Chiang Mai choking on Day 1 of burning ban

[webfact]

Chiang Mai choking on Day 1 of burning ban

By The Nation

 

 

Air pollution remained above the safety limit in Chiang Mai on Friday, the first day of a 50-day ban on all burning.

 

In neighbouring Mae Hong Son, the level of PM2.5 – airborne particulates 2.5 microns or less in diameter – was 93 micrograms per cubic metre of air – nearly double the safe limit of 50mcg.

 

 

The Pollution Control Department said PM2.5 levels ranged from 35 to 93mcg across the upper North at 9am on Friday.

 

The worst pollution earned the tambon of Jong Kham in Muang Mae Hong Son “code red status” with 93mcg of PM2.5 and an Air Quality Index level of 102. 

 

 

Mae Hong Son, where numerous forest fires are raging, has also implemented a ban on outdoor burning that will be in effect through April.

 

PM2.5 haze was thick in Phra Baht in Muang Lampang at 67mcg, Mae Mo in Lampang at 64, Chang Pheuk (64) and Sri Phum (63) in Muang Chiang Mai, Na Chak in Muang Phrae at 59 and Mae Pa in Tak’s Mae Sot district, also at 59.

 

 

Chiang Mai has banned outdoor burning until April 20, having hit an AQI of 193 on Thursday according to airversual.com. 

 

Regional Health Promotion Centre 1 in the tambon of Chang Klan remained closed on Friday because of the haze.

 

A campfire lit by people gathering items in the woods is believed to have triggered a forest fire on Thursday afternoon in Ban Huai Tak (Moo 3) in Lampang’s Ngao district.

 

It was extinguished within in an hour, but not before burning off four rai of trees and shrub, said Huai Tak forest-fire control unit chief Pairoj Ajiriya.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30365019

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2019-03-01

[BritManToo]

Was in the mountains near San Kampaeng earlier today (above Mae Pha Haen, Mon Jing?) looks like they burnt the entire mountain down earlier in the week. The locals were still having a bit of a bonfire beside the lake at lunchtime, What is wrong with these people?

Edited March 1, 2019 by BritManToo

[SammyT]

Using my unscientific "can I see the mountain" test, it seems way better today than it was a couple of weeks ago where you couldn't see the mountain from a few km away

[sfokevin]

But we are having such beautiful sunsets...

[keith101]

34 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

Was in the mountains near San Kampaeng earlier today (above Mae Pha Haen, Mon Jing?) looks like they burnt the entire mountain down earlier in the week. The locals were still having a bit of a bonfire beside the lake at lunchtime, What is wrong with these people?

Well basically their idiots

[muratremix]

Burning crops is the worst than all other pollutants yet they still burn it because there is no punishment for the poisoning all people. They keep blaming diesel trucks etc yet they don't see crop burning which is the root cause of these PM2.5 AQI levels!

[Thailand]

The government must be racking up huge amounts in fines, enough to buy some new military toys-not!

Has anyone actually been fined or prosecuted for this ongoing arson?

[cmsally]

The last couple of days they seem to have switched off most of the air monitors, or maybe they just went off scale and broke!

[ChipButty]

I know a song about this, Smoke gets in your Eyes

[Prairieboy]

16 hours ago, webfact said:

nearly double the safe limit of 50mcg.

 

Nearly 4 times the safe limit of 25 set by the WHO.

 

[assayer]

Chiang Mai still choking on day two of the burning ban!!!!!

 

[jaiyen]

Thailand    LOS =  LAND OF SMOKE

[worgeordie]

Why start the burning ban on March 1 st,they seem to have burnt

everything BEFORE that,too little too late,as usual.

regards Worgeordie

[connda]

"Villagers want tasty Het Dawp mushroom.  Big money sell Het Dawp.  Must burn the forests.  <cough> No one can catch me, government say big fine if I caught, but government no have forest police to catch me.  Ha ha ha. <cough cough>  I set fire to forest all day long.  When rainy season come, I pick mushroom maak maak!!! <cough cough cough>" That's the mindset out here in rural Thailand.  Who cares if they are poisoning their own children, families, and old folk.  They don't care.

The forests in the 35km long valley where I live in are are on fire the entire length of the valley.  Multiple hot spots viable pretty much anywhere you look.

In our village, the village head keeps record of villagers going into the mountains.  Those who don't set fires sign the logbook; those who do set the fires obviously don't.  I'm sure villagers know who are setting the fires, but come rainy season, half the villagers will take time off from their day-jobs to go pick mushrooms in the mountains. So they aren't going to point out the arsonists in the village to the authorities. 
The smoke problem will never end until the government gets serious about putting a lid on the arson and slamming arsonists.  They pay lip service and that's about it. It's a societal issue and the rural society sees money at the end of the burning - so this will never end.

 

Edited March 2, 2019 by connda

[Chrisswe]

18 hours ago, keith101 said:

Well basically their idiots

Dont blame the peoples, blame the EDUCATION / INFORMATION SYSTEM , this peoples don't know anything , they has done this for decades , you can't say "this is wrong" due to say air-pollution, than you "look down" theres proudness !!!!

[Liverpudlian]

There taking there time ey ! i went up Doi suthep temple 15 years ago and you could not see Chiang mai city below.

[jak2002003]

4 minutes ago, Chrisswe said:

Dont blame the peoples, blame the EDUCATION / INFORMATION SYSTEM , this peoples don't know anything , they has done this for decades , you can't say "this is wrong" due to say air-pollution, than you "look down" theres proudness !!!!

They do know its causing pollution and bad health.  They are just lazy and selfish and not thinking about the future.

 

They have a TV, Radio, internet!  They hear the news every day, and go about wearing face masks and coughing.  

 

The people who does these fires just don't care about their health, or other peoples health, or even the country / wildlife and environment.... so long as they can get away with it.

 

 

[FolkGuitar]

18 hours ago, keith101 said:

Well basically their idiots

 

Love the irony.

[curtklay]

They ARE basically idiots, and not just on the issue of burning. Just take a look around.

[Vacuum]

48 minutes ago, Liverpudlian said:

There taking there time ey ! i went up Doi suthep temple 15 years ago and you could not see Chiang mai city below.

You went the wrong time of the year. Next time, try December.

[AhFarangJa]

2 hours ago, connda said:

"Villagers want tasty Het Dawp mushroom.  Big money sell Het Dawp.  Must burn the forests.  <cough> No one can catch me, government say big fine if I caught, but government no have forest police to catch me.  Ha ha ha. <cough cough>  I set fire to forest all day long.  When rainy season come, I pick mushroom maak maak!!! <cough cough cough>" That's the mindset out here in rural Thailand.  Who cares if they are poisoning their own children, families, and old folk.  They don't care.

The forests in the 35km long valley where I live in are are on fire the entire length of the valley.  Multiple hot spots viable pretty much anywhere you look.

In our village, the village head keeps record of villagers going into the mountains.  Those who don't set fires sign the logbook; those who do set the fires obviously don't.  I'm sure villagers know who are setting the fires, but come rainy season, half the villagers will take time off from their day-jobs to go pick mushrooms in the mountains. So they aren't going to point out the arsonists in the village to the authorities. 
The smoke problem will never end until the government gets serious about putting a lid on the arson and slamming arsonists.  They pay lip service and that's about it. It's a societal issue and the rural society sees money at the end of the burning - so this will never end.

 

You have just answered a question that was rolling around inside my head. Yesterday, driving my Son to school I noticed a line of flame and smoke on a distant hillside in Hua Hin. I wondered why someone had set light to it as there are no crops, i.e. sugar, or rice growing there. It looked almost identical to your photo. So I can assume it is to make the mushrooms grow later.

Thank you for clearing up that little mystery. 

p.s. the smoke was drifting straight down to the houses and school at the foot of the hill !!!

[Enoon]

1 hour ago, curtklay said:

They ARE basically idiots, and not just on the issue of burning. Just take a look around.

 

They were made the people they are, not born.

 

My country made me.

 

Theirs made them.

 

My country: It's culture, philosophy, notions of law, what learning should be, ideas of "self" and the nature of it's relationship to other individual "selves", within an even greater number of selves (the wider national community) set within a civilisation (Western) made up of the same general ideas.

 

All of them different to those of the "East".

 

Whose inhabitants have been getting born, living and dying, for as long as those of the West.

 

They've got along "being them" for as long as Westerners have got along.....being them.

 

You walk into a restaurant, you don't like the menu, you walk out and find a restaurant you like.

 

Or do you stand there complaining about the content of the menu and trying to get them to change it?

 

Who is the idiot?

 

(Read the menu = look before you leap)

 

 

 

Edited March 2, 2019 by Enoon

[Sparkles]

Did anyone seriously believe the smoke/haze this year would be any diffferent ? Does anyone seriously believe the road toll will be reduced.  It is what it is and up to the Thai people to make changes through education

[Enoon]

26 minutes ago, Sparkles said:

Did anyone seriously believe the smoke/haze this year would be any diffferent ? Does anyone seriously believe the road toll will be reduced.  It is what it is and up to the Thai people to make changes through education

 

It requires a revolution in thought and philosophy.

 

That sort of revolution occurred in the West.

 

The day that Thais start to piss on Spirit Houses (see recent foreigner "outrage" reported on these pages) will be the day it begins in Thailand.

 

 

 

 

Edited March 2, 2019 by Enoon

[The Theory]

“Dont blame the peoples, blame the EDUCATION / INFORMATION SYSTEM , this peoples don't know anything “

 

they just simply don’t like to hear anything against what they believe is “their right to do or like it to do”. 

 

[Odysseus123]

1 hour ago, curtklay said:

They ARE basically idiots, and not just on the issue of burning. Just take a look around.

Well,yes,indeed they are.

 

Very difficult for  the "defense" to counter that one..

 

They really can't plead ignorance any more when they have the latest I-phone plugged  into their earhole echoing thru' the empty spaces within their craniums.

 

The Thai crap into their own nest.Constanty and without thought.

Edited March 2, 2019 by Odysseus123

[unamazedloso]

In Kanchanaburi where i live at 9am in the morning it is ALWAYS over 100 regardless!

We had idiots go out last night and light fires around bamboo in public land behind my property to clear the base to take the bamboo shoots to ferment and also sell the bamboo. It is typically 7yr stint in the slammer for lighting a fire on public land but even with photos of the people involved nothing happens. Thailand Doesn't take this seriously at all. It's time to punish the stupid morons that have excuses like "weve been doing this for generations" well there wont be any future generations if they keep it up and today isnt what it was a couple hundred years ago. Over population, industry, global warming. etc... Time to be punished for robbing the air we need to breathe.

Setting fire to everything is only used to get rid of stuff. It Doesn't enrich soil which is a myth it destroys it, turns it to salty clay or sand over time. Weeds take over, mixed with illegal logging that leaves rooted weeds to flourish it speeds up the destruction. Sugarcane people and all farmers should sell off the rubbish they dont want or reuse it. It can be mulched turned in to bio fuels, etc. We bought clay land and mulch everything back in to the ground. In 2 years of doing so we now have some patches of normal dirt.

Thais are being absolutely stupid to burn anything. Its completely backwards lazy selfish stupid thinking. These people are pyros and need to be locked up in a loony bin asap for the good of the country and the world!!!!

Edited March 2, 2019 by unamazedloso
spelling

[BritManToo]

1 hour ago, Sparkles said:

Did anyone seriously believe the smoke/haze this year would be any diffferent ? Does anyone seriously believe the road toll will be reduced.  It is what it is and up to the Thai people to make changes through education

It won't stop until the army places soldiers in the forests, shooting and killing people lighting fires.

[Medicine Man]

It won't stop until the Thai soaps run a story where all the ghosts living in the mountains get destroyed by the arsonists reckless behaviour....

[wolf81]

3 hours ago, Chrisswe said:

Dont blame the peoples, blame the EDUCATION / INFORMATION SYSTEM , this peoples don't know anything , they has done this for decades , you can't say "this is wrong" due to say air-pollution, than you "look down" theres proudness !!!!

According to my girlfriend most people in the village do actually know it's bad, but they just don't care.