Nation unplugs to conserve energy resources

This article was written by June Tsai and published by the Taiwan Journal on April 27, 2007. It reports that on April 27, 2007, government offices and schools turned off their lights for an hour at noon as a reminder of the global warming crisis. To celebrate Earth Day on April 22, various environmental groups also urged other measures to help cut Taiwan's energy consumption.

According to this article, the lights-off campaign reduced electricity consumption by about 17,500 kilowatts. The amount of electricity saved in the aforementioned hour could translate into 10 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions, which was equivalent to the CO2 absorption by 4,824 square feet of trees in one year.

The government issued the "lights-out" order to agencies and schools in response to a campaign to save energy. The campaign was launched by 17 non-governmental organizations, who held a press conference to encourage the public to participate in the conservation effort by switching off lights, air conditioners and electric appliances for one hour. According to these organizations, the action would help reduce energy usage and cut CO2 emissions. Indeed, every 10 kilowatt-hours of electric consumption meant 6.2 kilograms of CO2.

According to these non-governmental organizations, global warming was getting worse. While Tuvalu in the Pacific region was facing the threat of rising sea levels triggered by global warming, the Taipei basin could also be affected. It was hoped that a similar campaign to turn off appliances could also be implemented at night, when local electricity consumption was at its peak.

According to these non-governmental organizations, it was important for individuals and companies to take action in their daily lives to economize resources. If an air conditioner had been set one degree Celsius higher, it could save up to 6 percent of its energy. People were also advised to use home appliances with a higher energy-efficiency ratio, such as compact fluorescent light bulbs.

Meanwhile, the Homemaker's Union and Foundation, a local organization using women's activism to endorse an environmentally friendly lifestyle, launched an "unplug campaign" on Earth Day. The group called on people to disconnect all of their electric appliances when leaving home for more than three hours at a time. It also promoted the idea of replacing traditional incandescent light bulbs with energy-saving bulbs in every household. Though more expensive, these energy-saving bulbs only consumed about one-fifth of the electricity that regular bulbs did. According to estimations made by the Taiwan Environmental Protection Union, if all of Taiwan's 4 million households switched to energy-saving light bulbs, in less than one year it would save as much electricity as a nuclear power plant generated each year, or 37 million barrels of crude oil.

According to these non-governmental organizations, the government needed to pay attention to Taiwan's rising CO2 emissions. Currently, industries consumed 60 percent of Taiwan's energy. For example, heavy industry, including textiles, cement and petrochemicals, generally demanded far more electricity but had less added value than the high-tech sector.

Another source of energy consumption was transportation. Several groups, including the Center for a Thousand Kilometers of Walking Paths and the Green Party Taiwan, held a bicycle rally in Taipei to urge the government to revamp Taiwan's roads with more bike lanes. According to these groups, less than 3 percent of commuters in Taipei used bicycles. There were also 60,000 more cars on the roads than five years ago. Although the Taipei City Government had built many bike lanes, they were mostly in suburban areas or along rivers, which neither replaced cars and motorbikes nor reduced emission of harmful gases into the air.

According to these groups, the people in Taiwan needed green transportation to make their lives healthier as well as to make a contribution to the sustainable existence of the Earth. These groups asked the government to amend the existing Highway Act to include bicycles as a mode of transportation and encourage people to use them.