Activities

Beach Cleanup

In recent years, the crisis of climate change has continued to worsen; so far, the average temperature of the earth has already exceeded 1°C, causing problems like coral bleaching. This phenomenon is currently threatening many countries, including the island, Taiwan. Therefore, our team decided to carry out a beach cleanup activity in Danshui Baisha Bay on August 23, hoping to clean our polluted Earth through the power of unity. After everyone arrived at the location, we actively took the tools and garbage bags we needed and began to pick up every garbage we saw. At first, there weren’t a lot of garbage, but when we continued walking along the beach, everyone was frightened by the sight in front of them: there were all kinds of rubbish everywhere, such as straws, plastic bottles, styrofoam, fishing nets, disposable tableware, etc. At this moment, everyone began to realize the seriousness of marine debris, so they were more active in cleaning the environment and sorting garbage. In the process of picking up garbage, some team members also saw the carcass of the animal who accidentally ate the plastic pieces, which is really heart-wrenching to know. Under the hot weather for 4 hours of cleaning, the beach gradually returned to its original appearance. Although everyone was sweating and tired in the end, it was worth it to able to make the environment clean and tidy again for animals to live in safely.

Through this beach cleanup activity, we witnessed the consequences caused by people’s ignorance first-hand. People littered rubbish for convenience, turning the once beautiful beach into a terrible garbage dump in an instant. Beach cleaning is not the end of stopping garbage pollution, but a starting point for everyone to protect the environment.

Bamboo Basket DIY

On September 17th, our team went to the Nature Miffy Workshop to make a basket out of bamboo. The Nature Miffy Workshop is the same as the one we interviewed. When we visited them, we were amazed by the delicate bamboo weaving handwork in the workshop. During the interview, we also witnessed how the owners persist in living a plastic-free life by making their daily necessities with environmental friendly materials in spite of the rapid advancement in technology. Their dedication also makes us want to experience this time-consuming yet valuable bamboo weaving activity, hoping to arouse people’s attention to the environment and taking practical actions to decelerate climate change. By carefully interlacing and aligning the individual bamboo strips, each one of us successfully made a bamboo basket.

Taiwan Coral Seminar

To further educate ourselves on the topic of coral reefs, we attended the environmental lecture hosted by Taiwan Coral Reef Society and Republic of China Underwater Photography Association. The seven speakers invited include university researchers, university professor, instructor at Environmental Information Center, chief secretary of China Underwater Photography Association, and doctor from Taiwan Coral Reef Society. They are all experts on Taiwan’s marine habitats, and we indeed received professional information on the relationship between coral reefs and our environment.

Specifically, our team related to what the first speaker shared with us. The first speaker talked about the scientific application of growing coral farms and the research benefits of such study on the restoration of coral reefs. He explained his motivation to save coral reefs from being bleached due to high temperatures. He did not want to see the beautiful corals in Taiwan disappear so fast. This encouraged him to seek action. He proposed to plant corals with his team to study and further preserve the species. Our team was fascinated by his passion towards saving marine animals and his contribution to our country.

From the scholars sharing of their firsthand experience, we were not only educated, but inspired by their efforts in coral reef conservation. Our team truly appreciate the dedication everyone puts in saving the endangered beauty and we hope to achieve the same goal of rescuing coral reefs at risk in Taiwan.