Linkou Taiping Coastal Trail head 林口鄉 太平濱海懷舊古道入口
Our guide on local ecosocial history 陳健一（板橋社大講師，湳仔溝水岸聯盟召集人）
Sierra invited us on this trip at last weekend's APGN conference. The trip is organized by Linkou Community College 林口社區大學. It's a drizzly Mother's Day morning starting at Linkou High School at 7AM, but about 40 people show up for the beach walk.
The walk starts on the Linkou Pacific Coastal Trail 太平濱海懷舊古道 under 200m above sea level. Also known as the Old Nanwantou Taipingling trail 南灣頭太平濱海懷舊步道, the path links Taiping village 太平嶺 on the Linkou plain to Nanwan 南灣頭 on the coast. Taiping village was named following battles with plains aborigines following the arrival of Han Quanzhou 泉州人 settlers from Fujian 福建 in 1788 清朝乾隆53年 who climbed up to the Linkou plateau from Bali. The trail was refurbished by TaiPower with pavement stones and fancy wind/solar lighting following construction of the Bali incinerator. The walk down to the incinerator is an easy 30 minute walk.
The Bali Refuse Incineration Plant 八里垃圾焚化廠 is one of Taipei's three waste incinerators or 22 plants island-wide. In 2005 Taipei County generated approximately 3,120 tons of waste daily, of which approximately 2,820 tons, or 90.4% were incinerated. In 2006, refuse incineration accounted for 82.74％ of total garbage disposal. The successful implementation of EPA waste source reduction and resource recycling policies, led to a review and cancellation of 10 scheduled incineration plants, The Bali plant came on line in June of 2001 and processes 1350 tons per day. In addition to air-borne emissions (fly ash), incineration leaves behind (bottom) ash. By 2003, the island's incinerators had produced over one million tons of ash. Some of the most toxic known ingredients in this ash include organic chlorine products and dioxin.
We take a lunch break at lunch break at Ruei-ping Elementary School 瑞平國小 sheltered from the rain. Richard leads us through tapping exercises before we continue down the coast.
Run off from pig farms upstream in the Ruishukeng stream 瑞樹坑溪 is so heavy that the stream moves like sludge and there is no life visible in the water as swallows hunt over the water. We spend ssome time looking for material to make a simple bride where the stream dumps into he ocean to avoid walking through the fouled liquid.
As of 2007, in Taiwan, oil accounts for 51.1% of the total energy consumption, coal 32.2%, nuclear 8.1%, natural gas 8.4%, energy from renewable sources - 0.4%. Taipower had an installed capacity of 31,915 MW, of which 69% was thermal, 16% was nuclear, and 14% was hydropower. As of 2005, Taiwan's total installed capacity amounted to 43,122 MW; of which 67.0% belonged to Taipower, 16,8% to independent power providers, and 16.3% to cogeneration plants. The Linkou coal-fired power plant 林口發電廠 has a capacity of 900MW. Total carbon dioxide emissions nationwide were 277.645 million tons in 2006, representing an increase of 125% over the 1990's level of 123.574 million tons. Energy conversion industries contributed 6.9% of emissions in 2006, while heavy industry contributed 52.5%, the transportation sector contributed 14.3%, the commercial sector 6.3 % and private households 12.1%. Taiwan ranked third in Asia and 32nd worldwide in the 2009 Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI) for carbon dioxide emissions. Taiwan produces electricity from fossil fuels, wind, nuclear and hydro power. Taiwan's energy consumption is equivalent to 10.5 million kiloliters of oil, about 2.2 million barrels a day. Consumption of petroleum products accounts for about half of Taiwan's energy supply equivalent, to 4.5 million kiloliters of oil. Monthly Power consumption is around 20.9 billion kilowatt-hours.
