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?