環境災難與科技社會

主持人:陳信行/世新大學社會發展研究所 教授

Cracking open the black box(es) of plastics and climate change: A peek inside a global environmental crisis

Erich Hellmer/Academia Sinica Institute of Sociology Postdoctoral Researcher、Paul Jobin、Chee Wei Ying、Yu-An Kuo (Institute of Sociology, Academia Sinica)

Plastics and climate change are often treated as separate environmental disasters. Plastics are framed as a problem of pollution, with enough plastics piling up across the surface of the earth to perhaps even constitute its own geological era: ‘the Plasticene’. Subsequently, efforts to curb environmental damage related to plastics have revolved around ‘end-of-life’ issues like recycling and consumer-targeted campaigns to reduce plastic product demand (especially for so-called ‘single-use plastics’). Scientific research on plastics’ effects has followed a similar trend – focusing heavily on the environmental and health impacts of plastic pollution and on the potential of various recycling programs and technologies. What is usually ignored, however, is the fact that 95% of plastics are made from fossil fuels through petrochemical processes, and that, as the fossil fuel industry faces increasing profit losses based on low-carbon advances in the energy and transportation sectors, coal, oil and gas industry leaders are openly looking to petrochemicals to keep their businesses alive in the coming decades. The cumulative effect of this is a projected growth in plastics production that will outpace total global GDP growth from now through 2050 – the date by which various governments (Taiwan included) have set zero or near-zero carbon goals. Large national and international NGOs and activist groups are beginning to take notice of this trend, and pointing out how the petrochemical industry will account for an increasingly large part of our global carbon budget to keep global warming to under 1.5 degrees by 2050 (the benchmark set by the Paris Climate Agreement). But plastics, which make the most important profit-maker driving petrochemical demand, remain enigmatically invisible in the climate crisis discourse. While plastics waste hold a high degree of visibility in NGOs and corporate narratives, the petrochemical industry maintains a low profile on the role of plastics in global heating. This paradox forms the basis of the research this paper explores. The paper will outline the methodology and early findings of a long-term research project exploring how the climate-plastics discourse has taken shape historically, and across national contexts. Using quantitative and qualitative web analysis, interviews and participant observation, the project at the core of this paper seeks to uncover the ways in which ‘climate change’ and ‘plastics pollution’ have become separately ‘black-boxed’, and the various ways that these black boxes are being opened and challenged by various actors in (and across) different parts of the world. The project begins the analysis of these issues through a case study of Formosa Plastics Group (FPG): the sixth largest petrochemicals corporation in the world with facilities in Taiwan, the US, China and multiple Southeast Asian countries.

關鍵字:Plastics, Petrochemical Industry, Climate Change, Governance,

石化產業社區居民之風險認知及行動選擇:以大社地區為例

劉玉皙/世新大學傳播管理學系 助理教授、佘健源/國立中山大學企管系 副教授、楊文茜/國立中山大學 碩士生、洪文玲/國立高雄科技大學造船及海洋工程學系 副教授

石化產業為高汙染產業,且台灣工業區與住宅區混雜,汙染極可能影響石化社區在地居民的健康。針對石化業污染的風險,在地居民如何形成風險認知、如何獲取汙染相關知識、如何採取預防行動,皆值得探究。本研究針對高雄大社地區民眾進行問卷調查,於街頭隨機面訪,有效問卷達310份;理論根據為公衛領域的「健康信念模型」,將「汙染」視為一種致病因子與風險,探討居民如何形成「預防汙染相關疾病」的信念;並統計民眾面對污染的致病風險時,曾考慮採取何種應對措施;以及影響信念的因素。
問卷統計結果顯示,認知到自己住在石化廠附近的民眾,認為石化廠已經造成健康負面影響的明顯高於不住在石化廠附近的民眾,採取預防行動(健檢)的比例也明顯較高於。兩群民眾對於「加入環境團體」都有正面態度,認為加入團體有助於瞭解空汙影響,但兩群民眾也都過半數不知道「哪裡可以加入環境團體」。值得注意的是,本研究的問卷變項將「認知」和「現實」區別開來,住在石化廠附近的民眾不見得認知到自己鄰近有石化廠;結果顯示,「認知」到附近有石化廠,比實際住在石化廠附近更實質影響其風險認知和行動策略。

關鍵字:環境汙染;健康信念模型;風險認知;石化社區

從六輕空汙訴訟判決檢視環境治理的結構困境

杜文苓/國立政治大學創新國際學院 教授、施佳良/國立政治大學公共行政學系 博士後研究員

2015年由雲林縣台西村村民對台塑提出訴訟,控訴台塑六輕營運對居民健康造成傷害。但居民在2021年敗訴。
概觀法院判決理由,法官認定本案屬公害事件,且台塑確實有排放致癌物質。並且進一步認定並非工廠合乎排放標準就可以免責,是否有造成損害,仍須看是否侵害他人權利。
但因著綜觀環保署資料,認為缺乏污染飄散事實的認定,以及居民方缺乏提出「造成危險」的證據和否定健康受損已經達到流行病學的狀態。因此判決原告敗訴。
從當前判決結果來看,雖法院已經欲採取了流行病學因果關係的思考,但因著缺乏足夠的證據而致使認定失敗。因此本文將進一步嘗試探討,在現有的行政系統與證據取證的過程當中,還有哪些系統性的失靈,導致在法庭所欲採取的進步觀點,仍有窒礙難行之處。
本文將進而回頭思考在行政系統與社會系統層次,所需要轉變的關鍵之處;以及從環境正義的角度,重新構框居民健康權為中心的保障新的系統框架的想像。

關鍵字:台塑六輕、公害訴訟、環境正義、流行病學因果關係