Choking Chiang Mai citizens up in arms

[webfact]

Choking Chiang Mai citizens up in arms

By PRATCH RUJIVANAROM 
THE NATION

 

Chiang Mai

 

Angry northerners feel abandoned by the authorities, want to choose own governor.
 

SKIES ACROSS the Thai North are opaque with choking haze – the most serious smog crisis ever recorded in this country – but one thing citizens can see clearly is that the provincial and central governments are unable to protect their health and well-being. 

 

Ordinary people are just going to have to help each other, they’re saying.

 

Local authorities’ inability to deal with the severe problem with any sense of promptness has already led to a campaign to remove Chiang Mai Governor Supachai Iamsuwan from office. Residents instead want a governor who is elected and thus directly accountable. 

 

 

Meanwhile crowd-funding efforts and appeals for donations are underway to buy enough N95-grade facemasks and air purifiers for an estimated 500,000 northerners most at risk of harm from exposure.

 

Alarm is rapidly replacing concern as the level of hazardous airborne PM2.5 particles soars past 500 micrograms per cubic metre in some places – reaching a staggering 700mcg in one instance. 

 

The safe limit recognised in Thailand is 50mcg, and even that is well above the United Nations standard. 

 

Phayao

 

The North has endured dangerously high concentrations of PM2.5 almost every day for nearly four weeks and the situation is steadily and swiftly worsening. 

 

No natural mitigation will come before the rainy season begins, leading to acceptance among the populace and experts this past weekend that the authorities have no answers and they must take direct citizen action.

 

Environmental health expert Sonthi Kotchawat pointed out that the authorities had prepared for the smog season this year and had plans in place, but ultimately they failed to curb the widespread practice of clearing cropland with fires and to adequately protect public health.

 

“In recent days the northern provinces have been suffering with daily PM2.5 level averages four-fold to six-fold greater than the safe limit,” Sonthi said.

“The official smog measures were such a big failure, even after the authorities had many months to prepare, that the public is very angry and calling for the governor to be sacked.”

 

Despite the situation turning extremely dangerous, he said, neither local authorities nor the central government have introduced better ways to alert people about the pollution threat or to protect public health.

 

“It is now past the point of warning citizens to remain indoors, and yet the authorities still won’t declare the affected provinces a pollution-control area, only because they’re too concerned about the impact on tourism!” Sonthi said.

 

Echoing the demand of a citizen petition, the Legal Research and Development Centre at Chiang Mai University’s Faculty of Law on Saturday released a statement urging Supachai to step down as governor. It also called for the entire local administrative system to be reformed so that the next governor can be elected by popular vote. 

 

The central government customarily appoints provincial governors.

 

“The failure of the provincial authority to deal with the smog highlights the structural problem that makes local authorities appointed by Bangkok care more about the interests of the central government than taking care of the local people,” the statement read.

 

“Expelling one ineffective governor will not truly solve the problem, so we need to abolish the appointment system and let local people choose their provincial leaders through elections to ensure they get better care from the governor.”

 

A fire-fighter struggles to control a blaze in a Mae Hong Son forest, one of hundreds adding to severe air pollution across the North.

 

Naresuan University lecturer Tanapon Phenrat has suggested letting citizens form teams to solve problems that arise and that the authorities are not adequately addressing.

 

“We have to recognise that government officials are just normal people who happen to have a title and authority, and that their power doesn’t guarantee they can solve problems any better,” Tanapon said.

 

“We need both skills and strong will to effectively solve problems.”

 

In the case of the crippling haze, which the authorities clearly can’t handle, he recommended their power and funding from tax revenues be relinquished to citizen teams that would be established to tackle the problem independently.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30366890

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2019-04-01

[Justgrazing]

25 minutes ago, webfact said:

Meanwhile crowd-funding efforts and appeals for donations are underway to buy enough N95-grade facemasks and air purifiers for an estimated 500,000 northerners most at risk of harm from exposure.

Crowd funding .! Should this not be the responsibility of the " Government " .. Surely the onus for safeguarding the 'elf of the population from this manmade problem is with those at the top as they have patently shown to be unable to get to grips with the issue .. 

[ChipButty]

There they go again passing the buck 

[YetAnother]

3 hours ago, webfact said:

Ordinary people are just going to have to help each other, they’re saying.

Wow, that is good governance

[Boon Mee]

It seems that it's impossible to stop the farmers from burning their fields.

So much for Songkran trips to CM this year. 

[Thian]

8 minutes ago, Boon Mee said:

It seems that it's impossible to stop the farmers from burning their fields.

So much for Songkran trips to CM this year. 

It's too dangerous to stop the farmers from burning....they have guns/bombs i guess.

[cmsally]

Today in Chiang Mai we are back to having c..p air . However yesterday although in the morning we had residue from the day before there was no smell of smoke and the air by the afternoon had cleared to an amazing 100 aqi .

There seemed to have been no burning whatsoever nearby on the night of the 30 March . Well guess what, there was the Night Marathon on the night of the 30 March. My hypothesis is, that on the 30 March there was a very strong directive for no burning on that night as they didn't want to cancel the marathon.

Now it seems we are back to business as usual and this morning very strong smell of smoke coming from surrounding areas and aqi back up 200-400

My supposition is that , this is absolutely controllable with strong enough orders and threats of punishment.

[sammieuk1]

Up in arms must be an April fools pun like down in the clouds of toxic fog ????

[sammieuk1]

3 minutes ago, cmsally said:

Today in Chiang Mai we are back to having c..p air . However yesterday although in the morning we had residue from the day before there was no smell of smoke and the air by the afternoon had cleared to an amazing 100 aqi .

There seemed to have been no burning whatsoever nearby on the night of the 30 March . Well guess what, there was the Night Marathon on the night of the 30 March. My hypothesis is, that on the 30 March there was a very strong directive for no burning on that night as they didn't want to cancel the marathon.

Now it seems we are back to business as usual and this morning very strong smell of smoke coming from surrounding areas and aqi back up 200-400

My supposition is that , this is absolutely controllable with strong enough orders and threats of punishment.

Indeed Doi did put in a brief appearance yesterday afternoon only for the mountain to disappear again by morning sure a general will confirm Pen and Teller are in town????

[Lacessit]

I'm wondering what will happen during the International Cricket Tournament. Cricketers wearing masks would not be a good look for the tourism people.

[Chicken George]

Below 50 is safe.. Its bad for 5 months of the year in the North..

I suggest people promote banning the sale of wild mushrooms. This would hopefully stop the burning of the forrests to encourage their growth.

[WeekendRaider]

there is always a yin and a yang.  with this also.  some perspective can help.  maybe.  this smoke we can see.  we can even smell it.  and we all certainly have memories and can see today folks, including ourselves, suffering from this.  so we get upset.  but this kind of pollution also has a 'negative forcing', on a larger scale, that is actually good for us.  the albedo effect.  it's just that we have too much of it now in the north.  but the really bad stuff cannot be seen, at all, cannot be smelled at all, is omnipresent or there would be no life and accounts for all of the air we breath, albeit indirectly by "feeding" trees and grass, as well as all of our food.  the one that even accounts for why we left the trees 8 mya ago we now know and found the "missing link" of in Chad in 2005.  Sahelanthropus.  

none of us confuse this smoke with benevolence, yet the much more dangerous atmospheric "pollution" of carbon dioxide is still to this day conflated by billions of us as an all powerful benevolent force that accounts for life.  that we can't see but we "just plain know" must be true.  yet we are not smart enough, nor well enough organized, even just to stop some rice paddy being burned.  there's a good lesson to be taken from this.    

Edited April 1, 2019 by WeekendRaider

[lumply]

So when will the burning season end; or should I not consider Visiting CM during May?

[newcomer71]

6 hours ago, webfact said:

Meanwhile crowd-funding efforts and appeals for donations are underway to buy enough N95-grade facemasks and air purifiers for an estimated 500,000 northerners most at risk of harm from exposure.

Yeah cause the boys-in-charge's toys (see tanks and submarines) are way more important than their citizens, so citizens must find the money by themselves...

[sweatalot]

1 hour ago, Thian said:

It's too dangerous to stop the farmers from burning....they have guns/bombs i guess.

So has the military. And as another poster in another threat said: Why not send in the army, guarding the fields and the forests and shoot perpetrators if they resist against arrest and forced labour extinguishing fires and delete those fungi and paying a hefty fine

[sweatalot]

48 minutes ago, WeekendRaider said:

there is always a yin and a yang.  with this also.  some perspective can help.  maybe.  this smoke we can see.  we can even smell it.  and we all certainly have memories and can see today folks, including ourselves, suffering from this.  so we get upset.  but this kind of pollution also has a 'negative forcing', on a larger scale, that is actually good for us.  the albedo effect.  it's just that we have too much of it now in the north.  but the really bad stuff cannot be seen, at all, cannot be smelled at all, is omnipresent or there would be no life and accounts for all of the air we breath, albeit indirectly by "feeding" trees and grass, as well as all of our food.  the one that even accounts for why we left the trees 8 mya ago we now know and found the "missing link" of in Chad in 2005.  Sahelanthropus.  

none of us confuse this smoke with benevolence, yet the much more dangerous atmospheric "pollution" of carbon dioxide is still to this day conflated by billions of us as an all powerful benevolent force that accounts for life.  that we can't see but we "just plain know" must be true.  yet we are not smart enough, nor well enough organized, even just to stop some rice paddy being burned.  there's a good lesson to be taken from this.    

too wise for me

[Thian]

4 minutes ago, sweatalot said:

So has the military. And as another poster in another threat said: Why not send in the army, guarding the fields and the forests and shoot perpetrators if they resist against arrest and forced labour extinguishing fires and delete those fungi and paying a hefty fine

There are far more farmers than soldiers.....that's the whole problem.

[Brunovski]

1 hour ago, cmsally said:

Today in Chiang Mai we are back to having c..p air . However yesterday although in the morning we had residue from the day before there was no smell of smoke and the air by the afternoon had cleared to an amazing 100 aqi .

There seemed to have been no burning whatsoever nearby on the night of the 30 March . Well guess what, there was the Night Marathon on the night of the 30 March. My hypothesis is, that on the 30 March there was a very strong directive for no burning on that night as they didn't want to cancel the marathon.

Now it seems we are back to business as usual and this morning very strong smell of smoke coming from surrounding areas and aqi back up 200-400

My supposition is that , this is absolutely controllable with strong enough orders and threats of punishment.

Smoked doesn't clear up if you stop burning for a few hours...we had a constant wind from the direction south, that's the reason why the air quality has improved so quickly. 

[connda]

Once it rain, everything will go back to normal so fast it will make your head swim.  All references to 2.5ppm air and health problems will simply disappears as the news will focus with laser accuracy on the dangers of pump squirt-guns used during Songkran. 

[Thailand]

Fines, fines big big fines!

[DavisH]

They need this. Too bad if the farmers moan. 

[cardinalblue]

Don’t visit between Feb and June when the rains come....if the gov was responsible, they would strongly advise tourists not to come to The north for a 4 month period....

 

honestly, half of Jan was unacceptable as well....

 

the word needs to get out to domestic and international tourists not to come to the north during this time....

[fantom]

8 hours ago, webfact said:

It is now past the point of warning citizens to remain indoors, and yet the authorities still won’t declare the affected provinces a pollution-control area, only because they’re too concerned about the impact on tourism!” Sonthi said.

The sheer unmitigated stupidity of this approach and its limp wristed rationale, is that any grown up tourist disembarking in Chiang Mai ( always assuming the plane wasn't diverted), on seeing the smog, would be to ask "what other problems are they hiding."

 

So called 'authorities' treating tourists in this antediluvian manner are courting a backlash, after all many people outside Thailand have the internet now and even something called 'social media.'

[Genmai]

2 hours ago, WeekendRaider said:

but this kind of pollution also has a 'negative forcing', on a larger scale, that is actually good for us.  the albedo effect.

I think we're seeing a prime example of smog attributed decrease in cognitive ability here. Did you know that the Soviet Union had positives too? All those dead millions of people contributed to a lower carbon footprint!

 

You should consider sticking your head in a microwave. It might help you appreciate the cognitive state associated with Sahelanthropic life in Chad 8 million years ago. While you're at it allow me to force your kid and sick granny to suck on a pack of smokes a day (because that's what the current situation is) and let's see if you can still wax lyrical about some grandiose big picture yin yang thing whilst trying to shoehorn your thinly veiled 'anthropocentric global warming is real and you're all guilty' agenda . 

 

Also - who the heck is "we"? Whose behalf do you arrogantly presume to have the right of speaking on?

 

The current smog situation is criminal - end of story. The selfish people responsible for lighting fires should be jailed together with the inept corrupt officials. 

 

 

[namatjira]

3 hours ago, Chicken George said:

Below 50 is safe.. Its bad for 5 months of the year in the North..

I suggest people promote banning the sale of wild mushrooms. This would hopefully stop the burning of the forrests to encourage their growth.

I agree, ban those mushrooms......for a few thousand baht the locals will burn anything, I expect to see them all selling these mushrooms at the markets soon.....it’s been getting worse year by year

[Thailand]

20 minutes ago, namatjira said:

I agree, ban those mushrooms......for a few thousand baht the locals will burn anything, I expect to see them all selling these mushrooms at the markets soon.....it’s been getting worse year by year

And you can buy mushrooms at Makro now! ????

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

1 hour ago, connda said:

Once it rain, everything will go back to normal so fast it will make your head swim.  All references to 2.5ppm air and health problems will simply disappears as the news will focus with laser accuracy on the dangers of pump squirt-guns used during Songkran. 

 

Until the next couple months long stretch of misery, and then the one after that, and the one after that, etc etc..  Thanks to the absence of any local "authority" there, it's a never ending cycle that's harmful to the health of everyone in the area.

 

 

[sqwakvfr]

I read on a flight tracking site 4 flight inbound for CNX had to divert to BKK last week due to poor visibility.  If CNX is dramatically impacted then we would see action???

 

[Bundooman]

"Ordinary people are just going to have to help each other, they’re saying"

 

Are these the same 'ordinary' people who are indiscriminately burning in and around the CM area, or the same 'ordinary' peope who are choking up the province with their thousands of black fumes pumping, badly or just not - maintained vehicles? Or is it the 'ordinary' people who just let the police collect money instead of nationwide - demanding that they, the police - actually get off their butts and enforce the law?

 

I'm confused. Which ordinary people are we talking about - or does it mean ALL of them?

[Medicine Man]

As I see it there is a choice between tourism or allowing this serious situation to continue. It is not right that unsuspecting visitors are being allowed to come to a national disaster in the north of Thailand. As the authorities choose to let this happen they should shut down all tourism to the north during February, March and April. As responsible falangs we should inform via websites etc (e.g. Trip advisor) of the risks to health present here during these months. Maybe that will make the authorities refocus on the decision, tourism or mushroom farming for the north...

Edited April 1, 2019 by Medicine Man
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