Musings are thoughts, the thoughtful kind. For the purpose of these articles, a-musings are thoughts that might amuse, entertain and even enlighten.
[dropcap]I[/dropcap] happened across this information in an inflight magazine; I think it was Dragon Air’s, one of the airlines that fly between Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Greenhouse gases allow sunlight to filter through the atmosphere but, due to the way they react with light, they capture the heat that would normally be reflected back into space, in effect turning the entire world into a vast greenhouse – the Greenhouse Effect. Scientists in Taiwan are hesitant to attribute any single event to climate change but Typhoon Morakot served as a bellwether of what Taiwan might expect going forward so government ministries have been assigned adaptive measures that could be taken in their various areas of competence: for the Ministry of Transportation and Communications, the likely effect on vulnerable infrastructure; for the Ministry of Interior, the potential impact on land use and coastal zones; for the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the implications for power supply, industrial activity, and water resources; for the Council of Agriculture, the impact on agriculture and biodiversity; and for the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the potential ramifications for public health. The Center for Disaster Reduction is tasked with forecasting the impact of climate change on natural disasters such as typhoons and landslides to diminish the loss of life and property in the future.
Like Saint Lucia, Taiwan suffers from insufficient reservoir capacity due to silting and its old and leaky pipelines, problems that will only worsen over time. The potential impact of limited water resources on public health is also a concern. For example, dengue fever, already at epidemic proportions at times in southern Taiwan, could migrate north as the climate warms. Since the mosquitoes carrying dengue fever breed in stagnant water in hot climates, the extent of the challenge facing public health officers is expected to grow as temperatures rise.
Taiwan’s distinct geography – a relatively small island with steep mountains – gives it a highly complex pattern of microclimates that scientists say are very difficult to model accurately. Although Taiwan has 100 years of recorded weather data, most of it is confined to temperature, precipitation, and wind speed, and is not as detailed as required for accurate climate modelling. Climate projections are increasingly important for policy and planning for infrastructure, coastal development, agriculture, and a host of other sectors, while accurate weather forecasting, particularly with regard to extreme weather events, is crucial to protecting both Taiwan and Saint Lucia. With extreme weather events projected to increase in intensity, Taiwan and Saint Lucia will have to be ready to deal with the economic fallout. In developed countries, people commonly safeguard against such damage by purchasing property insurance. Taiwan’s comparatively small size and the tight concentration of the population on just 30% of the land mass means that insurance companies are unable to distribute the risks widely. As a result, insurers would need to charge high premiums for the coverage. A similar situation exists in Saint Lucia.
In Taiwan the government is using its own funds to cover losses to private property from flooding, especially in the agricultural sector. This method is popular with the farmers as they receive protection without having to buy insurance. However, given the frequency of natural disasters in Taiwan, the agency always runs out of funds from its contingency reserves and must request additional funding. In addition, at the government’s encouragement, many farmers have been shifting production from cheaper crops such as rice to high-value fruits and vegetables, as well as intensive aquaculture for export. The result is that the amount of post-disaster compensation to be paid is getting higher and higher. Nevertheless, such programmes provide a very effective way for local politicians to demonstrate that they are doing something that can help farmers and can attract votes at election time.
The Taiwanese government is seeking to promote property insurance for all sectors, including agriculture, adding that less than half of Taiwan’s private properties are adequately insured against fire, earthquakes, typhoons, and other disasters. Such insurance is only mandatory for properties that are mortgaged, accounting for only around half of Taiwan’s private residences.
Warming of the climate system is unequivocal: the atmosphere and oceans have warmed, the amounts of snow and ice have diminished, and the sea level has risen. The average global temperature in 2015 was the warmest since record-keeping began in the 1850s, and the ten warmest years on record have all occurred since 2000, with the exception of 1998. Climate change is real, and it is caused by the unprecedented surge in emissions of greenhouse gases. The amount of these gases trapped in the atmosphere has nearly doubled since the Industrial Age began in the mid-nineteenth century.
