28 May, 2008 in
Asian Studies, Taiwan . Tags:
Fili's world
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What do you know about the environment in Taiwan? What do you really know about the environment elsewhere, maybe back in your home country? How good or bad are things here in Taiwan?
Since arriving in Taiwan I’ve become alot more environmental aware. This has a lot to do with the type of conversations that I have with my foreigner friends here. There are some things I think I feel myself, like my eyes becoming more sensitive and red, which I instinctively attribute to pollution, but then again – I don’t ride a motorbike back in Israel so I have no idea what is the real cause for this. I listen to all that people tell me, and sometimes accept those as facts, but I don’t have the real data to know what is happening here in Taiwan when it comes to the environment. Honestly, I’m confused. I’ve been reading posts from David on Formosa and View from Taiwan about the environment, and both of them suggest pessimistic data on what they perceive is happening here, but when I look at the data they’re pointing to, it doesn’t make any sense to me. I want to know – what is going on and just how bad is it?
This week I gave a short lecture on this in the GPSEA course to share my confusion with my friends. Following is the presentation :
The links used in this presentation are the following :
- Taiwan beats the US in Environmental Report (Taipei Times)
- Environmental index puts Taiwan at the bottom of the list (Taipei Times)
- EPI
- ESI
- The World Bank
- Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency
- The View from Taiwan: Taiwan Beats US in Environmental Index: ROFL (yeah, I’m aware of the other articles)
- David on Formosa : The Ugly Isle (yeah, I’m aware of the more recent articles as well)
Point is, when you compare Taiwan to other countries, perceived as clean, and take into account various factors like GDP (/PPP) and other measures, it seems Taiwan isn’t all that bad – it’s doing quite well on some factors while a little worse on others. Michael Turton has been pointing to many of the problems Taiwan is facing when it comes to the environment but the general perception that the Taiwanese don’t care about the environment and that things here are horrible is a bit problematic too. Israel, a similar size/economy country to Taiwan, faces the same problems, doing slightly better on some factors while doing much worse on others.
I’m not looking for someone to reassure me that Taiwan’s environment is heaven, but I am looking for a more precise interpretation of things here. If you’re a politician and you get all those endless contradicting stats, having limited budget and resources and political pressures, what would you focus your efforts on? where would you start? what are -you- going to do based on this problematic data?
Help me out, comments and reply posts on the topic of Taiwan’s environment and how to address the confusing data would be highly appreciated.
David on Formosa | May 28th, 2008 at 2:16 pm #
You are right there are a lot of issues involved here and it is easy to get confused. I think it is important to define pollution. I think it can be broken down into two main categories. One is greenhouse gases and the other is pollutants which are harmful to human health. There is some overlap between the two, but they aren’t necessarily the same thing.
I think this is important because in many cases levels of pollutants harmful to human health have fallen, but greenhouse gas emissions have increased. This has given people a false sense of security because they don’t understand the difference.
Lastly, I think it is fair to say that many people in Taiwan don’t care about the issue. You only need to look at the almost total absence of environmental issues from the recent Presidential election campaign. However, there are some Taiwanese people and NGOs that do a lot of good work with limited resources. There is hope for the future. (And I remember your suggestion that I should write about them on my blog and I haven’t forgotten.)
Helen | May 28th, 2008 at 7:48 pm #
As Michael has put it well in his article, reports can be twisted and the results in them have to be taken with the grin.
Two things I want to point out based on my brief experience here.
1) How do I personally feel – not good. Ok it has to do also with the different climate and also to the point with the attitude. But in general, I feel my skin is worse here and you already mentioned eyes, etc. I am being careful about what I drink and eat. But sometimes I worry about elementary things like people washing hands (i’ve noticed many people here don’t like to do that and if they cook my food – i don’t like that). Also at home we don’t grow crops by the roadside of highways; when we pick berries we go deep into the forest; here I see crops growing by roadsides. So even if at the first glance it may seem wonderful that I can eat here lots of fruits or fresh fish … on second thought, may-be not so wonderful.
2) Attitude about environmental issues. This has been mentioned by others. Just my general feeling from discussions with many Taiwanese is that they don’t care too much about the environment (that the fish they eat, might be polluted with chemicals or about how much they themselves contribute to the pollution). In some sense may-be they feel they can’t do too much about it, that these are the fruits they have and if they are polluted they can’t change that. And certainly there are a lot of people in other areas of the world who also still are not environmentally conscious or green minded.
I do miss clean air :), but I suspect that when I go back to Estonia for starters I will have a “clean air poisoning” :)
PS. I also miss less noise pollution …
fiLi | May 29th, 2008 at 8:00 am #
(long reply ahead)
Helen – yeah, I know what you mean. I have a hard time figuring out whether this really has to do with pollution or whether it’s something else. Visiting an “allergy doctor” I now know that many of the uncomfortable side affects that I experience here have a lot to do with the way my body reacts not only to the weather but also to the plants, trees, food, etc. (and that would also partially explain red eyes and sensitivity). The body takes a long time, maybe forever, to readjust itself to a new environment.
There is pollution here, but determining how bad things are is not easy, and so I’m a bit hesitant about the instinctive judgemental attribution of almost everything that’s uncomfortable her to pollution and Taiwanese incompetency without having seen the facts. Michael does a good job of pointing out the disadvantages, but I’m afraid that many of those are quite common elsewhere as well. We should strive to do better anywhere, but with the problematic stats my question to you would be – where to begin? and how to do make the decision where to focus your efforts on?
Another, I would say “foreigner affect” is not being able to objectively compare things to what’s happening back home. When it comes to hygenie and environmental awareness, I think that Taiwanese are doing quite well on some things that I haven’t seen being as good in some places around North America, Europe and Israel. Recycling, plastic bags usage reduction, wearing surgical masks in streets and restaurants to protect others from your breath, etc. are just examples.
Moreover, part of the “foreigner affect” is using that an excuse for bad behavior. Like – “if every once in a while I see a Taiwanese crossing a red light than it means ALL Taiwanese don’t obey the rules, ALL Taiwanese don’t -care- about the rules, and so, as to fit in, -I- don’t have to obey the rules.
This obviously includes another affect which is mis-attribution. I don’t think you’ll ever see the Taiwanese you’re with eating fish from polluted lakes, but some lower social classes might, as they would in any other country.
Like you, I’m still struggling with noise pollution, especially those from the garbage trucks. It’d be interesting getting reactions to that from Taiwanese.
Anyways, it’s an interesting discussion. Thanks for replying.
John | May 29th, 2008 at 10:02 pm #
Didn’t you mention Taiwan ranking poorly globally regarding pollution, like to 10 worst polluted places in the world (before some places in China came in and dropped them a bit lower)?
fiLi | May 29th, 2008 at 11:03 pm #
John – yeah, like David was saying – greenhouse gases and such. An American diplomat from Kaohsiung who gave a lecture today at NCKU was repeating the mantra that Kaohsiung has been the world leader for a long time till the Chinese kicked in. I’ve also heard similar things about Chiayi.
I was trying to find the actual data on this (not just an article summary), but alas… donno, after so many stats from so many resources, I have a hard time keeping track and sorting out the truth. I’ll keep trying, though.
Helen | June 15th, 2008 at 11:13 pm #
I just now noticed your reply to my comment … i usually, don’t come back to check if someone has commented on my comments :) (now i was just getting a link to your post for my post in Estonian).
You are right … it is easy to go and apply single case to the whole group. By saying that i have noticed Taiwanese don’t wash their hands … I base it on many experiences. I try really hard not to stereotype here. I also try really hard to keep a positive attitude … but my strength is running low.
What comes to global ratings. I don’t know what’s a good solution … go and apply for a job at these organizations and change things for better :)?! … possible. But in general compiling such ratings is hard, I can imagine. What we can do, is to look more closely at the ratings (be it environment, IT development, corruption etc) and see how they are compiled and what gives a ranking like that and use our own critical thinking. That’s where our global experience comes handy :)
Another point. Of course also important is I’d call “starting point”. I come from the country with very low level of pollution. With lots of green forests, untouched beaches, and lots of space. So for me, what I have encountered here is en extreme difference.
Recycling is a new thing all over the world. During a 1.5 years in US I saw how things got better there. I also saw how things are getting better every day at home. Europe has just in 2 recent years enforced many regulations regarding recycling. Our garbage system doesn’t work like here but also all garbage has to be sorted and recyclable things recycled. I guess this is the area where everyone is learning and growing still.
What we can do? Educate ourselves, be better citizens ourselves (wherever we are).
I still eat local fruits and vegetables … and hope they are as unpolluted as possible.
sunrisedatacare | April 1st, 2010 at 6:03 am #
http://www.coomararunodaya.com/