Roads In High Mountains

According to the Taiwan News, there are plans to repair a section of the Central Cross-Island Highway, which has been closed since the 9-21 Earthquake of 1999.

Minister of Transportation and Communications Mao Chi-kuo promised on Tuesday to open an access road on an earthquake-damaged section of the east-west cross-island highway in central Taiwan to allow traffic between lower Guguan and the Deji reservoir in Taichung County's Heping township.

Answering questions from Legislator Yen Ching-piao, Mao said he hopes the partial repair work will begin next year.

Yen said that re-opening the highway -- which runs through one of the country's most scenic mountain ranges -- will boost Taiwan's tourism industry, especially now that the government has decided to allow tourists from China into Taiwan from next month.

Mao said his ministry is not sure that the whole central cross-island highway can be reopened because the geological instability of the mountain region in the location of the damaged road section has made the repair work extremely difficult.

He said he could only promise that a five-kilometer access road will be completed to allow residents and farmers between lower Guguan and the Deji reservoir to have easier access to population centers.

The Highway Bureau has estimated that it will cost at least NT$10 billion (US$328 million) and take more than 10 years to repair the 24-km section totally destroyed in the 1999 earthquake.

If boosting tourism is the main goal, the money could be better spent. Picking up the trash that litters Taiwan's countryside would be a good start. Using the money to expand nature reserves, which would attract eco-tourists, should also come before road rebuilding.

Rainwater Capture

Even though water is so cheap, some of my neighbors think it's worthwhile collecting rainwater. The lady who lives here says she uses it for mopping the floor and watering plants - not, it seems, for flushing the toilet.

Selfish People Should Use Public Transportation

...simply because they'd live longer, even if they don't care about the environment. According to this Forbes article:

What's really taking a toll on your health is the polluted air you're breathing, lengthy traffic delays and dodging accidents to and from work.

[A report] that investigated diesel exhaust levels during commutes [in various US cities] documented diesel particle levels four to eight times higher inside commuter cars, buses and trains than in those cities' ambient outdoor air. The only commutes found to be low in diesel exposure were those on electric-powered subways and commuter trains, buses running on alternative fuels or retrofitted with diesel particulate filters, and in cars traveling with little truck traffic.

I'm pretty certain that scooter riders - who account for the majority of commuters in Taiwan - breathe in even more pollution that car drivers and bus passengers. Unfortunately, anyone riding a bicycle is also vulnerable.

Reforestation Plots

Taiwan Sugar, a government-owned company, has given over some of its land to reforestation. Here are photos of one such patch in Tainan County. The trees seem to be doing well. Note the plastic sheeting covering the ground. The reforestation plot borders an established forest.

Expensive Oil Equals Less Flying

I've already blogged about how rising gasoline prices have caused people to drive cars less and instead ride motorcycles and possibly bicycles. Now it seems the price of oil is starting to really cut into flying. China Airlines has said they're reducing the number of flights they operate; Far Eastern Air Transport is going under for various reasons, fuel prices being one of them.

Not Everyone Is Recycling...

Recently I attended a health promotion event where people were encouraged to take long walks. The reward for completing the course? A bottle of mineral water. As you can see, not everyone recycled the bottle after drinking the water...

Disposable Chopsticks & Convenience Stores

The Taiwan News reports that the Environmental Protection Administration is urging the public to stop using disposable chopsticks, so as to reduce the volume of disposable eating utensils:

According to EPA Minister Stephen Shu-hung Shen, the administration is suggesting that individuals take their own reusable chopsticks when eating out, and that workers, who constitute a major consumer group at convenience stores, take non-disposable chopsticks to their workplaces.

Shen said the Taiwan public uses 5 billion disposable chopsticks per year, with the largest number dispensed at convenience stores.

In its bid to reduce the volume of disposable utensils, the EPA plans to meet with convenience store operators in June to discuss the possibility of discontinuing the practice of providing customers with disposable eating utensils, Shen said.

According to the article, if a restaurant provides 100 pairs of disposable chopsticks per day to its customers, it generates 12 kilos of trash. The article also quotes a lady who says firms giving "environmentally friendly chopsticks" to their employees are frequently wasting resources, as often those chopsticks are not used.

It takes a while to kick the habit of disposable chopsticks. Remembering to take them with you every time you go out is the first step; then you need to remember to use them. Now, after a few months of trying, I get it right about 80 percent of the time.

The bring-your-own-chopsticks movement is nothing new, of course. This article has a great photo of a truckload of used sticks awaiting disposal...

Microgeneration

The Guardian, a British newspaper, yesterday reported:

British buildings equipped with solar, wind and other micro power equipment could generate as much electricity in a year as five nuclear power stations, a government-backed industry report showed today.

Commissioned by the Department for Business, Energy and Regulatory Reform (DBERR), the report says that if government chose to be as ambitious as some other countries, a combination of loans, grants and incentives could lead to nearly 10m microgeneration systems being installed by 2020.

Such a large scale switch to microrenewable energy could save 30m tonnes of CO2 – the equivalent of nearly 5% of all UK electricity.

The report estimates that there are nearly 100,000 microgeneration units already installed in Britain. Nearly 90,000 of these are solar water heaters, with limited numbers of biomass boilers, photovoltaic panels, heat pumps, fuel cells, and small-scale hydroelectric and windpower schemes.

Likewise, the vast majority of microgeneration systems installed here in Taiwan are solar water heaters. There's not the space for private wind turbines, but as photovoltaic cells become cheaper and more efficient, the government should make it easy for homeowners to set up net metering systems.

South Taiwan is very suitable: Kaohsiung gets 2,139 hours of sunshine per year; Tainan enjoys 2,649 hours. Many apartment buildings have flat roofs, and residents will likely be interested in a scheme that means, instead of paying a monthly management fee for building upkeep, they earn a few dollars every once in a while.

Green Steps By The New Administration

The government's own Taiwan Journal reported today that:

Taiwan's new administration announced it had begun introducing guidelines for government departments and agencies to save energy and reduce carbon emissions, which are considered one of the major causes of global climate change.

[On] May 22, Presidential Office high-level officials began using smaller cars instead of limousines, reserving the larger vehicles for visiting foreign dignitaries.

Minister of Transportation and Communications Mao Chi-kuo has instructed the ministry to use a video conferencing system, so that officials in remote areas do not have to travel to Taipei for meetings. In addition, the MOTC plans to install technology that is able to adjust settings on air conditioning systems based on a room's humidity and temperature. It was estimated that such a system would reduce energy consumption by up to 30 percent.

All moves in the right direction, for sure, but the government also needs to pump money into MRT schemes instead of road-building programs, and tackle the massive CO2 emissions of certain private enterprises, such as the Formosa Plastics Group.

The ideas are right but the goals could be more ambitious:

[Yeh said] employees were also being encouraged to use public transportation at least once a month.

Once a month? Why not twice a week?

Plastic Agriculture

Taiwanese farmers use a lot of plastic, but the more I think about it, the more I understand it. Plastic sheeting (like the stuff shown here) retains moisture and stops weed growth. With regard to the second goal, it may be preferable to pesticides. But a lot of it stays on the ground, chewed up into little pieces and bleached by the sun. What will the landscape be like in 50 years if this continues?

Illegal Dumping

Water-saving toilets can do a lot for the environment. Toilets that biodegrade after a few years would be another great invention (biodegradeable ceramics are already used in medicine). Why oh why do people have to dump them in the countryside? Is there some Taiwanese superstition connected to toilets, like there is with dead cats?

50 Ways To Help The Planet - A Checklist

Take a look at this and see what else you can do for the environment. To put a more local twist on some of the 50 items, rather than worrying about coffee stirrers (no. 44), we should be worrying about disposable chopsticks and plastic straws.

Few people in Taiwan use dishwashers, so no. 3 isn't of much relevance here. The recycling rate for glass (no. 5) isn't very good; discarded Whisbih bottles are all over the place. No. 7 urges people to dry their clothes on a line, not in a dryer. One advantage of Taiwan's warm climate is that people here don't need dryers.

I'm already vegetarian at least one day a week (no. 8). A lot of Taiwanese are vegetarian twice a month for religious reasons. As for buying local (no. 22), I do when it comes to beer. No. 24 is "invest in your own coffee cup." For Taiwan, this should be "invest in your own tea cup," as millions of styrofoam cups are thrown away each day.

There are no excuses the lack of telecommuting in Taiwan (no. 33), as this article explains. Plastic bags are massively overused in Taiwan (no. 40), but there's hope they can be made to decompose.

I don't pay my bills online (no. 47). I'm not sure how this can be done in Taiwan. I do know that if you pay automatically by bank arrangement, they still mail you a receipt. Here in Taiwan, bank statements mailed out at regular intervals (no. 48) are rare. Banks and the post office issue account holders with a passbook which gets updated everytime you deposit or withdraw money.

Wasteful Taipower

Taipower, this island's state-run power utility, has been complaining that rising oil prices are pushing it close to bankruptcy. Here's a way they could save a bit money, and do something for the environment at the same time: Stop sending out two letters in two envelopes on the same day to the same house, like they do to me and hundreds of thousands of other people.

Rice And Methane

Looks nice, doesn't it? But according to the New Scientist, rice fields are a massive source of methane, a greenhouse gas that's more potent than carbon dioxide.

What can be done? Weaning Taiwanese off rice is even less likely than weaning them off air-conditioning.

Converting the land into forests would be good for Taiwan's CO2 situation, but would surely add millions of food miles, as replacement rice would have to come from Thailand, Vietnam or the USA. Even if that weren't an issue, the rising price of food guarantees they'll be no cuts in local agricultural production in the near future.

Where Tainan HSR Station Should Have Been

I took this photo from the platform of Sinshih TRA Station in Tainan County. As you can see, the high-speed railway crosses the old TRA line about 100 meters southeast of the platform. To me, this would have been an excellent place for Tainan's HSR station. Passengers would be able to transfer from HSR to TRA to go to downtown Tainan, quicker and better for the environment than the current 35-minute bus journey. Also, they'd be a lot nearer Yongkang - the biggest city in Tainan County - and the science park, which is the destination of many business travelers.

There are plans to link Tainan HSR station with the city by light-rail. Ground has yet to be broken, however.

A Tax On Ghost Money?

An anonymous letter writer to the Taipei Times thinks a tax on ghost money is a good idea. Here's his (her?) letter in its entirety:

I am writing this letter to highlight a significant problem for people living in Taiwan.Many recent news reports had showed that the air quality is getting worse. Most people are aware of the dangers of secondhand smoke. The government has designated no smoking areas in most public buildings and has stepped up non-smoking campaigns. It has even added a tax on cigarettes to decrease consumption and offset healthcare costs.

However, one kind of secondhand smoke still seems to be widely accepted by the public - even if it is potentially twice as harmful. It is highly concentrated and covers a wider area. I am referring to the smoke created by the burning of ghost money by both individuals and temples.
Every time my neighbors burn ghost money, my house is filled with a heavy smoke and strong odor. While it has been proven that the burning of ghost money causes the release of harmful and cancer-causing chemicals, the government has hardly taken any action to address this form of pollution.

What is strange is how the public seems to be oblivious to the impact it has or will have on children, the elderly and people with respiratory problems. People who would never think of smoking in a non-smoking area are the same ones who burn large wads of ghost money outside their homes without giving it a second thought. The problem is exacerbated when local temples burn ghost money in their large incinerators. In my area, the whole neighborhood is layered with gray smog. I live a few blocks from a temple and the air is terrible. I can't imagine what the air quality is like for people who live near the temple.

Since banning this practice is probably impossible, an alternative is in order. The government should place an environment tax on the sale of ghost money. Through this, people who insist on burning ghost money would have to offset the environmental and healthcare costs of doing so.

I foresee some problems. Some people will undoubtedly complain that by taxing ghost money, the government is infringing on their rights. Also, if the tax is especially high, contraband ghost money (which, in terms of chemicals could be even worse than the stuff currently being burned) will appear.

As the letter writer says, the money raised by a tax could be used to offset the environmental and healthcare costs of burning ghost money. But instead of having those costs offset, I'd prefer to see less ghost money going up in smoke.

I think ghost money is like cigarettes in that demand for it is fairly price inelastic. It's not addictive, but people think it's necessary. A price hike may not do much. Religious institutions should be pushed to educate their followers about the hazards of this habit. Certain temples do already discourage the burning of ghost money: Xingtian Temple in Taipei is one.

The Environmental Protection Administration and local governments are doing something. And it's worth remembering that it's not just foreigners who complain about the burning of ghost money.

According to Michael Turton's blog, ghost money that is offered (but not burned) sometimes get recycled. I've never seen this.

Local Education: There Is Some Hope

Today, while looking for something else on the Internet, I stumbled across a 2005 English test paper from National Wu-Ling Senior High School in Taoyuan City.

Here's an extract:

A "green" building places a high priority on health, environmental and resource conservation performance over its lifecycle. These new priorities expand and complement the ___31___ building design concerns: economy, utility, durability, and delight. Green design emphasizes a number of new environmental, resource and occupant health concerns:
△ Reduce human exposure ___32___ noxious materials.
△ Conserve non-renewable energy and scarce materials.
△ ___33___ lifecycle ecological impact of energy and materials used.
△ Use renewable energy and materials that are ___34___ harvested.
△ Protect and restore local air, water, soils, flora and fauna.
△ Support pedestrians, bicycles, mass transit and other ___35___ to fossil-fueled vehicles.
Most green buildings are high-quality buildings; they ___36___ longer, cost less to operate and maintain, and provide greater occupant satisfaction than standard developments. Sophisticated buyers and lessors prefer them, and are often willing to pay a premium for their ___37___.___38___ surprises many people unfamiliar with this design movement is ___39___ good green buildings often cost little or no more to build than conventional designs. Commitment to better performance, close teamwork throughout the design process, openness to new approaches, and information on how these are ___40___ applied are more important than a large construction budget.

It's great to see this, but whenever I come across environmental messages in educational materials in Taiwan, I wonder how effective they are. The students may read this; their teachers may talk about it. But when they leave the school and see their teachers go everywhere by car or motorcycle (I've seen local teachers ride scooters to get lunch from a place 40 meters from the school), what kind of behavior will they think is normal? Ecologically conscious, or ecologically oblivious?

Solar-Powered Bridge

Here are some photos of a newish bridge in Sinshih, Tainan County. It's not a bad-looking piece of architecture, and it does help reduce the jams around a particular chokepoint a few hundred meters, which should save time and gasoline.

The bridge has four banks of photovoltaic cells; one set is visible in the photo on the right. Two sets have missing cells. I don't know if they were removed for maintenance, or stolen.

Whether the electricity is used on site, or fed into the general grid, is something I'd like to know. Net metering (also known as FIT) already happens in Taiwan on a small scale.

Hide From The Climate

From a class with nine- and ten-year-olds the day before yesterday:

Teacher: Which season do you like?

Student: I like summer, because I can turn on the air-conditioning.

I'm always amazed at the number of Taiwanese who can't endure the heat here, even though they grew up here (and grew up without air-conditioning, in many cases). Environmental education has some way to go, of course. Still, I've achieved one thing with the kids I teach English to: Now, if they buy tea on the way to class, they know not to get one of those useless-for-anything-else cup-sized plastic bags.

Pointless Road Widening

Near where I live there are a lot of narrow roads, used only by farmers going to their fields and cyclists out exercising. Recently, some of them have been widened for no apparent reason. The one pictured here is typical: The bed of wildflowers, grasses and weeds that used to be alongside the road, between its and the irrigation ditch on the right, has been sealed under asphalt. It wasn't a biodiversity hotspot by any stretch, but it was better than adding non-reflective, heat-absorbing blacktop...

Why has this been done? Not so the road can handle more vehicles. Traffic of the four-wheeled kind is very light indeed. To ease access to houses? Well, the widened section doesn't even reach the one and only house here.

The fact they've done some but not all of the road, and haven't even gone as far as the house, suggests there were budget issues. Government units can award contracts without a competitive tender if the contract is below a certain amount. Did someone in the township government decide this needed to be done, to help a friend out? Couldn't they have thought of something more useful? Pork barrelling is covering this island with concrete.

Beer Miles

More than once, I've heard foreigners in Taiwan decry the environmental carelessness of Taiwanese, and then head to a hypermarket or convenience store to buy beer that's been shipped in from North America, Ireland or Germany...

I minimize my beer miles by drinking the local stuff. Bottles are better than cans (for the planet, and in terms of taste) if you take them back to the store for reuse.

Look at a can or bottle of Taiwan Beer, and you'll notice a letter beside the production date: A, B, or C. The letter tells you where it was brewed. A is Miaoli County (just south of Hsinchu); B is Taichung County; C is Tainan County. My beer is always from C. I know the brewery, it's about 15 kilometers from my house. In terms of food miles, that isn't bad.

Ma Wants Fewer Fireworks

I've been neglecting the news for a few days while trying to get other things done. I picked up Thursday's China Post and immediately saw three environment stories. One is about the weakness of the Environmental Impact Assessment system for industrial and infrastructure projects; another reports on criticism of a TV ad that urges people to replace inefficient air-conditioning units. The third story does not contain any words like "environment" or "eco-friendly," which perhaps shows how unimaginative some reporters are, or how Ma's press people missed a chance to make the new president appear green.

Here's the article in its entirety:

President-elect Ma Ying-jeou has reportedly sharply cut the budget for setting off fireworks in celebration of his inauguration as new president of the Republic of China to NT$5 million from NT$20 million to promote the spirit of prudence. The NT$5 million budget is just one third of the NT$16 million spending on celebration fireworks in 2004, when President Chen Shui-bian assumed his second-term presidency.

Under the limited budget, the ad hoc panel responsible for inauguration affairs has decided to create grand audio and video effects by having an orchestra play the Tchaikovsky 1812 Overture.

The Tchaikovsky 1812 Overture is among the most energizing of compositions, with its cannons and bells commemorating the Russian defeat in 1812 of Napoleon interwoven with Russian folk tunes and, of course, the Marseillaise.

In fact, the panel said that when serving as Taipei mayor, Ma also instructed relevant units under the city government to reduce the budget for fireworks set off during celebration festivals.

I'm delighted to read of Ma's decision, not for the money that'll be saved, but rather for the sake of the air we breathe. Fireworks are fun but filthy. Even Taiwan's media has grasped this; reporting last year's record-breaking firecracker in Yanshuei, the TV news mentioned the results of air-quality tests, which were scary.

Earth Day, The Premier & Me

As I type this, government buildings and schools which turned off their lights for an hour to mark Earth Day should be turning them back on. I'll be watching the TV news tonight to see who among Taiwan's great-and-good rode a bicycle to work, or took public transportation.

According to the China Post:

"Only one car will escort the premier to his office, rather than the usual three..."

Also, some members of the Cabinet are going vegetarian for the day. No indication that any of them turned off the air-conditioning in their offices, walked to work, or even worked from home. If Taiwan really wants to cut CO2 emissions and reduce traffic congestion, attitudes to telecommuting are going to have to change.

What have I done? Well, I used my bicycle this morning rather than the motorcycle or car. I remembered to bring my own chopsticks for lunch. I picked up nine small glass bottles that someone dumped beside the road (they'll go in the recycling truck this evening). And I turned the computer off between 8 am and 2 pm (usually it stays on, though typically I don't get much work done in that period).

Are Taxis An Endangered Species?

The opening of Kaohsiung's MRT is reportedly cutting into taxi drivers' earnings. And in Taipei, a city councilor wants the number of taxis reduced because they're so often cruising the streets empty. Some say more taxis should convert from gasoline to LPG or a dual gasoline-LPG system.

Personally, I hope taxis remain plentiful and inexpensive. I think it's better for people to take trains and buses from one city to another, and then a taxi from the station to their final destination, rather than drive their own vehicle the whole way.

Organic Batteries And Eco-Movies

Yilan County is holding its fifth annual Green International Film Festival. The festival's website names some of the movies and documentaries being shown this year, such as Half Life: A Journey to Chenobyl and Texas Gold. In previous years the festival has included the works of Japanese director Tsuchimoto Noriaki.

According to this report, alongside the festival there is an exhibition of organic agricultural produce and eco-friendly products such as organic radical batteries (ORBs) and energy-saving electrical appliances. ORBs could be a very good thing for Taiwan; the battery-recycling rate here has improved but remains dismal, despite incentive programs.

Leave Guandu To The Birds

The TV news talked about this yesterday, and it's in all the newspapers: President-elect Ma Ying-jeou has apparently welcomed suggestions that the Presidential Office be relocated, and that the building currently used for the purpose - the old Japanese governor's residence - be turned into a museum about the Japanese colonization era.

I'm not going to discuss the merits of the museum proposal. I'm more concerned about the environmental impact of moving the Presidential Office.

According to the China Post's report, the Guandu Plain in Taipei County was mentioned as an ideal site for a brand new Presidential Office. However:

"Some said it could cause communication problems and inconveniences for other government agencies and the people if the president's office is moved away from the downtown area of the capital city. The Presidential Office, a six-story red-brick building with a central tower, is within walking distance of the Foreign Ministry, the Defense Ministry, the Judicial Yuan, the Finance Ministry, and the Central Bank."

Of course, civil servants and their bosses don't actually walk anywhere when they can drive or be driven. Still, if the distances are shorter, that's better for everyone.

"Real estate developers said the move will shift the commercial and realty development in the greater Taipei area. The plan will help bring faster development and prosperity to the Guandu area."

What about the birds? Guandu Nature Park is one of Taiwan's most-popular and best-known birding areas.

"The vast plain, lying to the west of Taipei City... has been left idle and undeveloped for many years."

That's typical Taiwanese thinking, I'm sad to say. A piece of land is "idle" - going to waste - if it's not being farmed or hasn't been built on. The idea that it might be visually appealing and be beneficial for those living nearby, never occurs to some people.

Coconut-Fiber Brushes

My wife has been buying these at the local morning market. They're for washing dishes. They're billed as eco-friendly because you don't need to use any detergent - something in the coconut fiber is said to remove oil and grease from pots and dishes. They seem to work well. Also, when you're done with the brush, you can dispose of it naturally - every part can decompose, except for a tiny piece of wire, and the plastic bag it comes in.

Scientists have been experimenting with biodegradable plastic bags made partly of coconut fiber. Also, here in South Taiwan, coconut fiber mats have been used on slopelands to hold soil in place until plants and trees have taken root; this was done along the banks of the Love River.

I'm curious: Was the coconut fiber imported or grown here in Taiwan? How efficiently are the coconut palms used? According to some sources, nearly all parts of the coconut palm are useful.

Toxic Agents On Disposable Chopsticks

Disposable chopsticks may not have other people's saliva or soap suds on them, but that doesn't mean using them is good for your health, according to this article.

A consumers' group leader is quoted as saying: "The best solution is to use your own pair of reusable chopsticks to protect the environment and your health."

How clean are the paper or plastic bags that are given out by hot-food vendors and people selling fruit and vegetables in markets? That's something I'd like to know.

Energy Use Rising

Taiwan's energy use rose for the eighth straight month in February, according to Reuters. Demand last dropped in June 2007, when it fell 2.3 percent.

Industrial growth is the main factor behind increased energy demand, the article says. Industrial output grew 15 percent from a year earlier in February; the information and electronics sectors led with a 29 percent gain. According to a Taipower spokesman, electronics companies take almost 20 percent of Taiwan's electricity output.

Despite the expansion of windpower, Taiwan is still very dependent on imported fuel. Some 98 percent of its energy needs came from overseas in February. To read the entire article, click here.

Millions Have Gone Missing

According to this article in the China Post, about seven million cell phones were sold in Taiwan last year, but the Environmental Protection Administration managed to collect only 2.34 million old phones between April 2006 and February 2008. I'm sure millions of old phones are sitting in people's homes. I'm sure plenty were tossed in with regular trash and incinerated or dumped in landfills. How many were unofficially recycled? Don't tell me there are no unlicensed breakers operating in the backstreets, especially now the price of gold is so high...

The article is about recycling. No mention is made of refurbishing old phones for reuse by low-income families in Taiwan or people in other countries.

Cell-phone recycling has been mandatory in Taiwan for two years, but enforcement seems to be non-existent. People should be compelled to pay a deposit whenever they get a new handset - NT$1,000 at least - which they'd get back only when they hand the phone in for recycling or refurbishing.

Greening Your Taiwan Home

The always-excellent Tree Hugger has an article called Greening Your Rental. Most of it is applicable to Taiwan.

The ten ways in which you can reduce your impact on the environment through your home are: Location (live near your place of work, and/or near somewhere with public transportation); Living in a small or shared abode (but apartments in Taiwan seem to be getting bigger); Working with your landlord to increase energy efficiency (you can do some things yourself, such as plugging drafts to make air-conditioning more efficient); Good lifestyle habits (turning off appliances when they're not being used); Using renewable power (Taiwan is a good place for solar stoves, but I've never seen one in the flesh; you'd need a big balcony or access to the roof); Replacing incandescent lights with compact fluorescents or LEDs (but what happens to incandescent bulbs that go into the trash?); Saving water (even if the pricing system offers no incentive); Redecorating only with eco-friendly paints; And buying secondhand furniture (there aren't many used-furniture stores in Taiwan, but dumpster diving is a possibility).

Green(ish) Buildings In My Neighborhood

The building on the right is the Yang Kuei Memorial Literature Museum, a newish cultural facility about three kilometers from my home. It has a handful of green features: The site has about 30 young trees; rather than slather blacktop all over the site, they've use small square stones for the parking area (this allows rainwater to permeate into the ground naturally, reducing the risk of flooding); and parts of the exterior are covered with wooden slats, which should reduce heat gain on sunny days. I've no idea if the stones used around the building were retrieved from a derelict site or quarried. Like most Taiwanese buildings, the structure is basically concrete, and there's no rainwater harvesting or solar-energy system.

The other building is a police station. It too has a water-permeable parking area; the grass growing between the slabs is certainly more attractive than standard asphalt. Also, there are solar thermal panels on the roof (just about visible in the photo) for hot water - a good idea, as policemen often shower at the end of a shift.

According to this article in the government's Taiwan Journal, the majority of green buildings in Taiwan were built by the public sector. It's Part 2 of a two-part report; Part 1 is here.

Scuba Diving's Bleak Future

Recently I talked to Andy Gray, a Briton who works as a diving instructor in Kenting. He's been diving around Taiwan since 1984. He also provided the photos with this entry.

He thinks Taiwan is a good place to learn diving, but believes divers and dive operators here face a bleak future.

"Taiwan desperately needs to create proper marine parks before it is too late. The one they just opened 450 kilometres southwest of Taiwan [the Dongsha Atoll National Park ] is a joke. They should start with Kenting and then go on to Orchid Island and Green Island , then Penghu and Siaoliouciou. All of these places are being steadily fished out by local fishermen using gill nets, scuba divers who spear fish and aquarists collecting fish and corals for marine aquariums. That, combined with pollution and the dying-off of corals due to a high nitrate count, due to untreated sewage being dumped into the ocean, is causing massive choking weed growth and algae which is damaging the corals."

"If the powers that be do not take action to curtail the above bad practices, the diving industry will die off in Taiwan over the next ten to fifteen years as there will be nothing to see."

Gray is trying to do something about the situation. He and other foreign and Taiwanese dive instructors organize clean up days in Kenting twice a year, in May and September.

"We go down and clean up the reef, collecting non bio-degradable objects such as plastic, glass, metal, old fishing nets and lines. Non-divers help by cleaning up the beaches and assisting the divers out of the water."

Septic Tank To Scenic Spot

A teacher in Taichung County has organized efforts to convert his school's septic pit into a garden. The article doesn't say if the septic system was redundant. It may well be, as in many parts of Taiwan, proper sewers are being built - finally.

Water Profligacy On The KMRT

Just over a week ago, I took my first trip on Kaohsiung's new MRT system. It seems to work well, but I did notice that the urinals in the men's toilets bear stickers reading "3 liters per flush."

This struck me as a lot more water than strictly needed; surely a liter would be enough. But I'm not surprised. Cheap water in Taiwan means water-efficient toilets are not a priority.

Waterless urinals are described in this article.

Can Three Experts Be Wrong?

Stephen Hesse, a columnist for The Japan Times, doesn't think so.

The experts in question, James Lovelock, Lester Brown and Jeffrey Sachs, are heavyweights - and they're all calling for immediate action on global climate issues.


"All three strongly agree that prompt and concerted action is needed to ensure supplies of food, energy and fresh water, and to deal with climate change, poverty and population, as well as the feedback loops that inextricably link all of these together. If it sounds to you as though these guys are concerned about, well, most everything, you're right. However, their approaches and conclusions can differ dramatically."

Lovelock is fatalistic. Brown and Sachs think the day can be saved, if we roll our sleeves up immediately. I'm too young (and, more importantly, so is my son) to give up.

Why Birds Are Important

In a recent email exchange, Robert W. Butler, a Canadian research scientist and professor of biological sciences, told me:

"Ecosystems require all of their components to function, and native birds are part of natural ecosystems. When the birds are healthy and abundant, it means the ecosystems that provide us with natural products - air, water and food - are also functioning."

Unfortunately, many of Taiwan's birds are threatened by habitat loss. The Hushan Dam Project, if it goes ahead, would be a very serious blow for the Fairy Pitta, a globally endangered migrant. The photo above was taken by Richard Yu.

I met Dr. Butler when he was co-chairing the Waterbirds 2005 Conference in Tainan City. He's also involved with the Taiwan International Birding Association.

Gargling With Detergent

Taiwan's Cheng Hsiu University has come up with an environmentally-friendly detergent.

According to the report, a translation from a local Chinese-language newspaper, it's safe to gargle. The research was done at the behest of a reform institution run by the Ministry of Justice. It doesn't say why such a place would make such a request: To stop prisoners using it to kill themselves, maybe?

Water-saving Super Toilets

A Taiwanese professor has invented a water-saving toilet that uses just four liters of water per flush, two-thirds of the amount used by other water-efficient toilets. Regular toilets, apparently, use about nine liters per flush.

According to the report, the toilet will be manufactured in China and go on sale in the US next year. But don't expect them to appear anytime soon in Taiwan's green buildings. The report says the toilet is unlikely be introduced to Taiwan's market in the near future, "because the price... would be significantly higher than that of a standard unit and the size of the domestic market is limited."

And, as has been pointed out again and again, Taiwan's ridiculously low water prices mean there's no incentive to invest in water-saving technology.

Recycling Clothes

Dozens of these boxes have appeared throughout the township in which I live. People are being encouraged to put unwanted clothes inside. I don't know if the clothes are then sorted and given to the needy, or if the fabric is recycled.

I'm passionate about recycling, but I don't plan on getting rid of any of my old garments this way. In our house, anything that's no longer fit to wear becomes a floor rag. This cuts down on "trash miles" (the distance garbage is trucked before being burned or dumped in a landfill), and reduces the number of tissue papers we get through.

EPA Chief Wants Higher Utility Prices

The Taipei Times today published an interview with the chief of the Environmental Protection Administration, Winston Dang. It seems he has read and agrees with the recent TAIWAN BUSINESS TOPICS article on water and electricity pricing:

"Many of the nation's politicians lack vision in terms of environmental policies -- a fearless politician should go ahead and say, `I'm going to charge more for water and electricity from now on,'" he said. "When water and electricity are too cheap, no businesses would be willing to invest in water treatment, seawater desalinization facilities or renewable energy technologies. Users of water and electricity would also not realize the extent of the world's shortage."

Dang also mentions nuclear power (he doubts it can reduce greenhouse-gas emissions), renewable energy, river cleanups, and the Suhua Freeway project (for arguments in favor of the road, click here; for arguments against, click here).

The list of things he doesn't mention is very long: Public transportation vs. car usage; green buildings; household recycling and garbage incineration...

He may, of course, be out of a job very soon, depending who wins the imminent presidential election.

A Victim Of Its Own Success

A few days ago, the China Post published an article on Shue Jian Forest Recreation Area by Richard Saunders. The final two paragraphs highlight a problem faced by many eco-tourism attractions around the world:

"And then the cars started coming. First a couple, then whole convoys of them clutching those pesky mountain permits, all belching out choking exhaust fumes and shattering the peace of this rare place... it was hard not to consider the fate of this pristine slice of wilderness, now that it's been opened up to the car-driving masses."

"That ranger's verbal attack on us and poor Gem [the dog Saunders and his friend had tried to take into the reserve] back at the visitor center had seemed strangely overzealous at the time, but now I think I understand better. The rules were written to allow him to keep pet dogs from destroying the pristine beauty of Shue Jian; sadly, however, he has no control over the crowds of noisy day trippers that seem destined to ruin this special place, now that it's reopened once more."

There are some possible solutions.

One is a simple quota, limiting the number of visitors to X per day or per week. But, as far as I understand it, the Forestry Bureau depends on visitors to the recreation areas it runs to subsidize its other operations, which include reforestation.

Another approach would be to ban cars from entering the reserve, instead providing a free shuttle bus. This kind of thing has been done in some other places in Taiwan, but only during exceptionally busy periods, such as the Yangmingshan Flower Festival. Rather than build parking lots halfway up the mountain, the shuttle bus should run from the nearest train station, to encourage people to take public transportation the whole way.

Increasing ticket prices so visitor numbers fall might also work. However, I believe that the more people experience nature, the more they will care about it. This isn't always the case, of course: Many Taiwanese farmers, who've been immersed in nature since they were born, have a shocking attitude to the environment.

Recycling Bricks

Here's something I saw the other day in Tainan City: A wall being built using recycled old bricks to provide bulk, and cut down on the amount of concrete needed. It's nothing new, but it's better than the empty oil cans which have been used in some buildings in Taiwan (including some which fell down in the 9-21 Earthquake).

I wonder if the bricks came from the original wall on this site, or were trucked in a significant distance?

Just as some people are trying to cut down their food miles, others now care about construction-material miles. However, the building that has been acclaimed as Taiwan's greenest, Beitou Library in Taipei City, is made largely of wood imported from North America. Also, it lacks racks where cyclists can lock up their bikes.

Earth Hour 2008

Earth Hour 2008 will be in a little over two weeks, on Saturday, March 29th. Of course, you needn't wait until then to turn off unnecessary lights and appliances.

Homemade Pesticide

Cigarettes are good at killing people, so it's no surprise they're also good at killing pests. My wife has begun collecting cigarette butts to make pesticide for her garden. She soaks them in water for several days (see photo), then adds more water to the solution before spraying.

It's a technique one of her cousins, who smokes, told her about.

The pesticide itself may be no better for the environment than commercially-produced stuff, but at least it doesn't come in a plastic container, no energy was consumed in its making, and it hasn't been trucked hundreds of kilometers from factory to customer.

CO2 Estimates on Gasoline Receipts

Right after I discovered CO2 estimates on my utility bills... I bought NT$100 worth of 92-octane (3.33 liters, to be precise). The standard receipt mentions, at the very bottom, that the gas I bought will produce 7kg of carbon dioxide.

Unfortunately, the print is so small and so faint that I might never have noticed this if my wife hadn't pointed it out to me.

ADDED MARCH 15: Looking at receipts from various gas stations, it seems only those run by CPC Taiwan (the state-run oil refiner/distributor) do this.

The Consequences of Cheap Power, Water

According to this article in TAIWAN BUSINESS TOPICS, the monthly English-language magazine published by the American Chamber of Commerce in Taipei, electricity is cheaper here in Taiwan than in several comparable economies:

"Households pay an average of NT$2.57 per kilowatt-hour versus NT$3.33 in Singapore, NT$3.8 in Hong Kong, and NT$5.94 in Japan, according to data provided by Taipower..."

"[D]emand is still rising... Taiwan's purchases of fossil fuels rose by 4 percent last year... power demand [is] growing by 2 percent to 4 percent each year."

It also deflates the idea that increasing electricity prices would force manufacturing offshore:

"Most experts interviewed for this report thought that low tariffs will not affect decisions made by Taiwan's companies on whether to stay on the island or move production offshore. They point out that companies wishing to move operations to China or Southeast Asia to save costs have already done so, while those remaining in Taiwan see obvious benefits from being here..."

While discussing electricity, the article seems concerned solely with Taipower's financial woes, and how those might impact power capacity and supplies in the future. When it turns to water, however, environmental issues do get a mention:

"From badly polluted rivers to a shortage of sand on Taiwan's beaches, a range of severe environmental, economic, and infrastructure difficulties can be traced back to the low water prices."

An expert is quoted as saying:

"'The more you use, the cheaper it gets. This gives the public no incentive to save water.' In fact, economists say, it results in those who conserve water actually subsidizing water wasters."

"...20 percent of Singapore's water supply comes from recycling sewage. The water is used for cooling towers, gardening, street washing, and other functions aside from human consumption, but the downside is that building sewage-treatment plants is expensive. 'In comparison, Taiwan is not even close to having an integrated water-management philosophy'."

C02 Estimates On Power, Water Bills

Both Taipower, the government-owned electricity generation and distribution company, and the Taiwan Water Corp. now add short statements to their bills to households, notifying consumers how much CO2 they're responsible for. I'm not sure exactly when they started doing this; looking through my old bills, all I can say is that Taipower have been doing it since at least July 2007.

For some months before that, every bill featured a standard note linking electricity consumption with CO2 emissions.

Both utilities now use exactly the same wording, stating (in Chinese only): "The amount of electicity/water you have used has caused CO2 emissions of X kilograms."

The estimates appear in the top right corner of the bills. They're rather small (68mm x 14mm) and the font is probably too small for many people to read comfortably. I'll be asking local friends if they've noticed it or not...

In this July 2006 document, Taipower says it is responsible for more than 30 percent of Taiwan's total CO2 emissions.

One of Taipower's coal-fired power stations emits more CO2 than any other electricity generation facility in the world, according to this report.

Bikes In The News

In a March 5 editorial, titled Coaxing Cyclists Out Of The Parks, the Taipei Times says:

"For cyclists in Taipei, two things changed this weekend. On Saturday, the Taipei MRT system opened 12 more stations to cyclists and their bikes, bringing the number of stations with bicycle access up to 27 of the 69 stops. Then, on Sunday, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) announced new traffic rules for cyclists on city streets that will take effect at the end of this month. The city's growing population of cyclists will no doubt welcome the chance to board the MRT with their bikes at more stations."

This is the critical (in every sense of the word) sentence:

"Unfortunately, Taipei's bicycle infrastructure seems to revolve around one word: recreation."

The editorial argues that government officials should be looking at cycling as a way of getting to work, not just exercising. I doubt that many young Taiwanese office workers could be persuaded to cycle to work. The hot, wet climate isn't conducive to cycling and then turning up at the office in the pristine condition expected. As far as I know, few companies have facilities where workers can shower and change on arrival...

Meanwhile, the Taiwan News reports that Tainan City is planning a bike rental system for residents and visitors. According to the report, the city government said the service could "reduce vehicle use by about 5 to 10 percent."

Anyone wanting to rent a bike would have to get a special IC card that would enable him or her to remove a bike from one of the 90-odd unmanned rental stations the city is planning.

I have one concern: Will the IC cards be retrieved and recharged for reuse? Or, once exhausted, will they simply become landfill, like IC cards for public telephones?

Guanshan in Taidong County has perhaps the most successful tourist-oriented cycling scheme in Taiwan. Several other townships have tried to emulate it; Meinong in Kaohsiung County seems to have done a decent job.

For other news of bike-related events this month, see this post on the David On Formosa blog.

Are People Driving Less?

On March 1, the Central News Agency (CNA) reported that, "oil sales have declined in Taiwan over the past year as more people are using public transportation instead of private vehicles."

Anecdotal evidence suggests this might be true. When I took my car to be serviced a few months back, I was told by a worker at the garage that business there wasn't good, because people are using their cars less, and so the vehicles need servicing less frequently.

People in Taipei and Kaohsiung (which has a new metro system) may well be using public transportation more often than before. Elsewhere, I suspect they're riding scooters rather than driving cars. I doubt any significant number of people have given up gasoline in favor of bicycles...

Anyway, the nitty gritty of the CNA report: According to the central government's Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS), gasoline and diesel sales totaled 13.85 million kiloliters in 2007, down 2.2 percent from the previous year. For January 2008, gasoline and diesel sales decreased 7 percent year-on-year to 1.16 million kiloliters, with gasoline sales dropping 7.9 percent to 819,000 kiloliters and diesel sales losing 4.6 percent to stand at 344,000 kiloliters. As of the end of January 2008, there were 2,606 filling stations around Taiwan, 27 more than 12 months earlier.

DGBAS officials said passenger traffic on Taipei's metro system increased 7.4 percent year-on-year to 36 million people for January 2008, while that of the high-speed railway system rose 68.6 percent year-on-year to two million. During the same month, the number of "small" cars traveling on freeways dropped 1.3 percent year-on-year to 38 million.

By "small" cars I'm assuming they mean private passenger cars. I haven't been able to find the original Chinese article to check this.

There's a related article in the China Post (a Taiwan-based English-language newspaper) here.

In Taiwan, car sales have been falling for two straight years, a fact which many people attribute to a bad economy. In Japan, however, domestic auto sales fell to a 35-year-low in 2007.