Large Scale Forest Fire Alert For Chiang Rai

[iang]

I don't know about Burma & Laos contributing / causing all of this - what I do know is that so many locals (unfortunately including many of my neighbours outside my moo baan) still burn thier garbage every day. It doesn't matter what it is (as long as it can't be sold), it gets burned - including lots of plastics! The smoke & toxins from this are terrible and it happens in every village across Chiang Mai (and no doubt elsewhere).

I think that either a free garbage collection service and / or some education for the local people as to the damage they are doing to themselves, others and the environment would be a good place to start.

[ColPyat]

As for slash and burn farming methods, Thais (and the rest of the world!!!) need to get hip to the 21st century!!!

Composting is loving soil generation and it saves water as well! Increasing Biomass is increasing the health of the Planet!!!

Actually, traditional Slash and Burn farming techniques as practiced by many hill tribes since thousand of years are not harmful to the forests. Only small plots of forest are burned, and left to rejuvenate again. What is harmful are large scale deforestations of primary forest, where then the brushwork gets burned and the land converted into mono cultures.

The burning of grass on fields is not slash and burn farming. It creates a necessary buffer against wildfires. Composting might work for a little garden, but it is fantasy to do that on large fields. I don't know if you have ever seen the more than man high grass growing there, without proper and very expensive machinery it is illusionary to cut and collect all that for the average farmer.

The burning does give the soil minerals as well.

This year we have a very early and harsh dry season, so forest fires are normal part of the natural circle.

[Tony Clifton]

When Toxin was the PM the haze wasn't NEARLY so bad!!!!

Hahahahahhahaha

It was purple. A collective hallucination.

[dseawarrior]

As for slash and burn farming methods, Thais (and the rest of the world!!!) need to get hip to the 21st century!!!

Composting is loving soil generation and it saves water as well! Increasing Biomass is increasing the health of the Planet!!!

Actually, traditional Slash and Burn farming techniques as practiced by many hill tribes since thousand of years are not harmful to the forests. Only small plots of forest are burned, and left to rejuvenate again. What is harmful are large scale deforestations of primary forest, where then the brushwork gets burned and the land converted into mono cultures.

The burning of grass on fields is not slash and burn farming. It creates a necessary buffer against wildfires. Composting might work for a little garden, but it is fantasy to do that on large fields. I don't know if you have ever seen the more than man high grass growing there, without proper and very expensive machinery it is illusionary to cut and collect all that for the average farmer.

The burning does give the soil minerals as well.

This year we have a very early and harsh dry season, so forest fires are normal part of the natural circle.

I hear what you are saying ColPyat...

Start small and demonstrate the success of composting (and permaculture)!!!

Since when is rice the most nutritious food??? Think about it...

There are no easy answers to this...

But I have seen whole hills and mountains on FIRE in Thailand!!! This was not just a little bit of tidying up on those rice fields... To me, it is called ARSON and a lot of folks seem to get a BIG KICK out of it...

As far as composting larger areas -- How about a TRACTOR and a PLOW??? I am sure that nearly every mobaan has one or two that people could use...

But we are talking about collective changes in attitudes -- ON A LARGE SCALE!!!

Global warming is going to continue as long as we keep saying: "Well, that is the way we have always done that..."

A century ago, no one ever flew in an airplane or spoke on a mobile phone....

Today, millions and millions of people have used this newer technology...

But we need to get creative with our brains on how to get this going...

FAR TOO EASY TO GIVE UP ON THIS IDEA...

I like the ideas of approaching the UN on this... Publishing shame photos in the Thai papers of large scale burners/ arsonists is also a very good idea...

Other good ideas out there???

ACT LOCALLY and THINK GLOBALLY

dseawarrior

Google "permaculture"

[ColPyat]

I hear what you are saying ColPyat...

Start small and demonstrate the success of composting (and permaculture)!!!

Since when is rice the most nutritious food??? Think about it...

There are no easy answers to this...

But I have seen whole hills and mountains on FIRE in Thailand!!! This was not just a little bit of tidying up on those rice fields... To me, it is called ARSON and a lot of folks seem to get a BIG KICK out of it...

As far as composting larger areas -- How about a TRACTOR and a PLOW??? I am sure that nearly every mobaan has one or two that people could use...

But we are talking about collective changes in attitudes -- ON A LARGE SCALE!!!

Global warming is going to continue as long as we keep saying: "Well, that is the way we have always done that..."

A century ago, no one ever flew in an airplane or spoke on a mobile phone....

Today, millions and millions of people have used this newer technology...

But we need to get creative with our brains on how to get this going...

FAR TOO EASY TO GIVE UP ON THIS IDEA...

I like the ideas of approaching the UN on this... Publishing shame photos in the Thai papers of large scale burners/ arsonists is also a very good idea...

Other good ideas out there???

ACT LOCALLY and THINK GLOBALLY

dseawarrior

Google "permaculture"

Many of those hills are on fire every single year, and these fires then do not destroy the forest, but are part of the natural circle. Only the underbrush burns, and grows again in the rain season. Not every forest fire is the same. The forest on the hills overlooking the valley our farm is located burns every year, and every year a few months later, during the rain season, you won' see a sign of it anymore. Forests do need fires to rejuvenate themselves.

Yes, many fires are man made, and yes, Thailand is in many ways an environmental disaster zone, but that has more to do with encroachment into forests, large scale logging and mono-cultures that have replaced diverse forests.

[sarpesius]

Does anyone know if Pai is also affected by the fires?

sarpesius

[zippydedodah]

hm....well, i searched this site, found nothing...so went to google, and found a lot. Got over to PubMed for exact medical articles and even more was revealed.

appears to be a couple of complicating factors.... but beetle nut chewing, cigar smoking and fungus/mold inhalation seem to be the 3 major suspect in the high lung cancer incidence. While fungus/molds may be carried by winds (but not caused by wind or fire), i don't see where "air quality" is directly tied to the high lung cancer rates.

so, the assertion that there is high lung cancer rates in the north is apparently true... but the cause is something that still needs a lot of investigation.

zippy

need to get hip to the 21st century!

where do you get your stats? do you have a webpage link to health stats in CM and/or other cities in Thailand? Something like that would be very helpful to someone (like me) planning to retire to LOS.

thanks

zippy

There are stats, some very good ones, somewhere on this site too, get zippy and have a look around yourself, he is certainly (and unfortunately) correct.

need to get hip to the 21st century! I like that! and I think you're right, the only way they will get it to stop is if they make 'recycling' trendy (or profitable) to the Thais.

A Thai person told me yesterday that from today onwards they will lock up anyone who is caught lighting a fire! Doesn't make me feel any better, it still feels like a nuclear winter here!!

In my opinion, free of charge, to get change in this part of the world is going to be hard. We need to go to the UN and tell them - there is little point in already developed countries trying to limit their pollution when Asian countries are doing NOTHING. We need to get the funding to put together a team of combustion experts who can travel to sites (manufacturing, refining, mining etc) and do a free analysis (because there is no way they will want to pay for it) on how they can improve their emissions, then the funding needs to be there to actually implement the changes. If you have ever seen a flue stack in Thailand you can clearly see the pollutants coming out the top (yellow smoke, bright white smoke, dark smoke). This is the industrial side of things. On the other front we need education teams of Thais & westerners (they wont like that) who can travel to each province say and present the hazards of burning off. I once saw a picture of a set of lungs riddled with black spots from smog, we need graphic images pretty colours and games that the Thais can relate to (and stop them from falling asleep).

I hate legal paperwork so if anyone knows about how to make proposals to the UN or even overseas protection agencies for funding I am willing to help and can travel to sites to advise on cleaning up their act! This could be a good business oppurtunity if anyone is interested...

"When Toxin was the PM the haze wasn't NEARLY so bad!!!!" - Surely then Toxsin has paid all his northern cronies to start the fires?