Srettha will not declare Chiang Mai a disaster zone to protect tourism

[worgeordie]

15 minutes ago, JCauto said:

 

You're normally a sensible poster so it's disconcerting to observe you carrying water for the CP group while simultaneously casting all the blame upon the poor villagers who are simply trying to make a living. To suggest it's mushroom picking that is causing the fires to this extent is absurd.

 

You want to change the climate via rain-seeding airplanes? Might as well invest in Aboriginal raindancers to come and have a jump about for all the good that will do.

 

Drones, police and rangers to observe the fires that any idiot could simply go to a website showing the latest satellite imagery to observe? Why? What's the point? They know where they are, I could list the ones for yesterday if you like.

 

There is only one reason for such large-scale burning and that is cropping for commodities including corn, cassava, sugar cane, watermelon and other crops for the agro-industries in Thailand, China and Vietnam. These commodities are mostly grown via contract farming with small-scale middlemen who contract farmers to clear and plant the land then buy the crop. The crop is eventually sold to larger agro-industrial conglomerates such as the CP Group. CP Group doesn't contract farmers directly, since they're too huge, and it provides them with a degree of separation. Chinese industry and agriculture companies are not easily identified, controlled and boycotted. Everyone along this chain is making money including the authorities from village and district level upwards.

So you tell me how you're going to stop that. Except put away the fantasy solutions that haven't the slightest chance of occurring or doing anything about the actual problem. And stop blaming the villagers. You should understand by now who has the power and who makes the real money from this, and it ain't them.

"You want to change the climate via rain-seeding airplanes? Might as well invest in Aboriginal raindancers to come and have a jump about for all the good that will do"    read what i wrote I never said use rain seeding planes , That's what the Government said.

 

'Drones, police and rangers to observe the fires that any idiot could simply go to a website showing the latest satellite imagery to observe? Why? What's the point? They know where they are, I could list the ones for yesterday if you like." , i don't want them to use drones to see fires , BUT catch those going into the

forests to set fires ...

 

It seems to you we are doomed , nothing will change anything , I would hope one day something will

be done , and I am not giving up on that .

 

regards worgeordie

 

[itsari]

Nothing much to protect as the tourist numbers are down big time anyway.

A major problem for Chiang Mai tourism is that the air quality is sent around the world via the media.

[bkk6060]

I am in CM for a few days.  It may be the worst I can remember.   Add, the heat adds to the negative environment. 

Got to be one of the worst places in the world to be now.  Extended periods have to affect one's health.  Just terrible.

[Dolf]

5 minutes ago, bkk6060 said:

I am in CM for a few days.  It may be the worst I can remember.   Add, the heat adds to the negative environment. 

Got to be one of the worst places in the world to be now.  Extended periods have to affect one's health.  Just terrible.

March is the worst month each year.

[Cake Monster]

It really does not matter what Srettha says

The Tourists themselves will declare Chiang Mai and much of the North a Disaster Zone.

And along with that conclusion from them will be a massive decline in Tourism

People, no matter where they are from , hate being fed a load of Tosh

[dick turpin]

Interesting, that a certain ex-con has just been visiting

his home town, what possible influence could he have.

[NorthernRyland]

1 hour ago, morocco said:

I have been riding all over the north and have noticed very few fires. 90 % of the smoke is coming from Laos and Myanmar. Call it a natural disaster or not it doesn’t matter. Until those two countries start controlling the many fires in their areas nothing is getting better in Thailand. Even though the Thai government is cracking down on the burning in the north it won’t help much. 

 

We have multiple fires going on for multiple weeks now in Samoeng. These just keep going until the rains start next month. Once they go past the roads we can't seem them but they're always burning away in the distance.

 

[Airwolf]

What an absolute disgrace. Free masks! Knowing Thailand, I'm sure they're cheap surgical masks. I rarely see a local wearing a proper N95 mask. 

They've just admitted that money is more important than their citizens and guests health. 

The Thai people are also accountable here, if they actually grew a backbone and actually protested this, then, maybe something will be done... but every year, they just bend over and take it, bar the odd protest with a dozen or so locals at Tha Pae Gate. 

Seeing as they're not willing to do anything about the arson/pollution, and put profit over peoples health, they need to offer, 

- 5+ N95 Masks
- 1 - 2 air purifiers per household
- 2 - 3 months of 1/2 price electricity (time spent indoors is double, with air purifiers and a/c running)

This is the least they can do until they become a developed country and fix this draconian issue. 



 

[Xonax]

8 hours ago, webfact said:

Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin said the government is refraining from declaring Chiang Mai a natural disaster zone

So what about just declaring "disaster zone" without using the word "natural"?

Edited March 18 by Xonax

[Yorkshire Tea]

8 minutes ago, Airwolf said:

The Thai people are also accountable here, if they actually grew a backbone and actually protested this, then, maybe something will be done... but every year, they just bend over and take it, bar the odd protest with a dozen or so locals at Tha Pae Gate. 

 

There seems to be a lot more complaints on local Facebook pages about the pollution, so at least the locals are aware of the problem.   The problem is that those same people complaining will be buying the special mushrooms once they appear at the markets!

[Yorkshire Tea]

2 minutes ago, Xonax said:

So what about just declaring "disaster zone" without using the word "natural"?

 

It's not a natural disaster, it's 100% man-made!

[findlay13]

 says it all   "particularly impacting tourism." don't worry about people sick and dying as long as the tourist dollars still flow😄

[TigerGuardian]

So it appears Srettha is not only willing to sacrifice more Thai citizens of their health and welfare, but also tourists who visit Chiang Mai by exposing them to extreme unhealthy levels of air pollution.  At 16:00 HRS this date, https://aqicn.org/city/chiang-mai/ reported an AQI of 190 for Chiang Mai. All in the name of "protecting tourism."  Something very wrong with that logic. 

[Surasak]

3 hours ago, andersonat said:

 

 

The PRIMARY function of any Government is the protection of the country's population from either external- or internal-factors.

 

The Prime-Minister has singularly failed in his duty-of-care to protect the health of the Residents of (and Tourists in) Chiang Mai.

 

 

 

A total dereliction of duty. That to my mind is a CRIMINAL act.

[brianthainess]

2 hours ago, Thumbs said:

Safeguarding tourism while risking the health of tourists by allowing them to travel  to the region? Enjoy your holiday heres some free face masks 

I'm a dirty falang I refuse your face mask.   

[MangoKorat]

8 hours ago, webfact said:

But what about the residents of Chiang Mai? Yesterday, Srettha gave them two million free masks to cope for now

In the words of Tim, nice but Dim............................ he's a bloody nice bloke 😁

[Wrwest]

2 hours ago, morocco said:

I have been riding all over the north and have noticed very few fires. 90 % of the smoke is coming from Laos and Myanmar. Call it a natural disaster or not it doesn’t matter. Until those two countries start controlling the many fires in their areas nothing is getting better in Thailand. Even though the Thai government is cracking down on the burning in the north it won’t help much. 

You most obviously ignoring the documented forest fires in Chiang Mai Province.

[Airwolf]

41 minutes ago, Yorkshire Tea said:

 

There seems to be a lot more complaints on local Facebook pages about the pollution, so at least the locals are aware of the problem.   The problem is that those same people complaining will be buying the special mushrooms once they appear at the markets!

 

Complaining on FB is worthless. There needs to be 1000s on the streets protesting. If this was happening in a western city and the government did nothing, people would be on the streets demanding action.

 

If there was anything that warrents protesting, it's this issue. 

 

[Deez]

2 million useless masks. Thanks dufus

[findlay13]

4 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

Lies. It is your nature. Anything to avoid reality. You are presiding over a health emergency and you are doing nothing. You are protecting your super rich Big Agra cronies. 

 

Sretta. The do nothing PM. 

Just one more in a long line really

[Elkski]

To me this is what Srettha said. 

I came to chaing Mai because I am the top dog in Thailand and in keeping with Thai style I'm doing nothing about this terrible air pollution disater. Most importantly we must not do anything that would slow the flow of tourist dollars.  So at this time I can't think of anything we can do to fix this yearly problem, either in the long or short term.  

This just opens the door for Pita to talk about sensible solutions that may make the people realize they should have done something when the elections  were rigged and or stolen. 

 

Each tourist to CM is going to leave with photos, FB and social media posts, memories of this terrible pollution and this will hurt tourism in the long term. 

The slow killing nature of bad air exposure with no direct hard data or data thats hard ro associate furure illness on such past exposures people dont seem to care so much.   If it was a radioactive cloud they would.    So i think its about education. 

If it was just 1 country not 3 or 4 the big con agra companies could gain a big PR win by doing something. But how to get 3 countries to do something and it has to be all to solve this problem.  

If this wasn't an issue I think this is where I would live if we ever moved to Thailand.  I need wide open vistas and fresh cool air and steep hikes. 

Edited March 18 by Elkski

[itsari]

3 hours ago, Dolf said:

March is the worst month each year.

If there is no rain April will be worse than March.

[cardinalblue]

I have never seen any communication on how the gov is communicating their plan/objective meaning village meetings with village chiefs (months ago) or designated locations requiring village chief attendance. Why doesn't the gov post how they are communicating?

 

And the 2nd communication is what is the gov plan to minimise burning with incentives/penalties?

 

Does anyone have a clue to these two topics?   I have seen or heard nothing other than the typical fine those who are caught burning, some no burning signage and the usually we don't have adequate resources to deal with the active fires...

 

The real question is if there is a master plan at all vs the usual reactionary panic response "we are going to get serious" about air pollution because of the bad PR and the overflowing ERs... 

[AustinRacing]

Sadly Thailand deserves the leadership it has. Openly admitting tourism takes priority over health says it all. At least in developed corrupt countries the leaders do not openly admit it. 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Anyone remember this one???  The clock is ticking:

 

Thai court orders emergency plan to improve air quality

Updated

Jan 19, 2024

 

BANGKOK - A Thai court on Jan 19 ordered the government to come up with an urgent plan to curb air pollution within 90 days, as the kingdom braces for its annual peak of noxious haze.

...

Bangkok and the northern city of Chiang Mai ranked among the world’s most polluted cities on some days in 2023, prompting a group of people to bring a legal case to get the government to act.

 

The Chiang Mai administrative court on Jan 19 ordered the National Environmental Commission to present “preventive methods to solve pollution both short and long term” within 90 days.

 

(more)

 

https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/thai-court-orders-emergency-plan-to-improve-air-quality

 

The current government may well come up with a "plan" at some point. But in all likelihood, whatever plan they come up with will be just as useless and ignored as all the prior empty promises that have come before.

 

 

[chrisbangkok]

Thought the burning might have ceased now sick notes returned and running the show , surely no need to pay the firestarters now as he's won ? His home town too bless him .

 

[JCauto]

4 hours ago, worgeordie said:

"You want to change the climate via rain-seeding airplanes? Might as well invest in Aboriginal raindancers to come and have a jump about for all the good that will do"    read what i wrote I never said use rain seeding planes , That's what the Government said.

 

'Drones, police and rangers to observe the fires that any idiot could simply go to a website showing the latest satellite imagery to observe? Why? What's the point? They know where they are, I could list the ones for yesterday if you like." , i don't want them to use drones to see fires , BUT catch those going into the

forests to set fires ...

 

It seems to you we are doomed , nothing will change anything , I would hope one day something will

be done , and I am not giving up on that .

 

regards worgeordie

 

 

Sorry, didn't catch that was the Government's idea.

 

It doesn't have any easy solutions, since the conglomerates are responding to the market by producing a lot of cattle and commodities to feed them and other cash crops. They don't have to deal with the issues caused by the burning because they're one step or more removed and the government won't hold them accountable in Thailand while the government doesn't have much control over what happens in the rural areas in Laos. Not that there's a huge amount they can do about it if they require those commodities to serve their large markets which are mostly in Thailand.

 

The EU and other developed countries are implementing new rules that govern the origin of the major commodity crops that are imported into EU countries. These are aimed at preventing conversion of forests to cash cropping or plantations. However, the vast majority of these areas that are currently burning aren't good quality forest, they're swidden agriculture fields that are in various stages of fallow, so that regulation won't apply. Eventually one would expect that with the large number of sensors that are available and AI to handle a lot of the analysis load they're going to eventually drill down to source on everything and assign carbon and biodiversity costs to it all. But that's going to take quite some time. I don't see how you can get widespread permaculture in the sloped lands unless they're just really crowded and everyone is only into farming. But that's not really the issue in Thailand, there's lots of migration for employment in the cities and other economic alternatives.

 

As to the "mushrooms" and swidden agriculture, that has been going on for hundreds of years including the entire time when things were tolerable in the dry season. The rate of swidden hasn't really increased significantly since it's subsistence agriculture and there's low population growth in the poor rural areas and there's a lot of out-migration and availability of food from elsewhere.

 

This is just business.

[newnative]

     Tourists need to stop visiting CM.  Period.  Massive bad publicity and massive loss of tourist money would be the only spur to get any government action.  Right now it's just blah blah blah, as always, plus some free masks thrown in.  Pathetic. At least Pita has a constructive plan, for both short-term and long-term.   

[webfact]

UPDATE:

Thai govt resists declaring Chiang Mai a disaster zone despite pollution
by Mitch Connor 

 

The Government of Thailand has chosen not to declare Chiang Mai a disaster zone despite escalating air pollution, according to Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin. The decision was largely influenced by concerns that such a declaration could negatively impact the province’s tourism industry.

 

The Bangkok-born PM voiced his government’s stance on platform X, explaining that declaring the province a disaster zone would likely deter foreign tourists, particularly those whose insurance policies do not cover issues arising in disaster-stricken regions. He added that alternative solutions to the air pollution problem are being explored to minimise the impact on the economy.

 

Moreover, the government has allocated additional funding to the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation (DNP) to aid in combating the wildfires plaguing the region. The 62 year old Thai prime minister highlighted this as an unprecedented move, stating that the approved funding exceeds previous allocations for disaster relief.

 

Despite the government’s efforts, criticism has been rampant due to the reluctance to label Chiang Mai a disaster zone, in light of the deteriorating air quality that has even led the province to be listed among the world’s most polluted regions.

However, the government’s decision has found support among tour operators, with many opposing the disaster zone declaration given the potential implications on residents’ health.

 

Panlop Sae Jiew, the chair of the Tourism Council of Chiang Mai, shared on Facebook that between March 1-16, over 52,000 tourists arrived in Chiang Mai, contributing over 1 billion baht to the local economy. He expressed concerns that tourism would plummet if the province were to be declared a disaster zone, while the dust pollution issue remains unresolved.

 

The situation remains critical, with harmful PM2.5 pollutants detected in 42 provinces and all 19 Northern provinces witnessing high concentrations of fine dust particles. Mae Hong Son, in particular, has experienced a surge in air pollution due to wildfires, recording a PM2.5 concentration of 294 microgrammes per cubic metre early Monday morning, the highest in the North.

 

Source: The Thaiger 2024-03-19

 

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[Henk Langeweg]

Not a reason for foreign countries, travel agancies, etc to call that area not a disaster zone ...

Edited March 19 by Henk Langeweg