Environmental Impact Assessment: Overcoming the gulf between good intentions and actionEnvironmental awareness has been on the rise in Taiwan, but there remains a lack of action. GENERAL PUBLICThe authors of “Environmental Literacy Among the General Public in Chiayi County, Taiwan” (Sustainability, April 1, 2025) differentiate between environmental awareness and environmental knowledge. Photo: Steven CrookTheir concept of environmental literacy incorporates three additional dimensions: environmental attitudes (a person’s values and emotional responses toward their surroundings); environmental action skills (for example, knowing how to separate trash or alert the authorities to pollution) and environmental behavior (such as energy conservation and sustainable consumption). However, the survey discovered a relative lack of environmental action skills. Surely Taiwan’s leaders know that the existing intersection of regulations and interest groups — which, to give just one example, encourages the construction of far more houses than a shrinking population requires — often obstructs meaningful climate action.

Source: Taipei Times December 23, 2025 17:13 UTC