Thousands of environmental volunteers in a number of cities and counties yesterday celebrated the Environmental Protection Administration's (EPA) ninth year of low-carbon lifestyle.
"A low-carbon lifestyle means that you walk or bike instead of driving, recycle and reuse instead of disposing, plant more trees and use energy-conserving electric appliances in your home," Environmental Protection Administration Minister Winston Dang (
The low-carbon program was started by the EPA in 1998 to involve community volunteers in cleaning their neighborhoods.
When the program started, there were only a few hundred volunteers.
Their number has since grown to 150,000. Taipei County Bureau of Environmental Protection staffer Lin Yi-chen (林依蓁) said.
In addition to living low-carbon lifestyles, volunteers regularly participate in activities such as street sweeping and garbage sorting, she said.
Yesterday's event included several stalls showcasing greener products, from socks made of recycled PET bottles, children's rocking horses mad with old wooden furniture, to shopping bags made out of banners and flags.
At one stall, Ecomax Textile representative Ko Hsi-che (
"PET bottles permeate the soft drink market today because they are light, cheap and sanitary, but they take hundreds of years to biodegrade," Ko said
"Our company has been working on giving the bottles second lives and turning them into something useful and environmentally friendly," he said.
On the Taipei County Government's recent proposal to lower carbon emission by having some government employees work four days a week instead of five, some volunteers felt it would decrease the efficiency of the government.
"Also, if [government employees] drive their cars somewhere during their extra day off, the carbon emission problem will remain," a volunteer commented.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
RSS