Taiwan Pink Dolphin Video

Video: Taiwan's critically endangered pink dolphins urgently need your help !

Produced by Christina MacFarquhar of Wild at Heart Legal Defense Association for the Matsu's Fish Conservation Union. This video gives a brief overview of the plight of the Taiwan pink dolphins.

A First for Taiwan: Supreme Administrative Court Upholds Decision to Void Central Science Park EIA – Farmers, Lawyers & Social Groups Petition

With the Lunar New Year break we missed some of what has been happening on the green front this month. Below is a press release from the Taiwan Environmental Action Network and Green Party Taiwan earlier this month. As the press release explains, the Supreme Administrative Court upheld the decision to void the Central Science Park EIA but true to form, the EPA have just forged ahead and done what they always do...gone rogue.


Press Conference on 4 February 2010

A First for Taiwan: Supreme Administrative Court Upholds Decision to Void Central Science Park EIA – Farmers, Lawyers Associations, Social Groups Petition Control Yuan to Investigate EPA Officials’ Misconduct, Demand Minister’s Resignation


On 22 January 2010 Taiwan’s Supreme Administrative Court rocked Taiwan’s Executive by upholding a lower court’s ruling that the environmental impact assessment approval issued by the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) for a major high-tech industry construction project was void. The decision strikes a blow against one of Taiwan’s sacred cows, the expansion and development of what are euphemistically called “science parks.”


However, despite the decision, and in an extension of its nearly four year epic of ignoring calls from farmers, academics, environmentalists and the courts, the EPA seems to have “gone rogue”; instead of looking at the issues on which the courts based their decisions, public health threats for example, the EPA has engaged in what appears to be a drug-induced orgy of self denial, legal fantasy and political blame shifting, prompting some observers to ask, “what are they smoking down there on Chunghua Road?”


A number of social advocacy groups will be holding several activities tomorrow (Feb. 4, 2010):


At 1030 am Gathering in front of Executive Yuanà Marching to Control Yuan #2 Sec. 1 Chung Hsiao East Road, Taipei, representatives the farmers of Taichung that brought the action against the EPA, former commissioners, and lawyers and law scholars will speak to the press and public before delivering a petition to the Control Yuan requesting an immediate investigation into 1) illegalities and negligence of officials within the EPA and commissioners involved with the Central Science Park/Third Phase/Cising Site environmental impact assessment, and 2) what the groups allege is the extremely creative but seriously flawed interpretations of law that the EPA has conjured up to avoid ordering the immediate cessation of the development project in accordance with the Environmental Impact Assessment Act.


Speakers will include: Lawyer for the plaintiffs LIN, San-chia; representatives from the plaintiffs, a group of six farmers from Hou-li Taichung; Dr. CHOU, Chin-cheng and Dr. Gloria Hsu, both professors at Taiwan’s leading university, and both of whom were serving as commissioners at the time the project passed; representatives from the Judicial Reform Foundation and the recently-formed Environmental Jurists Association.


1330 “EPA, are you illiterate or just numb?”, will be held in front of the Environmental Protection Administration, 83, Zhonghua Rd. Sec. 1, Zhongzheng District, Taipei.


Whereas the plaintiffs and civic groups have faith in the ability of the Control Yuan to make a fair and full investigation, they have been appalled at the actions and statements of the EPA.


The EPA has showed contempt for the judiciary, engaged in outrageous abuses of authority such that the people affected by the negligence, arrogance and “screw you” attitudes of EPA officials have really had enough, and want to vent their anger and frustration at the EPA and EPA officials, in particular the Minister Steven Shen, who is believed to routinely stay up late at night crafting responses to negative press reports and answering accusations from the public.


The groups are demanding: 1. Within three days the EPA shall order all work stop on the Central Science Park development in accordance with the law and decisions of the courts; and 2. Since it is now eminently clear that Minister Shen is incompetent to such an extent – his handling of this case as well as the fourth phase Central Science Park being but two examples in a long history of “environmental poaching” –ignoring the health and environmental safety of the people -, he must immediately step down.


All reporters are welcome


Contacts:

Taiwan Environmental Action Network, Kathy LEE 0973350972

Green Party Taiwan, PAN Han-sheng 0935295815

A Convenient Route?

Here in Taiwan it’s our first week back at work after the Lunar New Year break. Oh, I’ve forgotten my manners. Xin Nian Kuai Le! to you all and all the best for the Year of the Golden Tiger. Now, with the New Year wishes out the way let’s get back to going back to work and the Convenient Route. That word ‘route’ needs to be said in the British way, as in ‘root.’ Yeah, I know that’s rather weak but hey it’s my first day back on the job.

‘Officials, executives watch premiere of climate change film’

That’s what the Taipei Times tells us all the government big wigs and top business executives where doing on their first day back at work. That sounds promising. Is change afoot? Something happen over the New Year? Did the Ghost of Environments Past pay the heads of the five branches of government a late night visit? Is EPA Minister Shen Shu-hung pulling an Ebenezer Scrooge? Well, whatever happened this does seem like a good way for the 'powers that be' to start the new year…or so I thought.

I read the opening sentence. “The heads of the nation's five branches of government, as well as top business executives, were invited to watch the premiere of '±2°C', a documentary on climate change in Taiwan, at the Butterfly Pavilion in Taipei last night.” So far so good! Let’s read on. “TV commentator Sisy Chen, the producer of the film,…” Sisy Chen and climate change!!! What? You’ve got to be kidding me! Slippery talk show host and sometimes bench-crossing politician Sisy Chen doing something on climate change? Yes, Sisy Chen has made a documentary on climate change. My first thought was Sisy Chen is trying to reinvent herself as Taiwan’s Al Gore. I started to read a little further and there it was in black and white. “Chen said she had seen several documentaries on climate change, including An Inconvenient Truth by former US vice president Al Gore…”

People can change. Perhaps I’ve got it wrong. Maybe Sisy’s seen the light. Perhaps she watched Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth and while she was sleeping that night the Ghost of Environments Future came to her. Well, if she’s for real, whatever it was, “You go girl!”

I’ve not seen her documentary so can’t honestly comment on it. However, Sisy’s slippery reputation is well known so I can't help being suspicious. It’s going to take some doing to rid herself of that "she'll say anything as long as the money's right" reputation she has. Speaking to some folks who have seen her documentary I’ve been told that there are some errors in it and that it appeared as nothing but a greenwashing gimmick to them. So does this mean Sisy has jumped on the green bandwagon to revive her political fortunes and taken a new convenient route back into the limelight as Taiwan's new green queen? If this is the case, time will tell. But for now, let’s give Sisy the benefit of the doubt.

Sisy, if you’re for real. How about taking a stand? How about speaking out against all that west coast “development”? You know. The projects that are going to cause considerable increases to Taiwan’s already shocking emission levels and make the Taiwan pink dolphins go extinct...the Kuokuang Petrochemical project and all the other developments in Mailiao with Formosa where the cancer rate is already six times the national average. Also, the new TaiPower power plant, and the Erlin development of the Central Taiwan Science Park. How about it Sisy? How about making a real stand for the environment ?

Taipei Times: Officials, executives watch premiere of climate change film

Also see:
Fatalities of the Limelight III: Sisy Chen, Hired Gun for Sale or Rent

Canary in the mine shaft, another rosy tale.

Typhoon Morakot: Houses buried under landslide and flood debris in central Taiwan.


On the 13Th December 2009 the Miami Herald ran a piece by Joe Oglesby titled Canary in the mine shaft which really typified the type of rosy picture the Ma-led KMT regime likes to paint of Taiwan and its commitment to global warming, the tragedy of Typhoon Morakot and other environmental issues.

Robin Winkler, a Taipei-based lawyer and former Commissioner on Taiwan’s Environmental Impact Assessment Committee wrote a response to the Miami Herald's piece. Regrettably they didn't publish his letter. We've decided to post Robin's letter with a link to the Miami Herald article and readers can decide for themselves if Joe Oglesby and the Miami Herald are giving a misleading view of what's happening in Taiwan.



Joe Oglesby (Canary in the mine shaft, 13 Dec.) and hence your readers have been misled by the Taiwanese government about its supposed commitment to do something about global warming.

While I served as a Commissioner (2005-2007) on Taiwan’s Environmental Impact Assessment Committee, the Committee approved projects that had been proposed by developers that will increase Taiwan’s CO2 emissions by 43%. All of those projects were screened, and in many cases proposed by government agencies. This against the background of Taiwan having several of the largest and dirtiest coal fired power plants, our having been ranked number 145 out of 146 in the World Economic Forum’s 2005 Environmental Sustainability Index and our distinction of being the fastest growing greenhouse gas emitter among developed countries for the period since 1990.

The current government of president Ma Ying-jeou has continued to support and fund these projects while proposing many new ones such as the recently approved fourth stage expansion of the Central Taiwan Science Park, a major expansion of the Formosa Plastics Off-shore Petrochemical facility in central Taiwan and a mega “petrochemical science park” that will go in over tidal flats, wetlands and is to be located just across the Chuoshui River from the Formosa Plastics project.

The energy intensive expansion of the Central Taiwan Science Park for example, half of which will be use to site production facilities for TFT-LCD manufacturer AU Optronics on prime farmland, will drain 160,000 tons of wastewater daily into nearby estuaries that are home to Taiwan’s critically endangered population of Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins (Sousa chinensis). Mr. Ma’s concern for Taiwan’s wildlife is highly selective at best.

While I have no doubt that Mr. Oglesby is a journalist of the highest ethical standards, the fact remains that he visited Taiwan on a junket funded by the Taiwan’s Government Information Office. Naturally, the information presented to the non-Chinese speaking journalists on the trip was selective and intended to ensure that the Taiwanese government’s message that Taiwan is doing its part in the fight against global warming would reach readers like those of the Miami Herald.

Studies by international organizations conclude otherwise. Between 2006 and 2008, Taiwan slid sixteen places in the World Economic Forum’s Environmental Performance Index. Even more recently, Taiwan fell from No. 32 to No. 47 on Germanwatch’s 2010 Climate Change Performance Index much to the chagrin of the Ma administration, which is resorting to the old politician’s trick of blaming the former administration. As in the United States, there are bitter political divisions between Taiwan’s two main political parties but the truth is that both share responsibility for the state-backed short term economic development policies that are degrading Taiwan’s environment and driving its rising carbon emissions.

As for Taiwan’s “good track record” on monitoring landslides, Mr. Oglesby has failed to report that although the government does indeed gather vast amounts of information about geologically sensitive areas, it is very difficult for members of the public to get access to this information because of pressure from land developers and other interest groups who do not want to see property prices depressed. In any event, that information and the “hundreds of environmental laws” passed by Taiwan’s legislature (in fact there are only 12) did nothing to save the more than 600 people, most of who were Plains Aborigines, who died when Typhoon Morakot triggered the mudslide that wiped out their village.

Taiwan talks the talk on climate change, but it does not walk the walk.

Robin Winkler

Robin Winkler is the founder and director of the Wild at Heart Legal Defense fund. Born and raised in the US, he has resided in Taiwan since 1977 and became a citizen in 2003 to prevent deportation for his environmental activism.



Also see:
The proof of the pudding is in the eating: The Chingshuei River after Morakot (includes photos).

Typhoon Morakot: The Writing's on the Wall

Air quality worsens from Typhoon Morakot's dust

Happy New Year !

Happy New Year and all the best for 2010 !


"Because every green measure, every conservation effort and all the little economies we could make in our daily lives, may look insignificant if we choose to look at the big picture. On the other hand, if we view that big picture as millions of little choices made by people just like us, that's how we can come to understand why it's our own choices that are so important."
A comment posted on Birdforum by James Owen.

FTV report on high levels of cancer in Mailiao and Taisi Townships in Yunlin County

What follows is an English translation from part 2 of a series that Formosa TV (FTV) has done on the high cancer rate from the areas surrounding the Formosa Petrochemicals’ No.6 Naphtha Cracker plant at Mailiao on the Yunlin County coast in central Taiwan.

As planned expansion of heavy industry in this area goes ahead it will no doubt cause an increase in these cancer rates as emission levels increase dramatically. The government is forging ahead with its so-called development plans. In November the Taiwan Environmental Protection Administration gave the green light to the planned Erlin Science Park just over the county border in Changhua county. Demands for water for heavy industry will be supplied by the infamous Hushan Reservoir project. It would seem that the health of the citizens of central Taiwan, both human and non human, come a very poor second when it comes to keeping heavy industry happy. Spare a thought for the Fairy Pitta and Taiwan White Dolphins in all this mess.

Naphtha cracking plant linked to high cancer rate in central Taiwan towns (2009/12/27)

The central Taiwan townships of Mailiao and Taishee have had the highest liver cancer death rates of any area in Taiwan for years. Nearby is Taiwan’s largest naphtha cracking plant. The Yunlin County government commissioned an NTU professor to conduct research on the health risks posed to the residents of areas around the plant. Tonight, in part 2 of a continuing series, we take a closer look at the research report.

This thick research report helped open the scientific discussion related to Formosa Petrochemicals’ No. 6 Naphtha Cracker and local residents’ health. National Taiwan University Professor Jhan Jhang-cyuan spent one year gathering information from the five neighboring townships of Mailiao, Lunbei, Taishee, Dongshih and Shihu. The report was commissioned by the Yunlin County government. It compiled information from the Department of Health, Ministry of the Interior and Bureau of National Health Insurance. The results showed an important discovery.

Jhan Jhang-cyuan
National Taiwan University
If you look at the death rates from malignant tumors and lung cancer in Taishee Township from the fourth to the sixth year of operations, they’re obviously higher than the first three years. So the longer operations have been going on, the higher the rate of cancers in Taishee Township, particularly lung cancer. The rate of liver cancer in Taishee and Mailiao townships both before and during the operation period is higher than other townships we looked at. So it’s correct to say that the rates of liver and other types of cancers are high in Yunlin County, but since the No. 6 Naphtha Cracker they’ve become even higher.

The petrochemicals industry possesses many cancer-causing agents. Among them is vinyl chloride monomer, which is a raw material for plastic and has been connected to liver cancer. The oil refining process produces byproducts such as benzene and acetic acid that have been shown to be related to leukemia.

Petrochemical plants often emit polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which are known to be closely associated with lung cancer. Professor Jhan also examined air quality reports from the Environmental Protection Administration and data from the Bureau of National Health Insurance. He discovered that more people were hospitalized for breathing difficulties when emission levels of nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide and other similar gases were high. There were also more deaths.

Jhan Jhang-cyuan
National Taiwan University
Monitoring was performed every hour of every day for two years. The data was then applied to Taishee. It obviously showed that when the wind blew from between the northwest and northeast, (gas) concentrations would become very high. They could increase from 20 to 30 times or more above average.

These scientific discoveries were completely in line with the experience of local residents. When the wind blew or the rain fell, their crops would suffer.

Mr. Chen
Erlun Township Farmer
These (melons) can’t be harvested. It only needs to rain once and they will turn yellow and start to rot. These melons won’t grow large, all of them here. It just needs to rain once and the pollution will kill them.

Crops like chrysanthemums will also begin to rot immediately after rainfall. The destruction of crops can be made up for by compensation payments, but human beings are a different matter. Although Erlun Township was not included in Jhan’s report, many of the same health issues are occurring there.

Erlun Township Resident
It might be factors such as the air or water, but we don’t have professional knowledge. If we blame the No. 6 Naphtha Cracker, they will tell us to bring forward our evidence.

Reporters who seek the company’s side of the story always have trouble receiving a direct answer.

Voice of Formosa Petrochemicals PR Rep.
Generally speaking, (there are many causes of cancer). For example, even if you live in mountains where the air is very good, some people still get cancer. We don’t know why.

Just when our investigation had seemed to reach an impasse, we acquired a copy of a survey from 2005 performed by the Industrial Development Bureau. The survey focused on the No. 6 Naphtha Cracker and the health risks of local residents. The report was marked “Restricted Reading.” It turned out that the bureau possessed relevant assessment reports years ago, but never made the results public. In our next installment we will take a look at the secrets inside the bureau’s report.

Source: http://englishnews.ftv.com.tw/read.aspx?sno=C585E7E31DEF7010ACF37A7BE56126CD

EPA responds to local fisherman's Erlin criticisms

Today's Taipei Times has an article titled EPA responds to local fisherman's Erlin criticisms. The Environmental Protection Administration claims it is trying to address fears that pollution from the Erlin Science Park will contaminate farmers fields and destroy the livelihood of local fishers. While the EPA cites all sorts of reasons why they allowed the project to go ahead, one can't help wondering if they are confusing the role of environmental protection with that of the development administrations. According to the article, the EPA said that it was "currently undertaking studies to determine if waste water could be reused by nearby industry or released in a manner that minimized the impact on nearby fishermen." If the solutions to these issues are still unknown, then how can the EPA honestly justify their decision to give Erlin the green light. This just another very sad example of Taiwan's EPA being nothing but a rubber stamp administration.


Also see:
Leave Taiwan's future a clean Chuoshui River

Stop the CTSP Erlin Science Park; Protect Farmers, Fishermen and the Taiwan Humpback Dolphins.

Update: Stop the CTSP Erlin Science Park - Protect Farmers, Fishers and the Taiwan Humpback Dolphins.

Taiwan Humpback Dolphin Extinction Guaranteed by Ma and Wu’s Cat in the Hat Economics?

Black Friday for Erlin - The EPA once again strikes a blow against the environment

All three effluent discharge proposals for Central Taiwan Science Park development will lead to pollution of humpback dolphin habitat

The saga of the CTSP Erlin Science Park and the Kuokuang Petrochemical Project

Taiwan's Humpback Dolphins face extinction