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Taiwan needs more eco-oriented policies
By Chen Chang-po ³¯³¹ªi
Tuesday, Aug 10, 2010, Page 8
The long-term survival of Taiwan depends on our ability to
sustain the island environment in which we live. In determining a future path,
it is important that politicians grasp the implications of this basic truth.
The recent controversy over Kuokuang Petrochemical Technology¡¦s plan to build a
naphtha cracker on the coast of Changhua County, and other environmental
conflicts, show that the current government has a very poor understanding of
what makes Taiwan special.
The location chosen for the Kuokuang plant is unsafe. The main reason for
choosing that location was the cheapness of the land. Little if any
consideration has been given to available water resources, coastline stability,
the productivity of the surrounding sea or the capacity of nearby land and water
sources to bear the burden of such a development.
Going ahead with the project would turn the area¡¦s natural resources into wealth
to be exploited for the benefit of a few capitalists at the cost of poisoning
the soil, harming the health of local residents and destroying their way of
life. This kind of development, robbing the poor to pay the rich, is unjust.
The island of Taiwan rose out of the sea 6 million years ago, formed from
sediment eroded from the eastern part of the Eurasian continental plate, and it
is still rising now. It came, you could say, out of nowhere, and is not part of
any continent. Coastal wetlands act as carbon sinks, collecting and accumulating
many carbon-containing substances, and they are extremely fertile.
Once the island of Taiwan was formed, plants and animals (such as the Chinese
white dolphin) migrated here, as did humans. Among them, lowland peoples such as
the Pingpu and Amis Aborigines lived mostly from the sea, while highlanders like
the Bunun and Atayal Aborigines gathered their food from the mountainside.
Taiwan, with its complex and endlessly changing geology, supports a great
variety of life and its people found many ways to live off the land. For a long
time, they managed to live in harmony with the environment.
Over the last four centuries, colonists from across the seas have come to Taiwan
and opened the land up for unrestrained exploitation. As time went by they
brought in industrial capital. Some Taiwanese made money alongside the
newcomers, and a lifestyle that wastes natural resources became the norm.
People in Taiwan and around the world have become economic animals enslaved by
material things, a mode of development that has led to the threat of global
warming. Taiwan¡¦s natural environment has been badly exploited and damaged,
revealing the nightmarish nature of unsustainable development.
Industrial capitalism only started about 200 years ago ¡X a very short period
relative to the time humans have been on Earth. It is a new stage of experience
and now that we can see its faults, we should change direction. People today
have too long been estranged from nature and have gradually lost touch with its
ways and its laws. Now our very survival is in question.
People need to be taught more about the environment to rebuild the vitality of
Taiwan. We need to coax the ecosystem into providing us with the things we need
to live in a sustainable way. Above all, we need to raise our civilization to a
new level that respects life, and we need to debate the future of Taiwan. We
cannot do it alone, only by working together with China and other countries.
When a government¡¦s policies provoke popular resentment, it is just like a
driver who has strayed from the route the passengers wish to take. It is time
for the government to apologize and get back on the right path as soon as
possible.
Chen Chang-po is a research fellow in the Biodiversity Center
at Academia Sinica.
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