Dwindling Red Forests

While I loathe to see what is already happening with the ecosytem this week in the Gulf of Mexico as a result of the disastrous BP oil spill, here in my own neighborhood are equally dramatic (though much slower) ecological and environmental shifts in the making.

First, this morning the students at the local junior high school were talking to me using English about the environmental pollution that is occuring in our neck of the woods as a result of pollution emanating from Formosa Plastics on the coast.

Second, when I asked my friend Roger this afternoon what differences he has noted in the local ecosystem between he was a boy and now, he cited how the land is sinking all along the western plain of south-central coastal taiwan. Because the land is sinking, beautiful “Red Forests” (actually look more like large sets of dense bushes) growing in the shallow waters have been dying out at an alarming rate over the years. The reason for this is because the sprouts you see pictured here fall so deep below the low tide they can never survive to grow in to trees.

 

Roger took me to see a healthy “Red Forest” not too far from his house in coastal Mouth-of-the-Lake Township this afternoon.  Above and below you can see the pics and description.