opposing health-damaging public policies (“The asocial allure of ‘Pokemon Go’,” Aug. 12, page 8)? Despite the information and opportunities that the Internet and mobile phones offer in terms of finding important information and engaging in public policies, most people seem to use it for gaming or exchanging fashion tips and cat videos.
So ask yourself: in a generation’s time, when your children ask you what you did to oppose environmental disasters, what will you answer? Oh, I was too busy catching monsters on Pokemon Go?
Given that virtually all environmental experts agree that we are in a global crisis, I can only conclude that most people prefer to stick their heads in the sand and tell their children and grandchildren: well, you know, I was an ostrich back then.
Flora Faun
Taipei
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