On the eve of World Environment Day, environmental groups yesterday staged a demonstration urging the president to rethink the nation’s nuclear power policy.
The Taiwan Environmental Protection Union (TEPU), together with 13 civic environmental groups and legislators, gathered on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei with yellow banners that read: “I love Taiwan, not nuclear disasters.”
They said that World Environment Day was set up to remind people to pursue economic development and improvement in quality of life under the premise that the environment cannot be sacrificed.
The nation’s unchanged nuclear power policy is in contrast with the government’s promotion of World Environment Day, TEPU secretary-general Lee Cho-han (李卓翰) said, adding that nuclear power harms the environment and departs from the goals of sustainable development.
They protested against prolonging the life of the nation’s three operating nuclear power plants and the construction of a fourth plant. They also called for all nuclear power plants to be thoroughly re-evaluated and shut down immediately if they fail to pass safety inspections.
“According to the weekly journal Nature, Taiwan has two nuclear power plants with more than 3 million people living within a 30km radius ... and if a level-seven nuclear crisis were to happen in Taiwan, it would destroy the nation,” said Wang To-far (王塗發), an economics professor at National Taipei University.
Wang said that while Germany has decided to shut down all its nuclear plants by 2022 and other nations are reconsidering their nuclear policy, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) should do the same.
Wild at Heart Legal Defense Foundation chairman Robin Winkler said the Ma administration was irresponsible, as it was afraid of offending businesses on World Environment Day.
If the government will not stand up to protect the people, then the people will have to find ways by themselves, he said.
Coinciding with World Environment Day, the Environmental Education Act (環境教育法) comes into force today.
The law, passed last year, obligates the central and local governments to set up environmental education funds and establish authentication systems for environmental education agencies, personnel and facilities.
Staff at government branches of all levels, including the president and the premier, and employees of state-run enterprises are required to take four hours of environmental protection classes each year.
People who disobey the law could be fined at least NT$5,000 or forced to shut down operations and take up to eight hours of environmental education lessons.
To celebrate World Environment Day, the Environmental Protection Administration is inviting the public to log on to its “EcoLife” Web site (http://ecolife.epa.gov.tw), which offers tips on how to save electricity, reduce carbon emissions and other information on environmental protection.
A series of activities promoting environmental awareness will also take place nationwide today, includes beach clean-ups, lectures, second-hand book sales, eco-friendly markets, as well as hiking in Miaoli County and a film display at the Wugu Wetland Ecological Park education center.
For details of the activities, visit the official Web sites of the local governments.
A debt dispute between a restaurant owner and a criminal ring might be behind a bizarre cockroach attack at the Taipei eatery on Monday night while it was hosting a police gathering, Taipei Police Commissioner Chen Jia-chang (陳嘉昌) said yesterday. Preliminary findings of a police investigation into the case at the G House Taipei suggest that the unusual incident might have been directed at the restaurant’s owner, who allegedly owes money to the Bamboo Union, Chen said. The suspects were Bamboo Union members and there was no evidence indicating that the cockroaches were targeted at the police officers at the restaurant, he
The Taipei City Government yesterday officially launched the “YouBike 2.0” system, an upgraded version of the bicycle rental service, saying that it aims to expand the service to more than 1,200 stations throughout the city. The system yesterday activated 160 new stations, in addition to 103 stations in the Gongguan (公館) shopping area near the National Taiwan University campus. A trial run of YouBike2.0 was launched there in January last year. The Taipei Department of Transportation said that bicycles of the upgraded system feature solar panels and card censors, which allow users to rent them by swiping their EasyCard or scanning a QR
QUARANTINE BLUNDER: The government should be responsible for a cluster infection at a hotel, as the cases have caused panic, DPP Legislator Chen Ming-wen said The Ministry of Transportation and Communications should make it mandatory for pilots and flight attendants, as well as their family members, to be vaccinated in view of a cluster of COVID-19 cases at the Novotel Taipei Taoyuan International Airport hotel, lawmakers said at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee yesterday. The cluster infection at the hotel had led to 28 confirmed COVID-19 cases as of Tuesday, including hotel workers, as well as China Airlines flight and cabin crew, and their family members. The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday tightened quarantine requirements for pilots and flight attendants, who must quarantine
‘COLD ATTITUDE’: The man claimed that his wife of nearly 50 years had not cooked or done any laundry for 40 years and that she refused to bathe A court last month rejected a man’s application for a divorce over lack of evidence that his wife “would rather feed stray dogs” than her husband. The 90-year-old man, surnamed Chao (趙), filed for divorce from his wife of nearly 50 years, surnamed Tung (董), saying that she had not cooked or done any laundry for 40 years. “Every morning my wife goes to Gaoping Bridge to feed stray dogs and does not come home until late,” Chao said. “I am 90 and I need to be taken care of,” he said, complaining of his wife’s “cold attitude” toward him. Chao also complained in
RSS