This link to a New York Times article explains how Taiwan, along with Iraq, Kuwait, Haiti and North Korea, ranks at the very bottom of the earth’s nations -the bottom 5 in the index of 146 countries.
nytimes.com/2005/01/24/scien … oref=login
Two questions:
Surprise surprise … and surprising that Taiwan doesn’t advertise and in fact hides this type of information. (Sarcasm!) I have often asked myself how long it takes off your life expectancy myself. Stock up on anti-oxidants and get water and air purifiers (and wipe the black grime off your exposed skin as often as possible) and it might at least help a little!
So, no more debates about Taiwan being an independent nation. Taiwan is a planet!
Planet Taiwan 
:bravo: :bravo:
While I by no means want to argue that taiwan is an environmentalists dreamland, the report is heavily unfair because it counts association in international environmental organizations and cooperation with other countries on environmental issues. Of course, given Taiwan’s status as a non-country it is impossible for it to score very highly on these categories.
Also, consider this:
And there is no mention of China being near the bottom. That country is widely regarded as having an abominable environment with few serious or workable programs for long term protection. With 50% of our air pollution coming from China now it is ridiculous that they are not even close to us in ranking.
In any case, let us hope it is a slap in the face to the government. Considering how serious they are about expanding the tourism industry they need to do some serious work to avoid these kinds of PR disasters. The new land use bill wating to be passed is a great start.
[quote=“wispy swiller”]This link to a New York Times article explains how Taiwan, along with Iraq, Kuwait, Haiti and North Korea, ranks at the very bottom of the earth’s nations -the bottom 5 in the index of 146 countries.
nytimes.com/2005/01/24/scien … oref=login
Two questions:
It would much nicer if in the future you don’t link to login-in only articles… Yah copying and pasting the article isn’t very nice, but otherwise theres no point bringing it up.
[quote=“Freakin’ Amazing”][quote=“wispy swiller”]This link to a New York Times article explains how Taiwan, along with Iraq, Kuwait, Haiti and North Korea, ranks at the very bottom of the earth’s nations -the bottom 5 in the index of 146 countries.
nytimes.com/2005/01/24/scien … oref=login
Two questions:
It would much nicer if in the future you don’t link to login-in only articles… Yah copying and pasting the article isn’t very nice, but otherwise theres no point bringing it up.[/quote]
Don’t copy and past entire articles. Registration takes only a few seconds and you don’t even need to give a real email address.
Thank God for this report. It has really opened my eyes. I thought Taiwan was really clean until I read this.
I suppose they’ll be telling us the earth isn’t flat next?
Planet Taiwan!! Goddaman. A recent article in the China Post (sorry, can’t bring up the link now, cuz their Search feature SUCKS), stated that acid rain is posing a serious threat the the forests in the northern part of the island. Anyone else feel like their hair is thinning? Anyway, I can work myself into a furor here, but instead, I"m going to send it to mayor Ma-Yi-Joe. Here is is email address if anyone else would like to vent at him: english.taipei.gov.tw/TCG/index.jsp Fire away at him. As far as I can gather, the air quality in Taipei City has deteriorated considerably in the past 3 years, even in the last 3 months! In a time when we need to be taking measures to reduce our emissions, superstar ‘Ma’ seems to be turning a blind eye to an obvious -and disgusting- mass increase in air pollution emitted from scooter and automobile tailpipes. Is ‘Ma’ a real mayor, or is he a ‘wannabe’ Korean Drama Star? I don’t know.
Yes, I remember before Ma came to power the air in Taipei was so much better! The streets were cleaner, there were more parks and mass transportation systems back then, the sidewalks were clear of scooters (there were no two-stroke scooters back then, everyone had well-maintained 4-strokes), and people disposed of their garbage properly.
Oh, and everyone was beautiful and generous and all the kids had ponies!
I especially miss the snow-white bunnies hopping playfully across the green fields through the dandelions. Damn you, Ma! What have you done to the bunnies!
Yeah, that’s why I left Taiwan – all those ugly parks and public art he’s been throwing around the city. You didn’t see THAT in the good old days, let me tell you… 
The last few days the air has been foul in Taipei. Why not announce the fact (a lot of Taiwanese don’t notice) when this happens and request that people avoid unneccesary trips and get their scootrs tuned up?
I know, I know because it wouldn’t work right?
Why not announce it anyway? Why not pester ICRT to do the same thing?
Wouldn’t it feel good at least to try a little. This city always generates a tremendous amount of air pollution only at times like this it sticks around awhile. Might be a good time to raise the issue.
until they cut through some of the mountains pinning taipei in the air isn’t gonna improve. sadly, there is an old chinese story illustrating how such is folly and locals tsk-tsk such suggestions away. land reclamation has worked wonders elsewhere but seems kinda a no-no in the beautiful isle. heck, fill the taiwan strait with the rocks and clean cut a fresh air corridor through the mountains.
Has this really been done elsewhere? Sounds intriguing. Wouldn’t do much for stopping pollution in spring though as the bad air comes from mainland china on the winds. Even the air at the beach is bad on those days.
I don’t know if the locals would tsk tsk at it. In Mucha many of the local hills and mounds were levelled to make room for apartments. And surely in modern Taipei it wouldn’t be hard to garner support for something that would not cost individuals anything and would greatly improve the air quality.
BTW, here is an overview from the taiwan news on the environmemtal report, no password required:
etaiwannews.com/Taiwan/Socie … 791121.htm
Bob, the papers and radio stations do regular anounce pollution levels. The problem is that schools, in particular should not be letting students out on really bad air days. I believe it is negligence like this on so many levels that caused taiwan’s rating to be so low. LA has shitty air too, and in the 70’s it was probably as bad as taipei is now, but on high pollution days, schools were closed and people were encouraged to limit activities.
Wispy your thinning hair is more likely the result of humidity and heat. My hair thins out ever summer and then thickens up again during the winter. It happens every year so it is not the result of aging.
It is easy to take pot shots at Wispy Swiller, but in actual fact in terms of late winter-spring air quality and as it is affected by pollution from China his intuition is right.
There have been more dust storm events and transported pollution from China over the past 4 years than in previous periods. This is only set to get worse owing to enviromental degredation in China.
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Pfft, the rain here barely even counts as acidic. I’m not even entirely convinced it is at all actually. Compared to acid rain as found in HK, where it’s capable of actually dissolving dyes out of clothes and tastes like battery acid when it gets on your tongue, Taipei’s bloody wonderful.
does anyone remember the thread / news report about how Taiwan uses their own “special” scale for rating air pollution as seen on the local news media as well as the English fish wraps… I forget the details, but suffice to say it’s “special” in so far as it ignores all international standards of measuring and quantifying air pollution in favour of it’s very own Taiwan scale, where readings that would be “high” and/or “dangerous” by international standards are downgraded to “moderate” and/or “not so bad” on the Taiwanese scale to avoid the bad PR and the yokels getting restless…
not that they would get ‘too’ restless mind, since on those hellish days where the filth and smog hangs low over the city, here in Ta1chung when you point it out to the yokels 95% say “oh no, that isn’t pollution that’s just cloud and water vapour from the surrounding mountains” I also know a couple of big noses who’ve bought into the hype… perhaps denial is a symptom of poisoning by air pollution… :loco:
[quote=“plasmatron”]Taiwan uses their own “special” scale for rating air pollution[/quote]Yes, and you notice how the report for some areas just isn’t available at all on given days? I wonder what that means, and why it’s always some place like Linyuan…
[quote=“plasmatron”]“oh no, that isn’t pollution that’s just cloud and water vapour from the surrounding mountains”[/quote]Clouds don’t form in clean air since water vapor needs a nucleus to condense around. So, this line is partly true. It is very humid here, some of the vapor condenses onto the dust and smoke particles making it far more visible than it would be otherwise. It’s especially obvious on high pressure days when a low level temperature inversion keeps that filth and moisture close to the ground instead of it lifting into the upper atmosphere.
In other areas, like Kaohsiung, the afternoon sea breeze brings a moist airmass over land to form that very visible chemical haze the city is famous for.
Until TPE finds feasible alternatives to scooters, aka filth-factory on wheels, we’re stuck with the air pollution.
I wonder if they can find a way to package all the smog spewed out of the motorbikes in Taiwan? This crud could become Taiwan’s next big export. Think of it! Get to work quickly and contribute to the export sector. 
agreed, but like you said the filth has got to be there for the water vapor to condense around… it’s when trying to point out this subtle prerequisite to the yokels that you run up against the wall of denial… “noooo, not pollution… it’s just nice friendly water vapor, that’s all… you foreigners don’t understand Taiwanese weather.”… :loco: