Nuclear safety was the most pressing issue for people in Taiwan during 2011, according to a survey released by the nongovernmental Taiwan Environmental Information Association January 1.
“The re-emergence of the anti-nuclear movement in Taiwan following Japan’s Fukushima crisis was the No. 2 story for last year,” said Chen Juei-pin, TEIA secretary-general.
“This demonstrates that people are worried about this issue and have begun looking more critically at Taiwan’s nuclear power plants.”
According to the poll, the ROC government decision to suspend the Kuokuang petrochemical complex in Changhua County trailed Fukushima at No.3. But both pieces were trumped by May’s plasticizer scandal in which tons of local products were recalled and destroyed.
Other articles garnering weighty support in the survey were the Kyoto Protocol extension; the flooding in Thailand; world population topping 7 billion; and Brazil’s greenlighting of the Belo Monte Dam.
“The poll shows that environmental sustainability is apparently the top concern for local intellectuals and green-conscious citizens,” Chen said.
“This tendency was illustrated by the popularity of stories involving the government’s seizure of farmland for industrial park construction and coastal land in eastern Taiwan for build-operate-transfer resort projects.”
But it was not all doom and gloom on the environmental front, Chen said. “Positive stories did surface last year yet seemed to be passed over by respondents.”
Several highlights were the launch of the Environmental Education Act and halting of several controversial construction projects, including a waste dump in Tainan City, tourism development in outlying Penghu County and industrial park in Miaoli County.
“Respondents seem to be so upset about cases of unsustainable environmental practices that even these bright stories failed to cheer them up,” Chen said. “This should be cause for great concern to policymakers.”
A total of 2,200 respondents, 90 percent degree-educated or above, participated in the TEIA’s 11th annual poll.
