Lights in more than 100 buildings and landmarks will be turned off for an hour tomorrow in observance of “Earth Hour,” a global event that aims to raise awareness of the need to address the problem of climate change.
The event was first launched in Australia in 2007, when millions of residents in Sydney volunteered to switch off non-essential lights for an hour.
Since then, an increasing number of countries observe Earth Hour, which takes place on the last Saturday of March between 8:30pm and 9:30pm each year.
Taiwan started observing Earth Hour in 2010.
According to the Society of Wilderness, which helps organize the event in Taiwan, 2.2 billion people in 135 countries are scheduled to observe Earth Hour this year.
Society of Wilderness president Lai Jung-hsiao (賴榮孝) said the -society aimed to encourage more local residents and organizations to join the event tomorrow.
“We hope that we can have a million residents, a hundred corporations and a hundred buildings in Taiwan participate in the event,” Lai said.
“We have invited celebrities to lead the countdown to the event. On March 1, we had [Acer Inc founder] Stan Shih (施振榮). Tomorrow, it will be President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九),” Lai said.
“We hope to spread the message through social media sites and meet our goal this year,” Lai said.
Lai said more than 100 local organizations have signed up to participate.
Non-essential lights at several landmarks around the country, including the Presidential Office and Taipei 101 in Taipei, as well as the Liouhe Night Market and E-Da Theme Park in Greater Kao-hsiung, will turned off for an hour tomorrow.
CAUTION: Based on intelligence from the nation’s security agencies, MOFA has cautioned Taiwanese travelers about heightened safety risks in China-friendly countries The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday urged Taiwanese to be aware of their safety when traveling abroad, especially in countries that are friendly to China. China in June last year issued 22 guidelines that allow its courts to try in absentia and sentence to death so-called “diehard” Taiwanese independence activists, even though Chinese courts have no jurisdiction in Taiwan. Late last month, a senior Chinese official gave closed-door instructions to state security units to implement the guidelines in countries friendly to China, a government memo and a senior Taiwan security official said, based on information gathered by Taiwan’s intelligence agency. The
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, said yesterday that it is looking to hire 8,000 people this year, at a time when the tech giant is expanding production capacity to maintain its lead over competitors. To attract talent, TSMC would launch a large-scale recruitment campaign on campuses across Taiwan, where a newly recruited engineer with a master’s degree could expect to receive an average salary of NT$2.2 million (US$60,912), which is much higher than the 2023 national average of NT$709,000 for those in the same category, according to government statistics. TSMC, which accounted for more than 60 percent
Tung Tzu-hsien (童子賢), a Taiwanese businessman and deputy convener of the nation’s National Climate Change Committee, said yesterday that “electrical power is national power” and nuclear energy is “very important to Taiwan.” Tung made the remarks, suggesting that his views do not align with the country’s current official policy of phasing out nuclear energy, at a forum organized by the Taiwan People’s Party titled “Challenges and Prospects of Taiwan’s AI Industry and Energy Policy.” “Taiwan is currently pursuing industries with high added- value and is developing vigorously, and this all requires electricity,” said the chairman
‘POOP ON STAGE’: The song, which talks about the reluctance to graduate and anxiety about a lack of job opportunities, resonated with many students’ feelings The original song Poop on Stage has been chosen as National Taiwan University’s (NTU) graduation song this year, sparking much debate regarding the song’s title and content, which describes students’ anxiety about post-graduation unemployment. The title, Shang Tai Da Bian (上台大便), is a play on words that literally means “go on stage to poop.” The first three characters, shang tai da (上台大), also mean “to attend NTU,” as “Taida” is a common abbreviation for the university. The last character, bian (便), can mean “convenient” or “then,” but is more commonly associated with defecation. The lyrics of the song describe students’ reluctance to graduate and
RSS