A Conversation with Wang Min-ling, Executive Director of Citizen of the Earth, Taiwan

"Humans can destroy the environment so quickly, but allowing it to recover is so difficult, and so much longer.”

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Before Wang Min-ling became the Executive Director of Citizen of the Earth, Taiwan, her connection to environmental protection began with something much smaller: a tree in her childhood home.

Before she even started kindergarten, her family decided to expand their house because they needed more space. To make room, a tree in their yard had to be cut down. It was a place where Wang often played as a child.

“I remember feeling very sad, but at the time, I didn’t know how to express it to my family,” she recalled.

The tree was gone quickly, but the memory stayed with her.

“I continued to feel sad about that tree,” Wang said. “Humans can destroy the environment very quickly, but allowing it to recover is difficult, and it takes much longer.”

Years later, that early awareness of how easily the environment can be changed would become part of a much larger journey. Today, Wang serves as the Executive Director of Citizen of the Earth, Taiwan, where she has spent years advocating for environmental justice and addressing issues ranging from pollution and energy to the environmental risks faced by communities and schools.

One issue the organization has been working on for more than a decade is air pollution around schools.

When Air Pollution Became Personal

For Wang, the decision to focus on school air pollution was shaped by two experiences.

The first came when her own child was in elementary school in Kaohsiung, where air pollution was severe at the time. Knowing the risks, Wang would remind her child to wear a mask before leaving for school. But like many elementary school students, he did not like wearing one. Sometimes, he would put it on in front of her, only to take it off shortly after leaving home.

For Wang, this became more than a small disagreement between a mother and her child. She knew the air was polluted, but the only thing she could do was ask him to protect himself from it.

“As a mother, I knew the pollution was serious, but I couldn’t improve the pollution. All I could do was tell him to wear a mask,” she said. “I felt like I was trying very hard as a mother, but I was also powerless.”

That feeling of powerlessness changed the way she thought about the problem.

Instead of relying only on individuals to protect themselves from polluted air, she believed the pollution itself needed to be addressed at its source.

Another experience made the issue even more difficult for her to ignore.

Before working at Citizen of the Earth, Taiwan, Wang visited Linyuan in Kaohsiung. At the entrance of an elementary school, she noticed a protest banner hanging above the school gate. The school was located near a petrochemical industrial area, and the banner was protesting the severe pollution affecting the surrounding area.

The scene shocked her.

She thought about the children who would spend years attending that school while being exposed to pollution they had little power to control.

“For me, that image was too shocking and too powerful,” Wang recalled. “I felt that a city should not treat elementary school students this way.”

Together, these experiences helped turn school air pollution from an environmental issue into something deeply personal for Wang. More than a decade later, it remains an issue she and Citizen of the Earth, Taiwan continue to advocate for.

Not Every School Breathes the Same Air

When we talk about school air pollution, it can be easy to think of it as one problem affecting every school in the same way. Wang explained that the reality is more complicated.

A major factor is simply where a school is located.

Unlike pollution in soil, air pollution does not stay in one place. Pollutants can move with air currents and wind, meaning that a school may be affected by pollution produced somewhere else. Schools located near industrial areas may therefore face very different risks from schools without major industrial sources nearby.

Wang pointed to schools near large industrial areas as an example. A school close to a petrochemical complex may be exposed to pollutants associated with that particular industrial source, while another school elsewhere may face a completely different pollution profile.

“Where the school is located and what kinds of pollution are around it are very important,” she explained.

But local pollution sources are only one part of the issue.

Some pollutants affect much larger areas. Wang pointed to PM2.5 as one example, explaining that much of Taiwan west of the Central Mountain Range can be affected by this broader form of air pollution. Ozone is another concern, particularly in central and southern Taiwan.

This means that understanding school air pollution requires looking at two levels at once: the specific pollution sources surrounding an individual school and the broader regional pollution that can affect schools regardless of whether there is a factory next door.

And even then, knowing that pollution exists is only the beginning.

Making Pollution Data Public Isn't Enough

One major part of Citizen of the Earth, Taiwan's advocacy has focused on environmental monitoring and access to pollution data.

During our conversation, Wang explained that years of research and advocacy led the organization to call for changes including greater transparency of monitoring data, stronger monitoring of hazardous air pollutants, real-time warning systems, stricter emission standards, and better planning between industrial areas and schools.

These demands did not emerge from a single campaign. Instead, Wang described them as the result of years of learning about Taiwan's air pollution problems and observing the difficulties communities face when trying to understand what they are being exposed to.

In some industrial areas, for example, monitoring data may technically exist and even be publicly available. But that does not necessarily mean residents know where to find it or what it means.

For Wang, this reveals an important difference between making information public and making information useful.

She pointed to Taiwan's special industrial zones as an example. These areas monitor many different pollutants and release large amounts of information.

But if you publish all of it, who can understand it?

Raw monitoring data can be highly technical. Without organization, explanation, or visualization, the public may still be unable to understand what the numbers mean for their own health and environment.

“I think the most important thing is whether the information that is made public has also been organized, whether people can understand it,” Wang said. “It can't just be about making it public.”

For monitoring to have its greatest value, she argued, people need to be able to understand the information and use it to identify problems. Ultimately, that information should contribute to something more fundamental, which is reducing pollution at its source.

A Blue Sky Doesn't Always Mean Clean Air

But even with better access to data, another challenge remains: people do not always judge air quality through monitoring information.

Often, we simply look outside.

If the sky is blue and there is no visible haze, it is easy to assume that the air is clean. I asked Wang how people could be encouraged to trust and use monitoring data instead of depending only on what they can see or feel.

But she emphasized that, air pollution is not one thing.

There are many different pollutants, and they do not all look, smell, or behave the same way. Some may contribute to visible haze, while others may be impossible to detect through our senses.

Wang used ozone and certain volatile organic pollutants as examples. Some pollutants may have a noticeable odor, while others may have no smell at all.

“When our senses can't help us notice that there are air pollutants around us, then we have to rely on monitoring,” she explained.

This is why she believes environmental education is just as important as making data available. People need to understand the basic characteristics of different pollutants, but they also need to understand the environment around them.

A person living in an area with heavy traffic, for example, should know that transportation may be an important local source of pollution. Someone living near an industrial area may need to pay attention to a different set of risks.

The same logic applies to schools.

“If you have a basic understanding, it can help you pay attention to what kinds of pollutants may exist in the environment you're in,” Wang said. A clear blue sky, then, does not necessarily tell the whole story.

“You might think, ‘It's a blue sky today, so there is no pollution.’ That's wrong,” she explained. “You should say that because it is a blue sky today, a certain type of pollutant may be low, rather than saying there is no pollution.”

For Wang, understanding air quality requires both awareness of our surroundings and knowing when our own senses are not enough.

From Advocacy to Policy

Identifying a problem, however, does not mean that changing it is easy.

Citizen of the Earth, Taiwan has proposed numerous policy recommendations through its advocacy, including recommendations related to air quality policy. I asked Wang what it actually takes for an idea proposed by an environmental organization to make its way into government policy.

Her answer showed how much happens between proposing a solution and actually seeing it implemented.

First, an advocacy organization needs to make sure its recommendation is appropriate and supported by research. Environmental groups may draw on academic research, but researchers themselves can have different perspectives and conclusions. Advocacy groups therefore need to evaluate the evidence before deciding what to support.

“You have to do your own research first,” Wang explained.

Then comes another layer of consideration from the government.

Even when officials agree that a recommendation is appropriate, Wang said, they may determine that the government does not yet have the ability to implement it. The timing may not be right, the necessary conditions may not exist, or the political environment may make the proposal difficult to advance.

A proposal could even face political conflict in the Legislative Yuan despite being considered a good idea.

For Wang, successful environmental advocacy therefore depends on a combination of research, feasibility, timing, and political conditions.

“It isn't as simple as thinking that if you criticize people more loudly, it will work,” she said with a chuckle.

And when change does not happen, advocates have to decide what to do next.

Learning to Face Setbacks

When I asked Wang about the biggest challenge she has faced through environmental advocacy, she hesitated at the word “biggest.”

There are simply too many challenges, she explained, to choose only one.

But there was one that stood out: learning to repeatedly face setbacks.

Environmental advocacy can take years. An issue may not receive attention. A campaign may fail to achieve the outcome advocates hoped for. Even after extensive research and effort, a proposal may still be rejected or delayed.

For Wang, continuing after those moments requires a certain kind of emotional strength.

“When our advocacy doesn't receive attention, or when for some reason the process leaves us with a great sense of frustration, can you keep going?” she asked. “Can you look again at the results of the advocacy, and then propose it again?”

“I think your mental strength has to be stable and strong,” she said.

That persistence is especially visible in the organization's work on school air pollution, which has continued for more than ten years.

When I asked Wang to divide that work into what has already been achieved, what is still being worked on, and what still needs to happen, she pointed first to something that may sound simple but took years to accomplish: getting the government to take the issue seriously.

She described government agencies beginning to respond to the issue following the organization's advocacy. She also noted that President Lai Ching-te had included the issue of school air pollution in remarks at an important meeting, something she saw as significant after years of advocacy.

But recognition is not the end goal.

Wang believes that one of the deeper challenges still ahead lies in industrial policy. Air pollution regulations can impose stricter controls on emissions, but she argued that addressing the problem at its root may also require Taiwan to reconsider the role and scale of highly polluting industries.

For her, that remains an area where much more work is needed.

What Can Students Do?

After discussing government policy, industrial pollution, monitoring systems, and more than a decade of advocacy, I wanted to end with a much smaller question: What can a student actually do?

Wang's answer started close to school itself.

Transportation is one area where students and families can make a difference. During school arrival and dismissal times, cars and motorcycles often gather around school entrances. Some remain idling while parents wait or students get out, creating concentrated emissions in the exact place where large numbers of students are walking.

One simple change, Wang suggested, is to avoid driving directly to the school gate when possible. Families who live close enough or have access to public transportation can also consider taking transit and walking the remaining distance to school, reducing the number of private vehicles gathering around campus.

She also pointed to smoking near schools as another source students and communities can pay attention to. Cigarette smoke creates air pollution, while discarded cigarette butts can become another environmental problem when plastic fibers are washed into drainage systems.

And students can pay attention to less obvious pollution sources around their own schools.

If pollution repeatedly appears at a particular time or place, Wang suggested that students can report it so professional environmental inspectors can investigate. Not every pollution source is a large factory with a visible smokestack.

For students, then, contributing to cleaner air does not necessarily begin with a major campaign. It can begin with understanding the environment immediately around them, noticing where pollution comes from, changing everyday transportation choices, and knowing when to speak up.

Wang's own environmental journey began in much the same way: by noticing something in the environment around her.

A tree disappeared from her childhood yard in a matter of moments, but the feeling it left behind lasted much longer. Decades later, that memory still reflects a principle that runs through her work: environmental damage can happen quickly, while protecting and restoring what has been lost requires persistence.

And sometimes, that persistence begins simply by paying attention.