Even though the Dragon Boat festival -- which traditionally marks the start of summer -- is still 19 days away, the country is already feeling the heat.
After three Chiayi County farmers died on three consecutive days from heat exhaustion, the Bureau of Health Promotion warned farmers not to go into their fields in the midday sun, especially if they are wearing heavy protective gear for spraying pesticides and herbicides.
But a Chiayi fourth farmer died on Wednesday -- from pesticide poisoning, not heat exhaustion -- after he sprayed his fields with insecticide in the middle of the day without wearing any protective gear.
"There is no way to spray safely in the midday sun when it is this hot," bureau official Tseng Te-yuan (
For some people, the response to the hot weather has been to crank up the air conditioning. Using more electricity, however, not only hurts the environment, it will be hard on the wallet.
Taiwan Power Co's has raised its electricity rates, effective today, and the summertime pricing program will run through Sept. 30.
Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄) sent a message to government officials and the general public on Monday when he appeared without jacket or tie at a press conference. He called on bureaucrats to leave their jackets at home for the summer to beat the heat without cranking up the AC.
The Central Weather Bureau said it was too early know whether the scorching days that ended last month foretold an unusually hot summer. However, on May 24th, the bureau's Taipei station posted a reading of 37.2oC -- the second hottest temperature recorded for that day ever recorded in Taipei.
"It has been warm recently," said Daniel Wu (
"Taiwan is not exempt from the global warming phenomenon," he said, noting that the last 10 years have been generally warmer.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
SPACE VETERAN: Kjell N. Lindgren, who helps lead NASA’s human spaceflight missions, has been on two expeditions on the ISS and has spent 311 days in space Taiwan-born US astronaut Kjell N. Lindgren is to visit Taiwan to promote technological partnerships through one of the programs organized by the US for its 250th national anniversary. Lindgren would be in Taiwan from Tuesday to Saturday next week as part of the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ US Speaker Program, organized to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement yesterday. Lindgren plans to engage with key leaders across the nation “to advance cutting-edge technological partnerships and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers,”
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