On April 28th at noon, at the entrance of Formosa Petrochemical Corporation’s Sixth Naphtha Cracking Project Park, Lin Tay-Jou and Tsai Chung-Lung held a Flash Mod Protest with several students. Lin is the professor of the Department of Visual Communication Design in National YunTech Uiversity (NYUST), and Tsai is the professor of the Department of Communication in National Chung Cheng University (NCCU).
They held placards that said “The Sixth Naphtha cracking plant exploded! Black smoke hurts the Earth” to express their discontent with the big explosion happening in Sixth Naphtha Cracking Plant on April 7th this year. The factory side, the county government, and central authority concerned have not taken any active approach to deal with the situation after the explosion. There is no clear account of specific details, casualties, and accountability, and the students and the professors are suspecting their intention to conceal the truth. The leaking poisonous gas caused by the explosion is obviously violating residents’ right to breathe healthy air in Central Taiwan. Nonetheless, the factory side still has not apologized to the locals and Taiwanese nationals. That is why the students and professors of NYUST and NCCU stood up to hold this protest and show their dissatisfaction.
After the flash mob, the students and professors continued their protest at the beach near the Six Naphtha Cracking Plant by rising placards. The Six Naphtha Cracking Plant, ranking number sixteenth in terms of company carbon emission, has become a serious burden of the Earth. They called on the Six Naphtha Cracking Plant to take their social responsibility and improve their sets to be more ecofriendly as soon as possible. This action also responded to the youth’s climate actions “Fridays for Future” raging worldwide. They promoted the climate action marches in Taipei and Taichung on May 24.
Besides the Flash Mob of the professors and students of NYUST and NCCU, there was another protest today.
In Wengang, Taixi Township, a group of local people gathered at the southside of Formosa Petrochemical Corporation’s Sixth Naphtha Cracking Project Park to express their opinions on environmental issue. The explosion of the Six Naphtha Cracking Plant on April 7 brought them so much fear and anxiety that they felt like they are living by an unpredictable toxic chemical bomb. They suggested to strictly prohibit the Six Naphtha Cracking Plant, because it brought impact to the environment, locals, and children like “a new type of terror attack”. It is unacceptable to force the locals continue to live in the fear of uncertain danger.
The locals drew the pictures of toxic bombs to show their concern. The blank of the pictures implied the inaction of the government in the past 20 years. They appealed to the government for establishing effective regulation regarding the problem of the Six Naphtha Cracking Plant, and hoped that the public could pay more attention to industrial safety and environmental issue.