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

County Elections: The lack of 'green' candidates

A shot from elections past: Getting an campaign van ready to hit the streets. Note the size of the speakers.

A shot from elections past: A drum on the back of a campaign van.


It's almost midnight in Taiwan and tomorrow's on-line edition of the Taipei Times is up. An article titled Vote for 'green' candidates, activists say caught my attention.

On Saturday 5Th December, county elections will take place for the election of city mayors and county commissioners and for the past few weeks, all across Taiwan, we've been subjected to the deafening racket of campaigning 'a la Taiwan' style.

Campaigning in Taiwan involves fleets of noisy election vans roaming the streets broadcasting their candidate's propaganda at ear-shattering volumes that are well in excess of noise pollution laws. Often candidates will stand on a rickety platform atop a van screaming into a microphone and subjecting all and sundry to their views of the world, the alleged shortcomings and vices of their opposition, and strings of promises of what they will do if elected.

The candidate's van is usually followed by several other vans and cars. The other vans will be broadcasting prerecorded political propaganda while the candidate is still screaming into the microphone. While this is going on, folks perched atop another van will be letting off firecrackers. Sometimes gongs, drums and flutes accompany the din of the firecrackers. Bear in mind that this often goes on late into the night and resumes first thing in the morning. Several different motorcades launch simultaneous attacks on the same areas resulting in the most unbelievable noise levels and disruptions to the flow of traffic. These motorcades are followed by legions of campaign workers that chant and cheer while accosting locals and thrusting little packets of tissues and pamphlets into the hands of anyone they can lay their hands on. Enthusiastic campaign workers are not above entering any shop or house that has an open door. Often the cheering campaign workers are supported by a speaker van broadcasting the cheers of a prerecorded crowd. Also, every available lamppost, pole and wall are covered in election posters, banners and flags.

Most people one speaks to loath the noise of elections but would never consider banding together and trying to do something about it. This so often is the case in Taiwan. The people just shut up and don't speak out. People are angry about the noise. They are angry about pollution. They are angry about corruption and mismanagement but they tolerate it all. They never appose the system. Is this the legacy of almost forty years of Marshal law and the product of an education system that discourages individual thinking and the questioning of authority?

Taiwan has a tragic legacy of greedy and corrupt politicians that lack moral accountability and responsibility. Global warming and combating the effects of climate change feature highly on the political agenda in most parts of the free world now. Taiwan's lack of commitment to sustainable economics and the reduction of emissions is in direct contrast to that of most other democratic free nations. This lack of commitment to doing anything about the environment and sustainable economics is evident in the lack of any stand on these issues for almost all candidates. In the present legislature many feel there is only one legislator that has any credible track record of really standing up for the environment. Reality on the ground in Taiwan is that the politicians feel no pressure at all to have to start considering the environment and sustainable economics and until they do, nothing is going to change.

Taiwan Pink Dolphins in the Taipei Times

Two letters appeared in the Taipei Times yesterday with reference to the Taiwan Pink Dolphins. The first letter, titled Preserving our environment was written by Bruno Walther, a visiting assistant professor of environmental science at Taipei Medical University. He comments on the Erlin Science Park, the Taiwan Pink Dolphins and the "growing realization that the economy and the environment are intricately linked."

The second letter was from Robin Winkler, a Taipei-based lawyer and founding director of the Wild at Heart Legal Defense Association [Robin Winkler's letter follows Bruno Walther's letter on the letter page]. Robin clarifies some points made in a previous Taipei Times article to avoid any confusion over the protection status of the Taiwan Pink Dolphins.

Swimming Channel for the White Dolphins? A Sudden Burst of a Marvelous Idea from Ma Government

A translation of a recent article that appeared in the China times. The translation is courtesy of Wild at Heart Legal Defense Association's translation department [material in brackets added by translator for clarification].


China Times, 7 November 2009

Swimming Channel for the White Dolphins? A Sudden Burst of a Marvelous Idea from Ma Government

Rong Hua-yi/Reporting in Taipei


Premier Wu Dun-yi acknowledged that the effluents from the Central Science Park Fourth Stage would go “directly into the ocean”, however, conservation groups and Democratic Progressive Party legislator Tien Chiu-Chin yesterday raised doubts about this, as it would mean a serious breach of the near extinct “Chinese White Dolphin’s” habitat. In order to address this the Ma government has come up with the “marvelous idea”: consideration of a “construction a special water lane” and training the dolphins to swim away from the pollution. Problem is that in the assessment of the local experts “there will be a very high degree of difficulty”.

Conservationists yesterday made a plea for the Chinese White dolphin [aka Taiwan pink dolphin] yesterday, including the chairman of the Eastern Taiwan Strait Sousa Technical Advisory Working Group, Peter S. Ross, and the chairman of the IUCN Species Survival Commission’s Cetacean Specialist Group, Randall R. Reeves, Wild at Heart Legal Defense Association chair Robin Winkler, and John Tsai chair of the Changhua Environmental Protection Union.

The Chinese White dolphin, also called the “Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin”, and known as “Matsu’s Fishor baiwua” in Taiwanese [?], is classified by the Forestry Bureau as being in the highest category of protection, and inhabits shallow seas near to the shore, there are currently about 90 animals remaining; they are active in the coastal waters from Miaoli to Chiayi, they are classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as Critically Endangered, facing life threatening factors of polluted water, lack of fresh water, land reclamation, fishing nets, marine noise, lack of food, starvation.

The Forestry Bureau of the Council of Agriculture Specialist LIU, Cyong-lian stated that the planned destination for the Central Science Park’s pollution discharge was in the area where the Chinese dolphins are active, and that an interagency committee under the Executive Yuan had met with Kuokuang Petrochemical, local and foreign experts to discuss how to mitigate the impact on the dolphins, with one possible solution having been offered being to “build a dedicated channel for the dolphins to swim through”.

Assistant Professor Otto Li of the Institute of Marine Affairs at National Sun Yat Sen University pointed out that getting the dolphins to “obediently use the swimming channel”, while there are examples in other contries, but they used natural fjords whereas Taiwan lacks such geological formations and would require it to be entirely constructed by humans with a very high cost and no precedent. Furthermore, the dolphins won’t necessarily be so obedient and experts on animal behavior think this is impossible.


　
中國時報 　2009.11.07

白海豚游水道？馬政府突發奇想

戎華儀／台北報導


　行政院長吳敦義承諾，中科四期汙水將「直接排入海中」，但保育團體與民進黨立委田秋堇 昨日質疑，此舉會嚴重破壞瀕臨滅絕的「中華白海豚」棲息海域。為解決此問題，馬政府曾一度「突發奇想」，考慮「築一條專用水道」，訓練海豚游水道以避開汙 水，只是國內外專家評估「難度很高」。

　東台灣海峽白海豚技術顧問工作小組主席羅斯（Peter S. Ross）、國際自然保育聯盟鯨類專家小組主席瑞維斯（Randall R. Reeves）、台灣蠻野心足生態協會理事長文魯彬、彰化環境保護聯盟理事長蔡嘉陽等保育人士，昨日為中華白海豚請命。

　中華白海豚又稱「印太洋駝海豚」，俗稱「媽祖魚、白魚吳」，林務局列為一級保育動物，以近岸、淺海為棲息海域，目前僅剩約九十隻，活動於 苗栗到嘉義沿海，生育率低，被國際自然保育聯盟（ＩＵＣＮ）列為「瀕臨滅絕」生物，面臨汙水排放、缺乏淡水、填海造陸、漁具誤纏、水中噪音和糧食不足、飢 餓等生存危機。

　農委會林務局簡任技正劉瓊蓮表示，中科汙水預訂排放的區域就在中華白海豚活動的海域內，行政院跨部會小組曾和國光石化、國內外學者專家討論如何降低對海豚的衝擊，其中一個做法，是「築水道讓海豚游過」。

　中山大學海洋事務研究所助理教授李政諦指出，要海豚「乖乖游水道」雖在國外有先例，但利用的是天然峽灣地形，台灣西岸沿海沒有這樣的地形，必須完全人工興築，費用高昂，全球沒有先例，且海豚是否真的乖乖走水道，動物行為專家認為要實際執行幾乎不可能。

　其他因應方案包括以棲地復育方式，順應中華白海豚在平均七點多公尺深的海域活動的習性，在填海造陸時墊高新生地沿岸的海底，創造淺海地形，花費比築水道稍低，但也是一大工程。

　李政諦說，「盡可能不要產生（汙水）是最好。」他指，既然官方和國光石化都在想各種方案，表示大家都知道汙水可能造成生態衝擊，只是，包括「讓海豚乖乖游水道」等方案，沒有科學證據證明確實能解決問題，「做了，只能說聊表心意。」

http://life.chinatimes.com/2009Cti/Channel/Life/life-article/0,5047,11051801+112009110700036,00.html

Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin habitat in Taiwan: Report of an international expert panel convened in Taipei, Nov 2-5 2009

Below is a brief report released after the 2009 ETS Sousa Habitat Workshop.


Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin habitat in Taiwan:
Report of an international expert panel convened in Taipei, Nov 2-5 2009

Taipei (November 5, 2009): An international panel of scientists convened in Taipei to propose boundaries for priority habitat for a critically endangered population of Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins (Sousa chinensis) in Taiwan. With fewer than 100 individuals remaining, this isolated population is found in the shallow, nearshore waters of central western Taiwan. These dolphins are threatened by pollution, noise, bycatch in fishing nets, and habitat changes caused by reduced release of water to estuaries and land reclamation.

The panel was convened at the request of the Eastern Taiwan Strait Sousa Technical Advisory Working Group (ETSSTAWG), a scientific body with 17 national and international experts on marine mammal biology and ecology. The panel spent three days drafting a plan to describe and propose priority habitat, considered as necessary to their survival and recovery.

The expert panel will be delivering its manuscript to a scientific journal for review and publication shortly, thereby enabling wide international review of the proposal. While this work focused on preparing a scientific rationale for priority habitat for this dolphin population, it is hoped that government, industry and non-governmental sectors can use the proposal as a basis for enacting protection measures.

Briefly, the panel proposes a priority habitat area with boundaries to the north of the Danshui River estuary down along the western coast to just south of Tseng-Wen River estuary. The boundaries will extend from the shoreline (relative to the lowest high tide of the year) out 3 km (relative to the lowest low tide of the year), or to the 30 m depth mark, whichever is further from the shore. This priority habitat area includes all waters within which there have been confirmed sightings of these dolphins, as well as areas to the north and south and further offshore that are deemed ‘suitable’ for dolphin use based on known habitat preferences.

The Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins of Taiwan will go extinct in the absence of immediate protection measures which target fisheries, water use, construction, waste discharge, and noise-producing practices within this priority habitat area.

The Eastern Taiwan Strait Sousa Technical Advisory Working Group was pleased and encouraged by the progress made by numerous government agencies in considering the plight of this dolphin population, and looks forward to further dialogue and information exchange among all parties. The ETSSTAWG remains freely available for expert consultation on any scientific question concerning these dolphins and their habitat.


For further information contact:

- Dr Peter S. Ross, Chairman, Eastern Taiwan Strait Sousa Technical Advisory Working Group (ETSSTAWG) (peter.s.ross@dfo-mpo.gc.ca)

- Dr Randall R. Reeves, Chairman, IUCN Cetacean Specialist Group (rrreeves@okapis.ca)


Also see:
2009 ETS Sousa Habitat Workshop

Taiwan's Humpback Dolphins face extinction

SMM Conference, Québec City: Workshop - Critical habitat delineation for critically endangered Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins in Taiwan