Climate change is the most profound problem in the world today, and all countries urgently need to work together to solve it. However, countries around the world are not putting enough effort into fighting against climate change, and the problem is getting more and more serious. Sadly, this means Taiwan must be prepared to face the problems caused by climate change.
Rising sea levels
Taiwan is an island country, so rising sea levels will be a huge problem. Rising sea levels will affect coastal areas, and coastal populations will have to evacuate. If sea levels rise six meters, Taipei and Tainan will be flooded, and there is nothing we can do to stop this. Thus, the government should conceive plans for when the flooding finally comes.
Evacuating is not a practical solution considering the huge population in Taipei. However, Rotterdam in the Netherlands offers a good model for Taiwan since most of its land is under sea level.
Dutch engineers have come up with ways to deal with flooding, one of which is building water squares. Water squares, which are public squares that can also be catch basins for water, is an idea worth promoting in Taiwan. The Water Square Benthemplein in Rotterdam is good example for Taiwan to learn from.
Letting the water flow to the right places is the most important idea of water squares. When rain storms come, the unique design of water squares allows the water to gather at the squares, which turns water squares into ‘basins’ to store water, thus preventing the water from flowing to into neighborhoods. Then after the rain, the water stored in the water squares will either flow into drainage systems or underground infiltration systems. The water that flows into underground infiltration systems can keep groundwater level, which can help reduce the urban island effect.
Extreme weather caused by climate change
Climate change has also begun to cause extreme weather. We will have to face more and stronger droughts, floods, and typhoons. Thus, Taiwan should come up with plans to deal with these problems.
The first thing Taiwan needs to do is build resilient cities. Urban drainage systems can’t handle stronger and stronger rainstorms so we should be thinking about ways to live with these natural disasters, instead of just hoping they don’t happen. Take rainstorms for example; resilient cities don’t aim to drain the water away as soon as possible since there are limits in drainage systems. Building resilient cities means turning cities into sponges, which allows cities to absorb water in order to lower the damages caused by floods.
Managing water resources is the second issue Taiwan must prepare to face. Taiwan is an island with few water resources and extreme weather will only make this problem worse. Building more dams will not solve this problem; rain in Taiwan is intense so it can be hard to stop the water from flowing into the ocean.
To solve this problem, we should try to recycle water. Orange County in California could be an example for Taiwan since they have done a great job in reusing water. In addition, we can build more water money boxes, which Taiwan has been building. We should promote this idea further and build water money boxes widely, which would help solve Taiwan’s water shortage problem.
Handling these problems
Our government must develop the ability to handle these problems.
When dealing with natural disasters, the central government should cooperate more with local governments since local governments are the ones that know what their city needs.
Cooperation between local governments is also important. Local governments should cooperate with each other to deal with damage caused by typhoons and other natural disasters. Take the Danshui River for example: it flows through Taipei and New Taipei City, so both governments should work together on issues such as preventing the river from flooding. If two local governments don’t cooperate, they are wasting money and time.
Call upon other nations to deal with climate change
Even though Taiwan has taken measures to fight against climate change, it is not enough. Solving this complicated problem needs every country to do its part. In order to fight against climate change, countries like the United States, China, and India should lower their carbon emissions. However, Taiwan should also lower carbon emissions and act as a role model and call upon other countries to treat climate change seriously.
Conclusion
Climate change can cripple Taiwan due to its geography. Taiwan should be aware of the problems that climate change will cause and be ready to face them.
Further reading:
- http://flood.firetree.net
- https://www.greenpeace.org/taiwan/press/9206/全球暖化下臺灣海平面上升衝擊分析/
- https://www.peoplenews.tw/news/a2020f8d-c731-460c-92f6-ea7e8e8f5ace
- https://scitechvista.nat.gov.tw/c/sBa1.htm
- https://www.peoplenews.tw/page/43b1de00-9c81-40b4-87b3-3f66bef0c411
- https://csrone.com/news/5016
- https://www.storm.mg/amparticle/1969877
- https://udn.com/news/story/6811/4255262
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