Environmental protection groups in Kaohsiung yesterday protested against air pollution and global warming, urging the local and central governments to pay attention to the effects of air pollution on people’s health in southern Taiwan.
The groups demanded that the coal-fired Hsinta Power Plant (興達) in Kaohsiung be closed; China Steel Corp, the nation’s biggest steelmaker, close one blast furnace; the threshold for air pollution emergency response measures be lowered; and air purifiers be installed in all classrooms.
The average life expectancy of Kaohsiung residents is the lowest among the nation’s six special municipalities, South Taiwan Air Clear spokesman Lee Chien-cheng (李建誠) said.
Photo: Wang Jung-hsiang, Taipei Times
The city’s infant mortality rate and lung adenocarcinoma incidence rate in the past 10 years were the highest among the six special municipalities, Lee said.
Kaohsiung residents would prefer better air quality to protect their children over this year’s Double Ten National Day fireworks display, which Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai’s (陳其邁) announced last month would be held in the city, he said.
Air Clean Taiwan chairman Yeh Guang-perng (葉光芃) said the annual mean concentration of particulate matter smaller than 2.5 micrometers in Toronto is 5.9 micrograms per cubic meter, but it is 19.9 micrograms per cubic meter in Kaohsiung, which is about 3.4 times as much.
Chen said the fireworks display is part of the national celebration, adding that the city government would strive to make “the best arrangement” by assessing the appropriate location for the show.
Chen also pledged that no new coal-fired power generators would be installed in the city and echoed the groups’ demand that the Hsinta Power Plant be retired by 2025.
The city would expand its photovoltaic power generation capacity, and promote the use of solar power arrays on fish farms in the next six years to achieve a coal-free Kaohsiung by 2030 and net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, he said.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching