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.