canopy

Quality of life is surely suffering every single year of these people's lives. If something is so strong that it is able to kill off a human a few years early, just think how the person suffers and is ground down from it in earlier years.

Wouldn't labeling it as a disaster area mean tourists would be evacuated and tours to the area cancelled? I can't see anyone pressing that button no matter how bad the smoke gets.

7 hours ago, KMartinHandyman said:

I’m guessing the pickup saw the bike in plenty of time to avoid them and maintained high speed too long thinking the bike would go to the outside lane. He wasn’t prepared to stop when they settled into his lane.

Very true observation, BUT in Thailand if a driver were to immediately and emphatically react to every bonehead move made by others around them, then their whole trip would be one of hard swerving, brake slamming, and horn honking. Totally impractical given the situation as it exists and may even make themselves a hazard to others. I never understand why persons driving motorcycles make a move that puts their lives in the hands of someone they've never met to react in such a way as to save their lives. Again and again I see it and this is the inevitable outcome of too many rolls of the dice.

5 hours ago, Dante99 said:

Please provide a reference/source information for that.  It is a bit hard to believe.

Sure. Excerpt below is from full story here.

"Mae Hong Son Governor Sirirat Chamupakarn notified the Mae Hong Son Prevention and Suppression of Forest Fire and Haze Centre that the province was “in the process of fuel management”. This entails “Ching Pao” – prescribed burning

18 minutes ago, vivid said:

Are there any tanker planes/helicopters with bambi buckets in the air this year?

Seems the opposite is taking place. Something I learned this year is the forestry department deliberately lights fires this time of years in a procedure they call fuel management.

The shelters provide nothing for literally 99.9% of the population. But some clever person might have just sold them a dummy. The silver lining is when it gets bad and they fill up the shelters there could be mobs of elderly and children outside suffering in the smoke and cannot get in and it's all over the international news. That will be priceless publicity.

Unfortunately it's not usually possible to treat bamboo from the outside. The reason is that bamboo has a hard outer coating that is impervious to just about anything getting through. There are a lot of ways to treat bamboo, but none are very easy. One method is to drill a hole all the way through top to bottom so treatment can be filled inside. Borax is preferred for treating bamboo since it works great against bugs, is harmless to humans, and does not off gas. Bamboo should never be in ground contact. And bamboo can decay when left in the sun and rain. I love bamboo but find it very difficult material in many regards.

Hardly relevant. In Thailand there are countless deliberate, unnecessary fires that are lit religiously every single year by the same people at the same times denying everyone living in the countryside from ever being able to enjoy a breath of fresh air.

First they said it wouldn't go to trial. It did. Then they said it would be shelved for years. It wasn't. Then they said he would get off. He didn't. Now they say he won't do time. So far score card is justice system 3, Premchai 0.

There was a tropical storm that generated some very welcome out of season rains in Thailand earlier in the week. This probably is what caused the air quality to improve for a few days. But let's be honest, the air still stayed in the unhealthy range and is now slipping back to horrific levels. When will it end? When the rains become broad and consistent enough which is expected in late May then the air will be able to get to healthy ranges again. That can last till around October when the rains finish then it's back to this all over again. 

1 hour ago, boonrawdcnx said:

Not sure why people here talk about farmers ?
In the North we are in the middle of the rice growing season the fields are all green!

In a lot of places farmers are indeed burning empty fields right now. There is no water available to many of them so a crop this time of year is not possible. Some wait until the peak of the dry season like now to burn the fields because they burn easiest. But I agree with you there are also a lot of fires deliberately being set in the forests. Some of these fires are even set by the forestry people themselves in what they call "fuel management". The picture of what is causing all the pollution is somewhat complex. It's sort of like examining a landfill; lots of different things in there to one extent or another all contributing to pollution. I wonder how significant a role the millions of plastic / household rubbish fires set daily in the north are having in this.

I am against this. Before we clean up we have to stop littering. The other way around can never work. Just a waste of time as more and more junk will be continually dumped in the same old places. If they want a lasting effect they need to refocus their efforts to stop littering.

Air quality pretty much off the charts now. At 300+ it is in the very top bracket called Hazardous: "Everyone may experience more serious health effects". Some places are now 500+. Burning continues in earnest.

3 hours ago, webfact said:

“People will be allowed to live and conduct daily activities in the buffer zone and only activities that will have an adverse impact, such as heavy industries and mining, will be prohibited.” 

Ah I get it. The poor get a free pass to trample all over the place and ruin the heritage site. Just keep the rich out.

6 hours ago, DonDoRondo said:

Thought that by now things would start to improve.

Why would that be? Rains are not expected until late May. Thus a few more months of deteriorating air quality can be expected. These next months tend to be the driest, worst air quality of the entire year. Cities in northern Thailand can rank at the very top of the most polluted cities in the world at these times. And it's the entire countryside that is effected. There is only one air supply and everyone is sharing it.

Not sure where 200 baht for other stuff came from. Other stuff could be around 40 baht/m² (30 baht mortar, 10 baht grout). I haven't seen anyone use t-locks, tile spacers or anything else like that though bags of these little plastic bits don't cost too much. In my area you could do labor 70 baht, other stuff 40 baht, then whatever the tiles cost. Prices vary a lot based on area and who you choose to do the work. Obviously if you go to homepro they are going to charge a huge amount more than a local builder would.

I learned two new terms:

Stealing things from the national forest is called "joint management"

Stealing land from the national forest is called "conflicting claims of land rights"

Sounds like the new bill encourages encroachment and concedes land that has been stolen. Nothing here looks promising for the forest. I don't get this approach at all.

8 hours ago, BenjaminPla33 said:

We are just an NGO group trying to give people renewable energy

I strongly suggest the homes of everyone in your NGO be off grid and you all have experience living like that for years before you push it off on others. There are a lot of problems being off grid and you are not the first to try this. In fact, your first priority should be to contact the PEA to learn their short, medium, and long term experience offering solar to remote villages. There is no sense recreating the wheel and making the same mistakes all over again.

15 hours ago, hotchilli said:

The Myanmarese man gets jail while Thai get suspension?

 Nice to see an even playing field.

Wrong. Try reading the article. It says the Burma guy pleaded guilty. It says the Thai guy is going to trial next month. The thai guy was also suspended from his job due to the arrest which is a surprisingly good move.

10 hours ago, Elkski said:

 I'm thinking some rich hunters have really been using Thailand forests as private hunting ground for centuries. 

It's the poor that are the big problem hunting in the forests. But anytime a rich person does it it becomes huge news and everyone jumps up and down condemning how horrible they are. I could show you a poor old guy who hunts and has killed black panthers. Do yo care? Of course not. Nobody does because he's poor. He can take as many as he wants and no one cares. I wish there was an equal playing field.