Neither haze nor flights going anywhere in North

[webfact]

Neither haze nor flights going anywhere in North

By The Nation

 

 

Choking smog continues to be part of daily life in the North, where more than 400 brushfire hotspots were identified on Sunday.

 

Most were in Mae Hong Son, which counted 100. 

 

 

Citing the safety risk, Bangkok Airways has cancelled its morning flights between Chiang Mai and Mae Hong Son until next Sunday (March 24), extending the deadline from on Sunday. 

 

The thick haze has significantly reduced visibility at Mae Hong Son Airport.

 

On Sunday morning visibility was just 1,600 metres, whereas Bangkok Airways requires 6,000 metres.

 

The Pollution Control Department reported the level of PM2.5 – particulate matter 2.5 micrometres or less in diameter – in Mae Hong Son well above the safe limit of 50 micrograms per cubic metre. 

 

It averaged 85mcg in Muang Mae Hong Son.

 

The World Health Organisation deems PM2.5 a carcinogen linked to several serious health problems. 

 

Phayao

 

Deliberately set brushfires are the main cause of the air pollution. With Mae Hong Son topping the list, Chiang Mai had 83 hotspots on Sunday, Phayao 54, Tak 49, Nan 38, Chiang Rai 37, Lampang 31, Phrae 24 and Lamphum 20. 

 

Authorities in several provinces have declared total bans on outdoor burning, but farmers often risk the threatened fines because they have no other viable way to clear their land.

 

The PM2.5 in Nan stands at 119mcg, potentially harmful to everyone, not just children, the elderly and the ailing. 

 

Several outdoor activities have been cancelled in Nan, such as sports tournaments, as a result of the danger to health.

 

 

Meanwhile in the North, a village head manning a temporary fire lookout in Muang Mae Hong Son “arrested” three illegal immigrants on Sunday morning. He was on watch in front of Mae Surin Waterfalls National Park, wary of anyone entering the woods to start fires.

 

 

“They can’t speak Thai,” Suwit Singkha, head of Ban Hua Nam Mae Sakeud, said of his captives. Three other people behaving suspiciously fled on two motorcycles.

 

Suwit and his team have taken 20 illegal migrants into custody since setting up their checkpoint, all of whom claimed to be on their way Chiang Mai to find jobs.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30365963

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2019-03-18

[sanemax]

Glad they caught the three Burmese guys , suppose they set fire to all the forests to create a smoke screen so the authorities wouldnt see them illegally riding to CM 

[Odysseus123]

"The Pollution Control Department"

 

There is no pollution control in Thailand.

[sanemax]

Just now, Odysseus123 said:

"The Pollution Control Department"

 

There is no pollution control in Thailand.

They may have been referring to the farmers who set the forests ablaze ?

[YetAnother]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

Authorities in several provinces have declared total bans on outdoor burning,

idle talk, they know or can easily find out who is doing the burning and they Do Nothing

[edwinchester]

Not just the north that is suffering. Here in Kanchanaburi the air quality is terrible, never known it to be this poor in my 13 years here.

[soistalker]

The government should move to confiscate the lands and/or impose huge fines for anyone caught burning anything. Selfish, dirty little farmers are causing massive health and economic damage to Thailand. 

Just start proceedings to confiscate their land, and see if that doesn't change their minds.

This one thing is as certain as the sun rising in the east: they will never stop doing what they are doing unless you take money and land from them.

[SoilSpoil]

12 minutes ago, soistalker said:

The government should move to confiscate the lands and/or impose huge fines for anyone caught burning anything. Selfish, dirty little farmers are causing massive health and economic damage to Thailand. 

Just start proceedings to confiscate their land, and see if that doesn't change their minds.

This one thing is as certain as the sun rising in the east: they will never stop doing what they are doing unless you take money and land from them.

The problem is that the farmers are just a small part of the agricultural channel. The real money is made upwards in this channel. The cheaper the farmers operate, with environmental damage as collateral damage, the better for the stakeholders at the top, who, most likely, are walking hand in hand and funding the campaigns of the policy makers.  Profit 101.

[Torrens54]

2 hours ago, soistalker said:

The government should move to confiscate the lands and/or impose huge fines for anyone caught burning anything. Selfish, dirty little farmers are causing massive health and economic damage to Thailand. 

Just start proceedings to confiscate their land, and see if that doesn't change their minds.

This one thing is as certain as the sun rising in the east: they will never stop doing what they are doing unless you take money and land from them.

Totally agree with you BUT..... WHAT GOVERNMENT ? 555!

As I recall, the last ELECTED One was overthrown by some Gun Slingers.

Edited March 18, 2019 by Torrens54
Clarification.

[GreasyFingers]

2 hours ago, soistalker said:

The government should move to confiscate the lands and/or impose huge fines for anyone caught burning anything

I am not a farmer but have many fruit and ornamental trees on our property that need a lot of trimming. Can you give me your address and I will send a couple of truck loads to you if I cannot burn them.

[notagain]

I dont get it, I have landed in almost complete whiteout on air flights before many times. Seems to me they either need some airport ils system upgrades or better trained pilots.

[robertson468]

32 minutes ago, GreasyFingers said:

I am not a farmer but have many fruit and ornamental trees on our property that need a lot of trimming. Can you give me your address and I will send a couple of truck loads to you if I cannot burn them.

You decided to grow the trees, we did not choose to inhale the health damaging smoke that is a result of your burning.  For people with half a brain, there are alternatives to burning your rubbish.  Wake up and stop being so selfish. 

[CGW]

2 minutes ago, robertson468 said:

being so selfish.

If only  believe you have summed up the majority of Thai society - the me, me, me people! ????

[Krataiboy]

The picture is more complicated than it might first appear. Many of the subsistence hill farmers who use the controversial slash-and-burn technique belong to the seven ethnic hill tribes - the Karen and Hmong are among the best known to tourists - which have been scratching a living out of the Northern hills for many decades. 

 

They are stateless, impoverished and often live in the most primitive conditions, lacking essentials such as running water or electricity, and with no recourse to education or healthcare.

 

"Nearly a million hill peoples and forest dwellers are still treated as outsiders—criminals even, since most live in protected forests," according to a Bangkok Post article in 2013.  

 

"Viewed as national security threats, hundreds of thousands of them are refused citizenship although many are natives to the land".

 

Many hill tribes have been forcibly relocated by Thai authorities. Others have moved to new sites as their land has become worked out, or they have run foul of officialdom or incurred the wrath of local Thai populations.  One or two have embraced to "adventure tourism", welcoming foreign visitors into their midst to generate income.

 

As Chiang Mai and other northern Thai cities choke on record levels of air pollution, the pressure will be on the next government to find a humane, long term solution to an age-old, multi-faceted problem that previous administrations have failed seriously to address, let alone solve.

Edited March 18, 2019 by Krataiboy

[GreasyFingers]

35 minutes ago, robertson468 said:

You decided to grow the trees, we did not choose to inhale the health damaging smoke that is a result of your burning.  For people with half a brain, there are alternatives to burning your rubbish.  Wake up and stop being so selfish. 

Well seeing you are in such a good mood you can buy us a wood chipper and mulcher so we can use the wood. And while you are on your shopping spree can you throw in a tractor as well. We do not need one but I will loan it to the poor farmers around here who cannot even afford to hire one.

And be sure not to use a car when you go to buy them.

[WeekendRaider]

1 hour ago, CGW said:

If only  believe you have summed up the majority of Thai society - the me, me, me people! ????

we're worse.  this aerosol stuff we can see.  and actually, it has an albedo effect.  but our emissions........  285 grams per passenger kilometer traveled by commercial aircraft.  285 sounds innocuous but it is multiplied... by some very big numbers, the kilometer and passenger thing... is emitted as a scentless colorless gas... some of it persists for more than 100 years in the atmosphere.. unlike a few weeks or months for burning stuff that will burn at some point anyways.... and is so powerful... Co2... that the metric we use to measure it is parts per million by volume.  we are much much worse than rural Thai ag workers are.  by several orders of magnitude.  and you won't have to wait much longer to see a threshold crossed that will shock all of the west especially.  most rural Thai folks, not only because they are Buddhist, are much much better prepared for.  the food thing for one.    

Edited March 18, 2019 by WeekendRaider

[digger70]

2 hours ago, GreasyFingers said:

I am not a farmer but have many fruit and ornamental trees on our property that need a lot of trimming. Can you give me your address and I will send a couple of truck loads to you if I cannot burn them.

Farmers can recycle the trash in to the ground ,good organic fertilizer most countries do it, as for your tree cuttings dig a trench Backhoe/excavator or with a decent shovel an bury the crap . When we cleared our building block we buried everything under at least one metre of soil, we burned Nothing still don't . All the scraps and paper and cuttings all goes in the garden trench dug by shovel. 

[chickenslegs]

19 minutes ago, digger70 said:

Farmers can recycle the trash in to the ground ,good organic fertilizer most countries do it, as for your tree cuttings dig a trench Backhoe/excavator or with a decent shovel an bury the crap . When we cleared our building block we buried everything under at least one metre of soil, we burned Nothing still don't . All the scraps and paper and cuttings all goes in the garden trench dug by shovel. 

Doesn't this attract termites?

[mikecha]

2 hours ago, GreasyFingers said:

I am not a farmer but have many fruit and ornamental trees on our property that need a lot of trimming. Can you give me your address and I will send a couple of truck loads to you if I cannot burn them.

use a shredder  make compost   no need burn

[GreasyFingers]

23 minutes ago, mikecha said:

use a shredder  make compost   no need burn

See post #17 above

[Pilotman]

3 hours ago, GreasyFingers said:

I am not a farmer but have many fruit and ornamental trees on our property that need a lot of trimming. Can you give me your address and I will send a couple of truck loads to you if I cannot burn them.

Not at all the same thing.  Domestic burning in a garden, however large, does not cause this problem. This is burning on an industrial scale and it's so prevalent in Asia and South America as to be almost unstoppable. That's why I smile ruffly when people in the west talk about saving the planet by changing from diesel to petrol for their cars.  That's smaller than a drop in the ocean when you see the continuing massive damage being done in and by Asia. 

[hugocnx]

6 hours ago, GreasyFingers said:

I am not a farmer but have many fruit and ornamental trees on our property that need a lot of trimming. Can you give me your address and I will send a couple of truck loads to you if I cannot burn them.

Use that wood for alternative farming, like 'Back to Eden', the Ruth Stout method or the Hugel bed culture. Hugel might be interesting for you?? Don't need a shredder also hardly any digging. No need for yearly fertilizing, no tilting and very handy in dry season.

Edited March 18, 2019 by hugocnx

[digger70]

4 hours ago, chickenslegs said:

Doesn't this attract termites?

No, they have been doing this for donkey years .it makes the soil more aerated,better for the plants and better for moisture retainment and fertilizer intake for the plants.