ABSTRACT
Fifteen years ago the Taiwanese rarely voiced concern about environmental problems, and seemed heedless of issues that were already rocking the West and Japan. Yet now 'garbage wars' over the placement of sanitary landfills threaten the island with mounds of uncollected refuse; large and well- organized protest movements have seriously delayed nuclear power-plant and oil refinery construction; and a wide range of environmental organizations, from the Taiwan branch of Greenpeace to the Environmental Mamas, have tried to organize people towards new attitudes and policies. The government itself, long considered oblivious to environmental issues, now produces educational cartoons on environmental protection (e.g. Xingzheng 1991).
