Last year was Taiwan’s warmest on record, in keeping with a trend since the turn of the century, and given the high temperatures last month, this year appears well on track to set another record. It is no surprise that in the past few weeks the National Federation of Teachers’ Unions, parents, lawmakers and others have been pushing for the government to ensure that air-conditioners are installed in all elementary and junior-high school classrooms nationwide.
The issue is a hot topic, with President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) government under immense pressure to promptly take action, but cooler heads need to prevail, to not only ensure that public resources are not wasted, but that the proposed solutions do not exacerbate Taiwan’s power-generation, electricity- consumption and pollution problems.
While complaints about the effects of hot classrooms and school facilities on students’ learning, not to mention their health, are nothing new, they have been growing louder in the past few years alongside rising temperatures.
The federation in 2018 called on the government to make sure every classroom in the nation had air-conditioning. Last year, lawmakers met with school authorities, parents and Ministry of Education officials to press the issue, with one Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmaker this week recounting advice given by ministry officials: Some schools would have to make do with fans.
Infrastructure spending on public schools has largely been the remit of municipal and county authorities, but given the urban-rural divide, and the wealth gap between special municipalities, cities and townships, it is clear that the central government is needed as a leveler of resources and funding, and not just when it comes to air-conditioning.
On Saturday last week, Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) announced that the central government would have air-conditioners installed in every public elementary and junior-high school classroom within two years, and details of the plan have been dripping out, like from a leaking air-conditioner, ever since.
The ministry said the project is expected to cost NT$32.3 billion (US$1.09 billion), with the Executive Yuan to provide 70 to 90 percent of the funding, mostly coming from Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program funds, while local government would provide the rest.
Su on Thursday said that a task force would be established with the aim of having the logistics sorted out by the end of summer and installation beginning next year so that all classrooms would have air- conditioning before the summer of 2022.
However, in the administration’s rush to be seen taking action — by slapping an air-conditioner into every classroom — no one appears to have asked if that is actually the best solution, either financially or, perhaps more importantly, environmentally.
Far too many of the nation’s schools, be they in urban, rural or mountainous areas, are concrete wastelands, with the luckier ones having a few trees on campus, and air-conditioning — if available — in the form of window units, not central systems.
Instead of focusing on buying more individual air-conditioners, which consume vast amounts of electricity and emit heat to the outside, why not prioritize green design solutions, while planning on centralized air-conditioning systems?
Some leading environmentalists have suggested installing plant walls on campuses to help cool buildings, improving building ventilation, tearing up concrete sidewalks and courtyards to install permeable pavements and lawns, planting more trees and other plants, installing water sprayers and solar arrays, as well as gardens and green spaces on school rooftops. Thinking outside the box of window-unit air- conditioners makes sense, financially and in terms of sustainability, not just over the next two years, but for many years to come.
With each passing day, the threat of a People’s Republic of China (PRC) assault on Taiwan grows. Whatever one’s view about the history, there is essentially no question that a PRC conquest of Taiwan would mark the end of the autonomy and freedom enjoyed by the island’s 23 million people. Simply put, the PRC threat to Taiwan is genuinely existential for a free, democratic and autonomous Taiwan. Yet one might not know it from looking at Taiwan. For an island facing a threat so acute, lethal and imminent, Taiwan is showing an alarming lack of urgency in dramatically strengthening its defenses.
As India’s six-week-long general election grinds past the halfway mark, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s messaging has shifted from confident to shrill. After the first couple of phases of polling showed a 3 percentage point drop in turnout, Modi and his party leaders have largely stopped promoting their accomplishments of the past 10 years — or, for that matter, the “Modi guarantees” offered in the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) manifesto for the next five. Instead, making the majority Hindu population fear and loathe Muslims seems to be the BJP’s preferred talking point. Modi went on the offensive in an April 21
The people of Taiwan recently received confirmation of the strength of American support for their security. Of four foreign aid bills that Congress passed and President Biden signed in April, the bill legislating additional support for Taiwan garnered the most votes. Three hundred eighty-five members of the House of Representatives voted to provide foreign military financing to Taiwan versus only 34 against. More members of Congress voted to support Taiwan than Ukraine, Israel, or banning TikTok. There was scant debate over whether the United States should provide greater support for Taiwan. It was understood and broadly accepted that doing so
I still remember the first time I heard about the possibility of an invasion by China. I was six years old. I thought war was coming and hid in my bed, scared. After 18 years, the invasion news tastes like a sandwich I eat every morning. As a Gen Z Taiwanese student who has witnessed China’s harassment for more than 20 years, I want to share my opinion on China. Every generation goes through different events. I have seen not only the norms of China’s constant presence, but also the Sunflower movement, wars and people fighting over peace or equality,