Air pollution levels in Taiwan - grim reading

In the app I have the nearest site to my parents’ home bookmarked, so every time I open the app I see both the index here (currently 110), and their home (currently 17). I should probably remove that bookmark. It’s too painful.

Mine was saying 99. Update now to 124 Unhealthy for sensitive groups

In the app I have the nearest site to my parents’ home bookmarked, so every time I open the app I see both the index here (currently 110), and their home (currently 17). I should probably remove that bookmark. It’s too painful.[/quote]

Haha! So I’m not the only one to check how the air is back ‘home’. I went for a run tonight and the haze was visible in the street lights. I could also smell it. About 130 now. :frowning:

Nasty red all down the west coast this morning. East coast is yellow, which is now the new green here and passes for acceptable. Just.

Incredibly bad in hsinchu, can taste it. Grim.

I run in that most days.

That app beats checking the website. In my hometown they don’t actually check for pollutants in the air as there are none really to measure. It’s amazing how blue, blue skies actually without the khaki, gray or brown tinge that infrequently goes away here.

Mine now says 158 Unhealthy. Next to Taipei Main Station.

Xindian is always a bit bit better. Shows 107 in the website you guys use.

Just finished reading this article.
english.cw.com.tw/article.do?act … 0&offset=0
There are a few major flaws in the article, quoting mainly from government and taipower officials being the main one and the lack of discussion on effects of air pollution on the population.
The biggest flaw was the omission that Taiwan has been rated as one of the best places in the South Asia region for solar power generation.
Central and South Taiwan get something like 300 sunny days a year.

However the overall conclusion was correct.

Since this article was written the government has invested in more coal fired power plants (say hello Linkou thermal plant) and has dropped the cost of electricity by 9% thus encouraging MORE air pollution and higher carbon emissions. This is extremely foolhardy and shortsighted. Some have claimed it is to embarrass the DPP when they need to raise prices in the future. Perhaps there is something to that, but we don’t see much clamour from the population here to clean up their sh%t.

There need to be stronger incentives to reduce usage. Cutting the costs of electricity now is a terrible idea, reinforcing the cost-down approach to industry that has led us to this point. It’s not a way to move forward.

Guy

Welcome to 20th Century Island.

The article noted and linked by HHII is well worth a look (as many are in Commonwealth). The money quote appears just before the conclusion:

[quote]Daigee Shaw, a research fellow at Academia Sinica and former president of the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research who has studied climate change for many years, sees the crux of the problem as the private sector’s low-cost mindset and the government’s support for it.

Taiwan’s industrial sector puts a premium on low-cost manufacturing and competitively priced exports, and the government reinforces that by holding in check the costs of electricity, water, fuel and industrial park land and keeping tax rates, interest rates and the value of the Taiwan dollar low to enhance the country’s competitiveness, Shaw says.

But facing a low-carbon future will mean transforming this cost-oriented industrial structure. The MOEA’s Shen describes the situation as an industrial transformation battlefield, with both the carrot and the stick needed to encourage companies to move in the right direction.[/quote]

Guy

I love Taiwan. Where else in the world can you see a headline like “City to burn ghost money offerings to cut emissions”?

taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/ … 2003643022

Today we were riding for hours in the west coast, to a shitty place in the south of changhua and thenot up north to some mountain near nantou. The air was disgustingly white and smelly, although what I was smelling was probably the paper being burnt everywhere. Absolutely disgusting. Smog from China + local smog + huge traffic jam in the north + paper smoke. Holy shit…

Have you guys noticed the different quality in the paper money? Some are local, from China and I think Vietnam. The other day we used the dark yellow one and when it first lit up, the heavy smoke creeping up was just narly.
I hope more temples follow the likes of XingTian Kong, with no incense.

Seems like every time you get into a discussion about pollution the Taiwanese blame China. Of course some pollution will drift over here, sometimes it’s a lot. But 99% of the pollution in Taiwan is from local sources. All we can do is keep awareness to this issue. Eventually it will change, but it’s going to take a long time I’m afraid. Scooters are one of the largest sources of pollution so that won’t go away any time soon. Most people don’t realize that a scooter can create up to 1000 times more pollution than an automobile. If its in the usual scooter condition with blue smoke belching, who knows how high the levels are. Everyone loves to blame cars, but the truth is the emissions on modern automobiles has been reduced to a trivial amount. In many cases the air exiting a car exhaust is cleaner than the air going in.

Lately I’ve had very severe respiratory issues. I’ve come to the conclusion it’s the pollution. Now that I’m aware of the connection I can clearly see the connection. It causes cold like symptoms, sinus infections, bronchitis, etc. It’s really no fun. Especially getting cortisone injections directly into the sinus cavity isn’t pleasant. I love biking so I think that’s what really exasperated the problem. Nothing like getting stuck in a pack of scooters while your anaerobic. I’ve bought a high quality mask to bike with, so I’ll see how it goes. But when the level is over 120, it’s just not safe even with a mask. I often bike at night with a very bright headlight. It’s incredible how much garbage you can see in the air with the LED light. All that garbage is going in your lungs.

It’s the stuff that you can’t see that is even more dangerous.

[quote]
In many cases the air exiting a car exhaust is cleaner than the air going in.[/quote]

You need to take a broader look at the impact of the automobile industry. The carbon footprint (and the damage to our planet) is much much larger than the issue of exhaust.

Guy

Is the mask designed for biking? Do let us know how you like it. I’ve tried wearing a regular surgical mask while I bike, but it wasn’t very comfortable. So I switched to a bandana, which is much easier to breathe through, but I doubt it’s very effective in screening out fine particles.

It’s summer
PM2.5 is forgotten, because…
It’s vacation time
And the South East wind is at work!

So who really cares?
who is really taking action?

Please raise your hand and share.

Whats caused the shocking air quality in hsinchu and the west coast yesterday?
It’s a little better today, but I’ve only ever seen it that bad when I’ve been in taipei of china. taipei seemed unaffected yesterday.

This made me laugh! Sometimes this is oh-so-true.

Guy