Respecting Nature and Humanity Relearned

Chi-hsiang Wang/Senior Research Project Director/Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation

Taiwan, our land as the Portuguese named it Formosa , has been known to be a beautiful island. Because of its unique geographical location (situated right on the Pacific Rim of Fire) and climatological characteristic (enclosed in the western Pacific tropical cyclone basin), however, the island has been plagued ever since the start of its history by earthquakes and typhoons. On the other hand, it has been earthquakes that shape the beauty of Taiwan's landscape as we know today and it has been typhoons that provide its inhabitants with the bounty of essential water resources for survival.

Knowing such predestined fate, our forebears learned to treat this precious land with awe, respect the force of nature, and turn its rage into their advantages. They enjoyed the bountiful fruits of this fertile soil and the beauty of its breathtaking scenery. They thrived on it and passed to us this beautiful homeland.

Regrettably, until recent time we seem to have forgot the lessons our forefathers learned with sweat and blood. Because of endless desire for material comfort, we rob the land that nurture us by felling the forests to grow high-profit but unsustainable plants, excavating excessively the earth to support wasteful lifestyle, and drafting the groundwater for fish and domestic farming simply to fulfil gastronomic gratification. Even further, just because of personal greed and negligent of peril to lives, we build dangerous dwellings not conforming to the minimal standard of design, hazardous school buildings forgetting that our children are being educated within, and unsafe roads and bridges on which our brothers and sisters are travelling.

The repercussion of such wrongdoings has been stunning!

We saw that after the 921 earthquake of 1999, around 10,000 buildings totally collapsed, another 8,000 severely damaged, which were the primary causes for the loss of 2,500 lives and the injury of another 10,000 people. We saw that after Typhoons Kalmaegi and Sinlaku of 2008 another 47 lives were claimed, and the astounding failure of Ho-Feng Bridge, Taichung. We saw yet again after Typhoon Morakot of 2009 that enormous mudslides blanketed, and severe floods inundated, a large part of our Formosa , swallowing the whole village of Hsiao-Lin, Kaohsiung. We can not help but wonder what will be brought to us every summer, every year. We live in constant fear of yet known catastrophic events, most of which are of our own making.

To save us from such bleak, perilous outlook, we need to look inwards, be humble, and relearn the lessons our ancestors have had, in hopes not again with our, or our offspring's, blood. Our forefathers have passed dutifully to us this lovely land; it is now our responsibility to pass it on, in a shape as beautiful as it ever was, to our children and grandchildren so that they can call it home.