Sustainable Development Goal - Fight for Climate Change

‘Man is the most insane species. He worships an invisible God and destroys a visible Nature. Unaware that this Nature he’s destroying is this God he’s worshiping.’ ― Hubert Reeves

We are living in a conflict era. On the one hand, we tend to rely too much on technology tools, which has generated environmental pollution. On the other hand, we seem to set big challenging goals in an attempt to free the world from the technology-pollution causality.

The United Nations’ ‘The SustainableDevelopment Goals’ are launched an appeal to live in a better and more sustainable future for all. They focus on several issues such as food shortage, climate change, inequality and justice. These world problems have existed for decades, some are even getting worse in recent years. Climate change is perhaps one of the invisible but quite urgent situations that all human beings face.

To think about climate changes that we face, we may hardly believe that each of us can really stop global warming by taking personal actions as it is regarded as a ‘big’ issue beyond our power to control and we continue to hope the government to take the whole responsibility. In other words, we are not counting personal activities which contribute to carbon emissions, leaving this technological numbers to the government. In part due to human inertia—being comfortable and convenient in the present moment, in part because of lacking strategies to practice environmental-friendly behaviours in everyday life such as recycling or reducing plastic bags.

Mother nature does not negotiate. Climate change response can't wait! In fact, both individuals and governments need to take their actions at different levels.

At present, autumn leaves are covering York. We are happy to embrace the coming season at the right time and temperature.

永續發展目標 - 對抗氣候變遷

‘人是最瘋狂的物種。他敬拜無形的上帝，毀滅無形的自然。不知道他要摧毀的這個自然就是他敬拜的上帝。’

―休伯特·里夫斯

我們正生活在1個衝突時代。一方面，我們傾向於過度依賴技術工具，這已經造成了環境污染。另一方面，我們似乎設定了具有挑戰性的目標，要使世界擺脫技術污染的因果關係。

 “永續發展目標”是聯合國發起的，呼籲所有人生活在一個更好，更可持續的未來。他們關注一些問題，例如糧食短缺，氣候變化，不平等和正義。這些世界問題已經存在了數十年，近年來有些情況甚至更加嚴重。氣候變化也許是全人類面臨的無形但非常緊急的情況之一。

考慮到我們面臨的氣候變化，我們可能幾乎不相信我們每個人都可以通過採取個人行動來真正阻止全球暖化，因為這被認為是我們無法控制的“大”問題，我們總是希望政府採取行動來付起全部責任。換句話說，我們沒有計算會導致碳排放的個人活動，而是將這些技術數字留給了政府。部分原因是由於人類的惰性-習慣以舒服的方式生活，部分原因是缺乏在日常生活中實踐環保行為的策略,例如資源回收,少用塑膠袋。

大自然不會談判。 氣候變化的反應迫不及待！ 實際上，個人和政府都需要在不同層面上採取行動。

目前，秋天的落葉正覆蓋著約克。 我們很高興在合適的時間和溫度下迎接即將到來的季節。

The Amazon wildfires

Two burning wildfires in the world have captured people’s attention in the past few months: the political wildfire--Hong Kong's anti-government protects started in June, and the wildfire in Brazil's Amazon rainforest happened in early August. 

Hong Kong, a former British colony, is struggling to retain its independent judicial Power under the ‘one country, two systems’. That deal aims to guarantee that Hong Kong's economic and political systems will not be changed for 50 years after the handover from British colonial rule to Chinese sovereignty on July 1, 1997.

The continuing protests in Hong Kong are sparked by a highly controversial proposal to allow extraditions to mainland China, leading to further erosion of the city's judicial independence. This change came after a murder that happened in Taiwan, where a 19-year-old Hong Kong man allegedly killed his 20-year-old pregnant girlfriend when they spent holidays together in February 2018. This man eventually returned to Hong Kong last year.

Due to a lack of extradition treaty between Hong Kong and Taiwan, it is impossible for Taiwan to ask Hong Kong to extradite the man to face justice. Therefore, the Hong Kong governments sought to make changes that would have allowed for them to consider requests from any country including mainland China, Taiwan and Macau for extradition of criminal suspects.

However, Hong Kong's protests are mainly against proposals to allow extradition to mainland China — the fear of exposing Hongkongers to unfair trials and violent treatment. Huge fires were triggered and escalated during the protesting period because of clashes between police and protesters. The police force had become more frequent and more violent with tear gas, sticks, and even gunshot attacking people so that injuries on both sides have happened. The clash also expanded to overseas as we can see there was a conflict at the University of Queensland during a protest against Hong Kong’s controversial extradition law (The Guardian, 2019).

On the other hand, Brazil is home more than half the Amazon rainforest known as 'the lungs of the planet', the wildfires have also seen burning fire across the border in Bolivia, not only devastating tropical forest and savannah but taking and threatening wildlife animals. According to CNN (2019), ‘so far, it has been the biggest fire year since 2010.’

The reason for the wildfires is more complicated. Some claim this huge fire was resulted from the drought, some blame it was caused by human activities, including selective logging and surface wildfires. How bad is it? (BBC News, 2019) (also see CNN)

'The smoke is just here, it smells in the air, it is really thick...' said by an on-site reporter. 

Animals in the Amazon fire are hard to survival in terms of huge burning scopes and extremely high temperature.

Last week, I had a short stay in Manchester. Before my leaving, I saw the local organized a campaign calling for more respects, love and actions for our better living environments. As two of the logos have put it, ‘All THE BEST THINGS IN LIFE ARE WILD AND FREE’, for this, 'NO ONE (SHOULD) LEFT BEHIND.'

(picture by Repost from @earthalliance, Pictame)

在過去的幾個月裡，世界上兩場野火引起了人們的注意：6月份開始的香港反政府抗議活動，

以及8月初在巴西的熱帶雨林爆發亞馬遜火災。

香港是一個前英國殖民地，正在努力維持其一國兩制”下的司法獨立權力，這個制度保證了

香港的經濟和政治制度在1997年7月1日從英國殖民統治移交到中國主權後50年內不會改變。

香港持續的抗議活動是由一項備受爭議的提案引發的, 其允許犯罪人士引渡到中國大陸，導致

該市的司法獨立進一步受到侵蝕。這一變化是發生在台灣發生的一起謀殺事件之後. 據稱，19

歲的香港男子在他和女友共同在臺灣度假時殺死了他20歲的懷孕女友，而這男子去年回到了

香港。

由於香港與台灣之間缺乏引渡條約，因此台灣不可能要求香港引渡男子回臺面對司法審判。

因此，香港政府試圖進行改革,允許他們考慮來自包括中國大陸,台灣和澳門在內的任何國家的

請求，引渡犯罪嫌疑人。

無論如何，香港的抗議活動主要是反對允許引渡到中國大陸的提議 - 害怕將香港人暴露在不

公平審判和暴力待遇之下。在抗議期間，由於警察和抗議者之間的衝突，引發更大的怒火。

警察部隊變得更加頻繁，更加暴力，使用催淚瓦斯，棍棒，甚至用槍擊來攻擊人民，以致雙

方都有受傷。此次衝突也擴大到海外，在抗議香港有爭議的引渡法（“衛報”，2019年）期

間，昆士蘭大學親中學生和支持香港抗議的學生之間發生了衝突。

亞馬遜的野火也是如此！巴西擁有亞馬遜雨林的一半以上 -“我們地球的肺部” –野火也在

越過邊境在玻利維亞燃燒著, 不僅是毀滅性的熱帶森林和熱帶草原，而且還在繼續威脅野生動

物。

據美國有線電視新聞網報導，到目前為止，這是自2010年以來最大的火災事件。

野火的原因比較複雜，有些人聲稱是乾旱，有些人指責導致亞馬遜火災的是人類活動，包括

選擇性伐木和點燒表面草原的野火。

有多糟糕？ （點進去看英國廣播公司的新聞）(還有CNN新聞)

"煙霧就在這裡，它可以從空氣中聞到，真的很厚......”

以巨大的燃燒範圍和極高的溫度來看,在亞馬遜大火裡的動物難以生存.(點看影片)

上週，我在曼徹斯特短暫停留，在我離開之前，我看到當地組織了一項活動，呼籲為我們用

更多的尊重，愛和行動打造更好的生活環境。正如其中幾個標語 所說的那樣，'所有生命中最

好的事情就是原野和自由', 對此訴求 '沒有人應該置身其外'。

2019 Edinburgh Festival Fringe 💃 snapshots videos

Following my last blog, snapshots of  2019 Edinburgh Festival Fringe street art performances are here for you. 

2019 Edinburgh Festival Fringe 💃

I am currently in magnificent Edinburgh this week. 

A thrilling experience to soak in 2019 Edinburgh International Festival which runs from 2-26 August 2019.

Edinburgh Festival Fringe, known as ‘Fringe’, is one of the largest arts festival in the world and 2019 is the 39^th year to gather all these talented performers and shows.

It is said that some artists and performers were once rejected by Edinburgh International Festival organizer in the past, as a result, there were 8 art groups came to participate in Edinburgh International Festival without official invitations in 1947.

Therefore, a journalist started to use the term ‘fringe’ to imply that the performer is not an A-list celebrity or the show is not known within mainstream circles. However, the phenomenon has become gradually prevailing later on and more and more art groups added in the performing lists in the following years. 

Nowadays, during this period, thousands of performances and shows have been arranged in hundreds of venues, ranging from world-renowned shows to street art programmes. Free street performances are just on the High Street, and University of Edinburgh buildings also provide support for Fringe activities. As we can see George Square is one of the places to buy tickets for dramas and shows.

Thanks to my Taiwanese friend who is currently studying at the University of Edinburgh, offering her school accommodation to me where the location is near Prince street; therefore, I can easily access to all the diverse street music, art performances, and shows, just within walking distances every day. 

Different types of performances including music, musical, drama, opera, dance, visual art exhibitions, talks and workshops are from all over the world, so do the audience.

Taiwanese art performers have teamed up to join this great festival, offering 'Taiwan Season' shows. 

Taiwan Season Art Performances

2019 Edinburgh International Festival—has marked as one of my unforgettable and wonderful UK experience!

本週我在宏偉壯麗的愛丁堡。

2019年愛丁堡國際藝術節將於2019年8月2日至26日舉行，這是一次激動人心的體驗。

愛丁堡藝穗節 - 被稱為'Fringe'是世界上最大的藝術節，2019年是集合所有這些才藝表演者和表演的第39個年頭。

據說，過去有一些藝術家和表演者被愛丁堡國際藝術節組織者拒絕，結果，有一些藝術團體在1947年沒有受到正式邀請也來參加愛丁堡國際藝術節。因此，一名記者開始使用“邊緣” (穗) 一詞意味著表演者不是一流的名人，或者在主流圈子中不知道這個表演。然而，這種現象逐漸盛行，最後許多藝術團體都加入了演出名單。

如今，在此期間，在數百個場館安排了數千場表演。免費的街頭表演不僅在大街上，愛丁堡大學的建築也為此活動提供支持。喬治廣場就是購買戲劇和表演門票的地方之一。

而我因為臺灣朋友在這裡念書的關係,就住在愛丁堡大學宿舍裡,離王子街很近, 所以能每天以走路距離內就欣賞到這些街頭藝術及表演.

不同類型的表演包括音樂，音樂劇，戲劇，歌劇，舞蹈，視覺藝術展覽等等都是來自世界各國,而來參觀的人也是一樣.臺灣藝術團體也組團來參演,以"臺灣季"演出.

2019年愛丁堡國際藝術節，已成為我難忘的英國精彩體驗之一。