By Chen Feng-li and Liu Tzu-hsuan / Staff reporter, with staff writerA project to create the nation’s first stargazing industry area has passed a review by the Executive Yuan in a meeting on regional revitalization.
A project to create the nation’s first stargazing industry area has passed a review by the Executive Yuan in a meeting on regional revitalization.
The “Starry Mountain City” plan focuses on areas between Nantou County’s Cingjing (清境) area and Hehuanshan (合歡山), which the International Dark-Sky Association in 2019 designated Taiwan’s first international dark-sky park.
The plan was jointly launched by government agencies, academia and private entities, including Nantou’s Renai Township (仁愛) Office, National Chi Nan University (NCNU) and the Cingjing Sustainable Development Association.
It focuses on three aspects: the area being recognized as an international stargazing town, promoting tourism based on mountains, forests
Although less than 1 percent of the complaints reported to the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) each year deal with light pollution, leading the agency to not consider it a problem, Taiwan Dark-Sky Association chairman Axiou Lin (林正修) disagrees.
Members of the public have filed 300 to 400 light pollution complaints per year since the promulgation of the Light Pollution Control Guidelines (光污染管理指引) in March last year, the EPA has said.
While more than 50 percent of the 200,000 complaints filed with the agency each year pertain to noise pollution, Department of Air Quality Protection and Noise Control Director-General Tsai Meng-yu (蔡孟裕) said
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