by Ching-Yuan Huang According to the latest assessment released by the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on 27 September, more and more people are convinced of the possibility of the dangers of rising sea levels and other water issues, all of which represented a significant UN theme during the past year. And to Taiwan and its citizens, the issue of water is all the more important. Not only will increasing sea levels submerge a quarter of the island, but global warming and extreme weather will cause more water shortages, serious droughts, and more sudden occurrences of much stronger typhoons. But identifying the impact of the sea-level rise is not a straightforward matter in Taiwan. El Niño, a weather pattern which causes the equatorial Pacific’s warmer waters to flow east, can trigger floods and droughts across the region and affect sea levels as well. With Arctic icebergs continuing to melt, fears are generated that people living in coastal areas may become climate-change refugees. Leading climate scientists say that human behavior is the main cause of global warming, bringing rising sea levels to swamp coasts and low-lying islands. However, keeping Taiwan from torrential rain and its devastation is another urgent problem. Four years ago, the southeastern region of Taiwan was severely affected by Typhoon Morakot, killing 461 people and leaving 192 missing. The typhoon was one of the most deadly in Taiwan’s recorded history, dumping heavy rains and causing catastrophic floods just after the island had been stricken by drought. Although the storm replenished most of reservoirs and, to some extent, put an end to water shortages in several areas, the interval between these two extreme conditions has strikingly shortened and has become a more common phenomenon in recent years. According to climatoligists, if one area has been harshly affected by a drought for a long period of time, the ground is too hard to absorb any new rainfall, particularly with abrupt heavy rain. Coping with the problem of heavy downpours and droughts, Taiwan’s government has been forced to restrict water usage for the agricultural sector due to the reservoirs’ instability. This has led to financial problems for the farmers and has worsened the food crisis. The UN has focused on these same issues in order to provide practical and effective solutions, such as the distribution and management of water resources, or measures for water sustainability in the long term. Like London in the 19th century, Taipei is also a smoky city with many factories and households spewing muck and filth into its rivers. To cope with this problem, the government needs to regulate emissions instead of making more pollution; the relevant authorities should also come up with novel operating methods. If human beings are unable to curb or to reverse the current environmental situation, the best way to exist on earth, as the IPCC suggests, is to adapt ourselves and our lifestyles to our changing surroundings. Take southern Taiwan for instance, some farmlands and cultivation are vulnerable to drought. To avoid being threatened by extreme weather, one plausible solution is that the government invest in capital to assist farmers in developing drought-tolerant crops. Seven years has passed since Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth was released in 2006. Time is ticking, however, and our pace has been much too slow. In order to adapt to our ever-changing environment, Taiwan has to work harder for better solutions.
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May 2024
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