Taiwan will soon launch the Pacific Greenhouse Gases Measurement (PGGM) project, an international initiative that will provide valuable insights into the extent of climate change, the National Science Council (NSC) said at a press conference yesterday.
“This is an exciting moment for Taiwan,” said project leader Wang Kuo-ying (王國英), a professor at National Central University’s department of atmospheric sciences.
Global warming is the most serious challenge to the human race this century, Wang said, adding that “observation of the atmosphere would be the first step by which scientists can understand the actual extent and impact of greenhouse gas density increases and the resulting climate change.”
Prior to Taiwan’s participation, Japan and the EU launched separate projects in the early 1990s to observe global greenhouse gas movement patterns, using advanced air monitoring equipment fitted onto commercial airplanes, Wang said.
Taiwan’s PGGM will bridge the two large-scale projects by collaborating with Japan and the EU. The PGGM will therefore become the largest global warming observatory effort in the world and will complement the existing projects in important ways, Wang said.
“Starting next summer, the university will bring the NSC, the Environmental Protection Administration, as well as two commercial partners [China Airlines (CAL) and Evergreen Marine Corp], under the same umbrella to monitor and provide the world with helpful information on the carbon transport cycle in the northern Pacific,” Wang said.
While Europe’s In-service Aircraft for a Global Observing System (IAGOS) and its predecessor, Measurements of Ozone and Water Vapor by Airbus In-Service Aircraft (MOZAIC), have been in operation since 1993, they have lacked data from the northern Pacific Ocean as well as the southern hemisphere, Wang said.
Honor guards are to stop performing changing of the guard ceremonies around a statue of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) to avoid “worshiping authoritarianism,” the Ministry of Culture said yesterday. The fate of the bronze statue has long been the subject of fierce and polarizing debate in Taiwan, which has transformed from an autocracy under Chiang into one of Asia’s most vibrant democracies. The changing of the guard each hour at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei is a major tourist attraction, but starting from 9am on Monday, the ceremony is to be moved outdoors to Democracy Boulevard, outside the eponymous blue-and-white memorial
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) supports peaceful unification with China, and President William Lai (賴清德) is “a bit naive” for being a “practical worker for Taiwanese independence,” former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said in an interview published yesterday. Asked about whether the KMT is on the same page as the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) on the issue of Taiwanese independence or unification with China, Ma told the Malaysian Chinese-language newspaper Sin Chew Daily that they are not. While the KMT supports peaceful unification and is against unification by force, the DPP opposes unification as such and
The government would cancel kendo practitioner Su Yu-cheng’s (蘇郁程) nationality if he is confirmed to have represented China in the World Kendo Championships in Milan, Italy, last week, the Mainland Affairs Council said yesterday. “We have consulted the Sports Administration and were told that athletes participating in the championships must have the nationality of the country that they represent. They must also present their passports as proof,” council spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) told a weekly news conference. “If Su indeed represented China in the championships, we suspect that he has obtained Chinese nationality.” The Act Governing Relations Between the People of the
FATAL ILLNESS: Untreated symptoms can rapidly worsen to complications such as high fever, seizures and loss of consciousness, and can be life-threatening, a doctor said Hospitals have been reporting dozens of people with heat-related illnesses every day over the past week, given continuous high daytime temperatures, so recognizing the early signs of heatstroke is crucial in preventing serious complications, a Taipei City Hospital emergency physician said. The Central Weather Administration yesterday issued a heat alert for 19 cities and counties across Taiwan, with temperatures in New Taipei City, Miaoli County and Pingtung County likely to exceed 38°C, and temperatures in 12 cities and counties likely to exceed 36°C for three days straight. More than a dozen people were taken to hospitals for heat-related illnesses every day from