If cycling is a part of low-carbon living style,
cycling track should not be the enemy of trees.

More than 3,000 trees will be felled in order to complete the remaining Tuen Mun-Sheung Shui cycling track (Yuen Long-Sheung Shui Section),. The felling includes trees with crown over 20 meters and age more than decades. The environmental cost is unreasonably huge.

After analyzing the route and the construction sites of the cycling track, we have found out that there are two major problems in the Tuen Mun-Sheung Shui cycling track project. Firstly, a large section of the cycling track is located along the Castle Peak Road and the New Territories Circular Road with a narrow width. This greatly increases the difficulty of the construction and thus the number of trees to be felled. Secondly, as the cycling track will be built next to the highways, cyclists will be immensely affected by the air and noise pollution from the heavy traffic. The quality of the cycling track will be worryingly low. Based on the observations we made on-site and the reports provided by the government, we have concluded that it is unsuitable to build this section.

However, the Legislative Council has already approved financial funding to the project. We therefore have immediately contacted the responsible governmental department to raise our request for tree protection. We arranged a meeting with the representative from the Civil Engineering and Development Department in September. After reviewing tree reports, we arranged an on-site investigation with the officials in October in hope of proposing modifications to the project. We have given a series of suggestions to avoid tree felling, including a change in route, partial reduction in the width of the cycling track (the current guideline is a minimum of 3.5 metres), and an adoption of gallery road.

The response from the government is positive and they are currently considering our suggestions. We will continue the follow-up on this project to reduce tree felling as much as possible.

]]> http://greensense.org.hk/en/2016/11/%e7%92%b0%e4%bf%9d%e8%a7%b8%e8%a6%ba%e7%b9%bc%e7%ba%8c%e8%b7%9f%e9%80%b2%e5%b1%af%e9%96%80%e8%87%b3%e4%b8%8a%e6%b0%b4%e6%ae%b5%e5%96%ae%e8%bb%8a%e5%be%91%e3%80%80%e5%96%ae%e8%bb%8a%e5%be%91%e8%88%87/feed/ 0 http://greensense.org.hk/en/2012/04/anti-reclamation-demonstration/ http://greensense.org.hk/en/2012/04/anti-reclamation-demonstration/#comments Thu, 19 Apr 2012 17:44:04 +0000 admin http://greensense.org.hk/?p=776

Date: 22nd April 2012 (Earth Day)
Time: 3:00 p.m.
Route: From (Old) Legislative Council Building [Jackson Road, Central]  To   Tamar Central Government Complex
Dress Code: Blue or Light Blue

Our concern:
There are various activities all over the world promoting and advocating environmental protection on 22nd April (Earth Day) every year. Currently in Hong Kong, there are serious threats towards our ocean. The government proposed to have reclamation for land reserve. Suggested sites include Castle Peak Bay, Cheung Chau, Wu Kai Sha, Tolo Harbour and Tseung Kwan O, etc.

Reclamation causes irreversible damage to ecology and marine landscape. It should be regarded as a last resort instead of a readily choice. Our government should first have population control policy and also address the problem of private buildings being developed as or promoted as high price luxurious buildings.

Moreover, the government proposed to have reclamation for the construction of the 3rd runway, which is of the size of 650 hectares, at the North Lamma; while another proposed reclamation for a mega-incinerator in Shek Kwu Chau.

If you love marine life, appreciate the invaluable ocean, and think that it should not be filled with concrete and construction wastes, please come and join us on 22nd April – Anti Reclamation Demonstration!

Fake Consultation by Airport Authority  Underestimate Pollution
12 Infrastructures on Lantau and in Tuen Mun
Exceed Environmental Threshold
Air Pollution threaten 600,000 Tung Chung and Tuen Mun Residents
Abandon “Economy Overrides All” Mindset!

大嶼山北岸及屯門的污染性基建

Today is the World Environment Day. We urge all citizens of Hong Kong to oppose the construction of the third Runway of the Hong Kong International Airport. Such opposition is, at present, the most effective way to protect our environment.

Aviation industry is a polluting industry. A significant amount of carbon dioxide and other pollutants will be emitted during flights. The greenhouse effect produced by upper-air emission of carbon dioxide is double that made near the ground. However, the Airport Authority Hong Kong (Airport Authority) has barely mentioned the increase of carbon emission in its consultation paper (Hong Kong International Airport Master Plan 2030). Nowadays, more and more citizens are adopting a lifestyle of low carbon emission. Ironically, however hard we tried to reduce of use of airconditioning, to enforce legislation related to idling engines, and to replace old buses, still, we can hardly cancel out 50% increase of the carbon emission generated by the three-runway system. The omission of this environmental destruction is surely a loophole of the consultation paper.

The consultation paper has also omitted the threshold of environmental sustainability. There are already 5 polluting facilities in Tuen Mun District and North Lantau. If those under consultation and planning are included, namely, the third runway, Hongkong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge and Hong Kong Boundary Crossing Facilities Reclamation Works, Incinerator at Tsang Tsui, Sludge incineration facility, Reclamation for Tung Chung New Town, Logistic Park and the possible railway connecting the airport of Hong Kong and Shenzhen. There will be 12 polluting infrastructures concentrated. The carrying capacity of the whole area is clearly exceeded. Among the 7 polluting infrastructuresyet to be constructed, some require huge area of reclamation; some at the same time produce lots of air pollutants. If the North Lantau coastline is reclaimed for the third runway, the channel (between the North Lantau and Tuen Mun) will face the same fate of Victoria Harbour and become narrower and narrower. Surely regrets will not help at that time. Moreover, the severe sir pollution generated by these infrastructures threaten the health of 600,000 Tung Chung and Tuen Mun Residents.

Another problem of the consultation paper is that it releases misleading information in relation to the impact on the Chinese White Dolphins. According to the consultation paper, the proposed reclamation area is a wide stretch of Contaminated Mud Pits. It claims that it is an area of low Chinese White Dolphins abundance. Therefore, the area has little marine conservation value but reclamation. We, Green Sense, thinks that the conclusion of the above two observation is erred because of lack of common sense. As the government designated the area as Contaminated Mud Pits, Chinese White Dolphins does not stay for long. The Dolphins dash and pass because of the is turbance of the marine environment. As a result, they are not counted. Yet it does not mean they don’t use the area to and from the three core areas. The professional knowledge and independence of the consultants of the Airport Authority are under serious doubt.

Improving the current two runways(first option of the consultation) can ensure a limit of pollutants and carbon emission, while the third runway (second option of the construction) will increase the emissions endlessly. The construction of the third runway reflects the old fashioned mindset of trading environmental quality for economic gains. We, Green Sense, sincerely invite all Hong Kong citizens to seriously think about whether we should still adopt the said old fashioned mindset for thefuture of Hong Kong.