Annual greenhouse gas emissions in Taiwan reached a record high in 2017. Although estimates indicate that annual emissions have fallen since then, stronger action is needed for Taiwan to reach its 2050 target of a 50 per cent reduction relative to 2005 levels. This report argues that carbon pricing alongside …
For the first time, Taiwan closed a busy motorway section to make way for butterflies. The effort was to create a safe passageway for swarms of milkweed butterflies that flit along its city roads during their annual migration. With white dots on purple-brown wings, these butterflies are indigenous to Taiwan. …
Telecommunications in Southeast Asia was badly affected after an earthquake hit southern Taiwan on December 27, 2006. Fixed-line and mobile international telephone connections were largely back on line two days after the quake, but officials warned that it could take several more days before Internet access across much of Southeast …
It's tough being a hermit crab these days. Typically, these soft-bellied crustaceans protect themselves by living inside empty snail shells. But hermit crabs, today, face a housing crunch of epic proportions. People overharvest shellfish for food or pick up large numbers of shells on the beach to make door curtains …
The Taiwanese government has announced that it will dismantle 120 tuna longline vessels, about five per cent of its fleet. Environmentalists praised this reduction as a boon for marine animals injured and killed in large numbers by longlines in the Pacific Ocean. Longline fishing is a technique in which thousands …
Nowadays, Taiwan's forest-covered mountains can hardly be seen through the island's increasingly foetid yellow smog. 50 years of overdrive industrialisation has left the country with such rampant pollution problems that experts, reacting to a recent environmental survey, said that it would take another half century just to clean up. Of …
Why do people like eating the bamboo shoot? Is it because of the medicinal value or the flavour? "Both,' says Veena Arora, consultant chef at Spice Route, The Imperial, New Delhi. The young shoots of an edible species of bamboo, which are plucked as soon as they poke out of …
Having made a mark as a valuable tool in human forensic studies, genetics will now solve the puzzle for endangered wildlife too. Teams of researchers from Taiwan's Central Police University and the uk's Institute of Zoology in London are developing "fingerprint' tests that may soon put rhino poachers out of …
healing power: An Indian research team has been granted the rights to develop the curative potential of jamun (black plum fruit). The team has obtained a US patent on a compound extracted from jamun, which reduces blood sugar levels. The compound will be developed to produce a "herbal therapeutic product …
a computer system tested in Taiwan can give people as much as 25 seconds warning of an impending earthquake. This may not seem very long, but it is enough time for automated emergency systems to stop trains, shut down gas lines or tell surgeons to stop their work. "This could …
Starting September 2002, about two million children would be vaccinated free of cost against Hepatitis b in 15 cities and 32 districts in the country. The move follows the inclusion of the vaccination in the Universal Immunisation Programme (uip) by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (mhfw), which took …
Hepatitis B is a communicable disease with a high strike rate the germ: "The Hepatitis B virus kills 20 out of every 100 infected people each day. This works out to 400 times the people who die of AIDS daily,' points out S K Sarin, president, Indian Association for Study …
Taiwan's biggest security threat has brought it relief from a severe drought. For the first time in 50 years, a ship delivered 2,300 metric tonnes of water from China to a tiny Matsu island in Taiwan. The Chinese and Taiwanese officials attended the vessel's flagging off ceremony. To facilitate the …
Taiwan is facing its worst drought in two decades. To combat it, the authorities are considering rationing water island-wide. Water rationing has already begun in several cities and counties, where the opening of swimming pools has been delayed and irrigation has been suspended. The Central Weather Bureau's forecast centre said …
Why has a ban been imposed on shark hunting in particular? Sharks have a vital role in the marine ecosystem since they are the apex predator at the top of the marine food chain. But today they are almost extinct, being a major target of the fish hunters. Their slow …
The Taiwanese cabinet has decided not to hold a referendum on the fate of a controversial nuclear power project. "We decided against the referendum because the sense of political uncertainty was beyond our control,' said Chiou I-jen, secretary-general of the cabinet. In March 2001, after a three-month political stand-off, the …
The latest typhoon-driven mudslides in Taiwan, which killed nearly 100 people, indicate that Taiwanese have made little progress in weaning from cultivation of betel nut trees. According to the researchers, when earthquakes or typhoons cause the mountains to crumble, the shallow-rooted trees do little to grip the rocks and soil. …
Members of Taiwan's triads (secret societies) are using wild animals to test weapons purchased from smugglers. Their targets are boars, flying squirrels, wild rabbits, red deer and macaques. Reporters from Taiwan's China Times Express recently came across one such group, which told them that what they were doing was common …
The death of wild animals in a zoo is, indeed a shocking phenomenon. On one hand the government and international agencies spend crores of rupees to save the tiger and on the other we murder 12 tigers due to gross negligence. The highly qualified doctors who vaccinated the tigers at …
Taiwan will go ahead with the construction of a controversial nuclear power plant despite protests from a number of environmental groups. "To me this is a bitter decision and unavoidable responsibility,' justified the country's premier Chang Chun-hsiung. The us $5.5 billion, 2,700-megawatt nuclear power plant, Taiwan's fourth, was stopped when …
