People across the nation yesterday held demonstrations to raise awareness of the negative impact air pollution has on public health.
Parents and children dressed up as superheroes took to the streets in Yunlin County, where the nation’s sixth naphtha cracker, managed by the Formosa Plastics Group, is located, as a symbol of “fighting off” air pollution.
College students — wearing masks of “No-Face,” a character from Japanese filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away — said Yunlin has borne the brunt of deteriorating air quality in Taiwan in recent years, but the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) has downplayed the severity of the problem and adopted a passive attitude in addressing air pollution.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
The students said the EPA has ignored the public as if it were faceless and mute, with their costumes signifying a “silent protest” against the agency’s indifference.
The demonstrators called for the establishment of more air quality survey stations nationwide and urged authorities to push for agreements with corporations to partially suspend operations on days when air quality is poor.
Yunlin County Commissioner Lee Ching-yung (李進勇) and Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Liu Chien-kuo (劉建國) participated in the demonstration.
Photo: CNA
Lee said the county government is against pursuing economic development at the cost of public health.
He said that the central government should not use economic growth as a pretext to protect large corporations and called on industrial firms to fulfill their corporate social responsibility by using clean fuels.
Despite being planned as a peaceful event, tensions rose when several demonstrators tried to break into the naphtha cracker complex, with scuffles breaking out between the protesters and police.
In Kaohsiung, protesters rallied against perceived air pollution from the South Star ferry special zone project proposed by the Kaohsiung City Government.
Demonstrators said the project to establish a ferry manufacturing zone in the Dalinpu Community (大林埔) would leave the community cornered by the zone, existing smelters, power plants and petrochemical plants, making it difficult for factory emissions to dissipate.
They said the municipal government should install air purifiers in their homes if it presses on with the pollution-intensive project.
In Taipei, members of the Trees Party and children acted out a skit on Ketagalan Boulevard, in which they donned gas masks while exercising next to an “air quality flag” indicating dangerous levels of air pollution.
Trees Party Cochair Lin Chia-yu (林佳諭) said that, as people breathe more heavily while exercising, inhaling large amounts of airborne pollutants in dirty air could have a negative effect on children.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most
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