Bangkok May Be Uninhabitable In Seven Years

[webfact]

THE CAPITAL

Bangkok may be uninhabitable in seven years

By Varataya Chailangka

The Nation

Dr Ajong Chumsai na Ayudhya, a Thai scientist who has worked with the US space agency Nasa in the past, said yesterday that the areas around the Gulf of Thailand would be hit by tsunamis and that Bangkok would be under water in less than seven years.

At a seminar yesterday about the impact of global warming on Chiang Mai residents, Ajong said humans were mainly to blame for such disasters because they were using up natural resources, chopping down forests and kept emitting greenhouse gases with no regard for the future.

The United States is the biggest contributor to carbon dioxide at 30.2 per cent, followed by China at 30 per cent and India at 23 per cent, he said. Thailand was at rank 22 or 23 out of the 200 biggest emitters of CO2 in the world. With the current CO2 emission rate standing at 395 parts per million (ppm) from the previous 300ppm, he warned that greenhouse gases would increase and bring about inevitable changes.

Ajong explained that over the past three decades the temperature has risen, with warmer seas killing coral reefs, glaciers melting, storms becoming stronger and earthquakes being of greater magnitude.

Warning that temperatures would rise by approximately 4 degrees Celsius, Ajong said polar bears would be extinct in less than 10 years and the seas would rise by six metres.

So far there have been two significant changes to the Earth.

Firstly, the planet's axis has shifted, changing weather patterns, and secondly, the Earth's crust has displaced, causing more frequent and more severe earthquakes and tsunami disasters.

Thailand, which is located on the Eurasian Plate, will be affected, Ajong warned, adding that the Gulf of Thailand would be hit by tsunamis and affect the South very badly.

Earthquakes within the 6-Richter scale and severe flooding would hit provinces in the North, such as Mae Hong Son, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Phayao, Nan, Lampang and Uttaradit, he said.

The Central region, namely Bangkok, Samut Sakhon, Samut Songkhram, Samut Prakan, Nonthaburi and Ayutthaya, would be under seawater, he said, adding that the capital would be uninhabitable in seven years.

-- The Nation 2010-09-18

[Pond Life]

Personally, I'd say its been uninhabitable for quite some time already.

[rheinwiese]

Personally, I'd say its been uninhabitable for quite some time already.

nice one !

[prometheus]

Oh dear....oh dear....oh dear..... we are doomed.

[Goshawk]

it's now well established that the 'Global Warming' frenzy/scare is just an eloborate racket to generate new tax revenue for the NWO.. (Alex Jones assures me ) so i would safely say totally ignore this thread...

however, as 2012 approaches.. more than a few prominent people are predicting a major magnetic polar shift/flip within the Earth's axis itself (according to George Noory & his numerous guests on Coast to Coast AM), so property atop the highest Doi's may well be a wise investment in the months to come...

...of course, this whole subject could be total baloney with absolutely nothing to worry about at all..

[bangon04]

Judging by his name, he is an expert who cannot be ignored by Thais.

[apetley]

Well I suppose he's putting his money where his mouth is as most of us will still be alive in 7 years to see if he's right or wrong.

[brahmburgers]

The shifting axis is no big deal. Magnetic North, shifts by about 24 miles per year, and at that rate, should be at the northern shores of Siberia in a few hundred years, so what. Why should shifting magnetism affect global climate?

Thais can put up with all sorts of assaults (to their senses, to their comfort, etc) so I think the word 'uninhabitable' is overkill. Even when most of Bkk is under one to two meters of standing water, there will be people who will adapt. Houseboats, anyone? Year-round large swaths of standing water there will probably be common in 25 years. The airport also. Yes, the one with a different pronunciation for Thais than for farang.

[onnut]

I like the cartoon picture of trees, looks like he is addressing scholl children!

[Thaddeus]

So far there have been two significant changes to the Earth.

Only two eh ..... he's done some in-depth research hasn't he.

[bangon04]

I like the cartoon picture of trees, looks like he is addressing scholl children!

Well the article doesn't really explain who is on the receiving end of his words of wisdom - it could well be a speech specially for Thai logging company personnel.

Maybe he was the chief tree designer during his time with NASA? As usual with the Nation, there are more questions than answers....

[Thaddeus]

I like the cartoon picture of trees, looks like he is addressing scholl children!

There was an old lady who lived in a shoe.

(sorry couldn't resist that typo)

[somtampet]

Personally, I'd say its been uninhabitable for quite some time already.

As long as the airport isnt affected,Bangkok can drown in its own vermin for all i care.

[creck]

We should be frightened of Global Warming, it is no joking matter. Anyone with eyes, ears and half a brain can see well documented reports of people losing their homes and/or livelihoods due to rising temperatures and sea levels. Many progressive signs leave no doubt that a great change is taking place.

What might be debatable are the causal relationships with human activity. Which implies the possibility or not of our ability to affect the change or its rate.

The separation of evidence for these two hypotheses is extremely important and often obscure. This raises the temperature of political and scientific communities somewhat! The mistaken stand that because the cause is not completely clear no action is possible or at least a waste of money cannot be right. That we must take defensive action against Global Warming cannot be denied by intelligent informed people.

[tartempion]

We humans have done nothing wrong, as so often confirmed by the vast majority of posters on this forum

[ScienceGuy]

Isn't Holland below sea level? Is there geological evidence to support his earth-quake claims? Isn't Bangkok the #2 most polluted city city in the world and already considered uninhabitable?

[lothda]

The scientific evidence for global warming is irrefutable. However earthquakes cannot be predicted yet and neither can the tsunamis they cause.

[Xangsamhua]

I heard Dr Art-ong (a clearer and more common spelling than Ajong) speak at a UNESCO conference in 2004. He's pretty impressive. I gather he's spoken about the impending flooding of Bangkok over quite a long period.

In the video below he mentions his Bangkok flooding warnings, but the 6-minute clip is mainly about the sustainable environment projects at his school in Lopburi.

The link is to a page from a family website. You have to scroll down to see the video.

http://www.jeedjard....html#clip_video

[fatfather]

We should be frightened of Global Warming, it is no joking matter. Anyone with eyes, ears and half a brain can see well documented reports of people losing their homes and/or livelihoods due to rising temperatures and sea levels. Many progressive signs leave no doubt that a great change is taking place.

What might be debatable are the causal relationships with human activity. Which implies the possibility or not of our ability to affect the change or its rate.

The separation of evidence for these two hypotheses is extremely important and often obscure. This raises the temperature of political and scientific communities somewhat! The mistaken stand that because the cause is not completely clear no action is possible or at least a waste of money cannot be right. That we must take defensive action against Global Warming cannot be denied by intelligent informed people.

There is a global warming???? Who says this??? We shouldn't be that arrogant and believe that we know anything. If humans becoming too nasty, nature will wipe us out. Sure we have to care what is going on, sure we should be carefull with our environment, but stop teaching ordinary people to do better ...and the high end lobby give a sh_t.

[Thaddeus]

The mistaken stand that because the cause is not completely clear no action is possible or at least a waste of money cannot be right.

Raise the money needed by levying a huge tax on every country with an active volcano.

[RickBradford]

I like the cartoon picture of trees, looks like he is addressing scholl children!

There was an old lady who lived in a shoe.

(sorry couldn't resist that typo)

Well, it certainly reads like a fairy story, all right.

There is a certain sort of person who needs to make themselves feel important and meaningful by pretending to have discovered the latest Oh No We're Doomed scenario, and this fellow fits the profile perfectly.

[inquisitive]

Creck, you are exactly right. I have been watching global warming since the 1950's and I have no doubt whatever that it is happening. Maybe some of us may remember a Bell Telephone Company movie named "Our Friend the Sun" that was popular with elementary schools back inthe 50's. (Actually I am not even sure how many folks here would even remember Bell Telephone!). In that movie they introduced a concept they called "the greenhouse effect" and told how it would lead to global warming. It was pretty heady stuff and caught my attention even as a kid. <BR><BR>Ten years later I asked my science teacher in high school about the greenhouse effect and global warming and he said he had never heard of any such thing. In fact, he said, the climate was actually getting cooler due to a shift in the jet stream. Now we know that the jst stream shifts on nearly a daily basis, but such was teh knowledge of high school science teachers at that time. We have come a long way. <BR><BR>Three years later I began my decade-long career as a ski bum and I started going every Christmas vacation up to Vermont to work and ski. Over that period I saw ski resort after ski resort close down because the ski season was getting shorter and shorter. Even a couple of ski mountains got closed down bwcause they could not make enough money inthe shortening cold season. Eqach year I would go farther north so that the snow would be reliable at teh end of December. The answer for the ski areas , of course, was massive snow making, but only the larger hills could afford this.<BR><BR>On Long Island in New York, all three ski areas closed down by 1971 because they could not keep the man-made snow on the hills even for a week as the temperatures rose above freezing more and more frequently.<BR><BR>When I arrived in Alaska the first time, I spoke with the old-timers there. I wanted to hear their stories about the incredible cold of the far north. I was shocked to hear every single one of them tell me how the winters had been getting milder for at least a decade. But these were not just "you should have seen the old days" kind of yarns, they gave me specific examples to demonstrate what they saw happening. The legendary cold of -70F in Fairbanks had all but ended by then, and it has never come back.<BR><BR>I have attended the Fairbanks Ice Carving Classic every year for at least fifteen years. It is held at the exact same week every year. I saw with my own eyes that the magnificent ice carvings were melting faster and faster each year. A few years ago several of the carvings actualy melted before the judging took place. They've taken to hanging huge cloth shades to try to at least keep the sun off the statues hoping to prolong their life for a week or so, but even that is not really enough. The obvious solution is to reschedule the contest, but since it is part of a large international circuit, the entire schedule for all the associated ice contests would have to be shifted. I don't know if this is ever going to happen.<BR><BR>I have camped on the beach of long Island, NY since 1965 and I have watched it shrink each year until it is now an annual government exercise to dredge sand from the bottom of the nearby bay and move it to the beach next to the ocean. The expensive tactic is not working, but at least it is slowing the annual erosion down and allowing tourism to continue. <BR><BR>The storms have also been increasing in intenisty and frequency and miles of super-expensive summer homes have had to be abandonned and nature has been allowed to destroy them and ultimately wash them out to sea. That whole section of beach is now closed.<BR><BR>And these are not the only examples I have personally witnessed. My point is that global warming is not a threoretical issue for me since I have seen its effects over and over with my own eyes. Whether this is something that is caused by humans, I cannot say, but any claim that global warming is not happening is simply wrong. I can't say whether Bangkok will have its traffic problems eliminated by liberal application of sea water or not, and I would personally be shocked to see such a thing happen within the time predicted by this speaker, but I can certainly vouch for the notion that there is an alarming trend in motion that must be reckoned with one way or another. I sure do hope this particular prediction is crazy wrong, but I also hope that enough great minds heed the warning signs and find some comfortable solution to the situation.

[junkofdavid2]

Some recommendations by environmentalists are really true and some of these warnings need to be heeded,

BUT

They never get the (some) "real" messages across to the mainstream because they act and exaggerate like WACKOS.

[Xangsamhua]

Well, it certainly reads like a fairy story, all right.

There is a certain sort of person who needs to make themselves feel important and meaningful by pretending to have discovered the latest Oh No We're Doomed scenario, and this fellow fits the profile perfectly.

Your response is uninformed, Rick. You may be skeptical of Dr Art-ong's views, but he doesn't need to make himself important.

This is his CV:

Prof. Dr. Art-Ong Jumsai Na Ayudhya, Thailand

Name: Dr. Art-ong Jumsai Na Ayudhya

Contact Address: 99 Mu 2, Lamnarai, Chaibadan, Lopburi 15130, Thailand

Email:

Education

• B.A. (Hons), M.A. Mechanical Sciences, Cambridge, U.K.
• D.I.C., Ph.D. Communications, Imperial College of Science and Technology, London University
• Ph.D. Education – Curriculum and Instruction, Faculty of Education, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand

Past Experiences

1. Senior Lecture at the Faculty of Engineering, Chulalongkorn University
2. Deputy Dean of Students AffairsDirector of the Institute of Scientific and Technological Research of Thailand
3. Member of Parliament (Elected three times)Deputy Chairman of the House Committee on Education
4. Secretary of the House Committee on Science, Technology and Environment
5. Executive Director, Asia Pacific Parliamentary Union secretary to the Foreign Minister
6. Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Engineering, Chulalongkorn University
7. Special Lecturer at all the Universities in Thailand
8. Training of teachers in Human Values Education in many countries in all continents
9. Three times elected Member of Parliament
10. Elected Member of the House of Senate

Special Experiences

Participated in NASA's Vlking Space Project in the design of the automatic landing device.

Expert in the National Research Council on rockets for Use in the Artificial Rain Making Project

Present Position

• Director of the Institute of Sathya Sai Education, Thailand
• Chief Administrator of the Sathya Sai School, Thailand
• Official Trainer of Teachers for the Ministry of Education in Human Values Education

Awards

• Top Scientist of the Year for Invention that is of benefit to the Country, 1987
• Philosopher of Thai Wisdom, Naresuan University, 2005
• Best Book of the Year – Path to Peace – for children age 12 to 18 years, 2007
• Knight Commander of the Order of the White Elephant
• Knight Commander of the Order of the Crown of Thailand
• Knight Grand Cordon of the Order of the White Elephant
• Knight Grand Cordon of the Order of the Crown of Thailand

Publications

1. 1991 Handbook for Teachers in Education Human Values
2. 1997 Five Human Values and Human Excellence: Integration of Human Values in Mathematics and Sciences

[creck]

We should be frightened of Global Warming, it is no joking matter. Anyone with eyes, ears and half a brain can see well documented reports of people losing their homes and/or livelihoods due to rising temperatures and sea levels. Many progressive signs leave no doubt that a great change is taking place.

What might be debatable are the causal relationships with human activity. Which implies the possibility or not of our ability to affect the change or its rate.

The separation of evidence for these two hypotheses is extremely important and often obscure. This raises the temperature of political and scientific communities somewhat! The mistaken stand that because the cause is not completely clear no action is possible or at least a waste of money cannot be right. That we must take defensive action against Global Warming cannot be denied by intelligent informed people.

There is a global warming???? Who says this??? We shouldn't be that arrogant and believe that we know anything. If humans becoming too nasty, nature will wipe us out. Sure we have to care what is going on, sure we should be carefull with our environment, but stop teaching ordinary people to do better ...and the high end lobby give a sh_t.

//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming

would be a good place to start learning.

[jackr]

Personally, I'd say its been uninhabitable for quite some time already.

Yes, not the most tranquil of places in Muang Thai, eh what what.

Year-round large swaths of standing water there will probably be common in 25 years. The airport also. Yes, the one with a different pronunciation for Thais than for farang.

Would that be Swampy / Soooowaaanaaapoooom?

[Hardback]

The mistaken stand that because the cause is not completely clear no action is possible or at least a waste of money cannot be right.

Raise the money needed by levying a huge tax on every country with an active volcano.

Volcanic eruptions actually release suphur dioxide which cools the atmosphere. So they may be our great hope in terms of halting so-called "global warming"

Edited September 18, 2010 by Hardback

[KRS1]

it's now well established that the 'Global Warming' frenzy/scare is just an eloborate racket to generate new tax revenue for the NWO.. (Alex Jones assures me ) so i would safely say totally ignore this thread...

however, as 2012 approaches.. more than a few prominent people are predicting a major magnetic polar shift/flip within the Earth's axis itself (according to George Noory & his numerous guests on Coast to Coast AM), so property atop the highest Doi's may well be a wise investment in the months to come...

...of course, this whole subject could be total baloney with absolutely nothing to worry about at all..

In October 2009 the earth's south pole was actually weakened and temporarily blown out by the solar winds.

Global warming is a reality but its not man made - Solar Maximus 2012

I use to think HAARP was designed for ill intentions, now i see its the only thing that will be able to shield certain parts of Earth.

Ground penetrating radar only requires 5 watts, HAARP uses 1 billion.

If you research earthquakes that have been occurring within the past year, you'll see that 90% of them originate 10 miles beneath the surface of the earth. Look up the earthquake info with the US geology service.

Edited September 18, 2010 by KRS1

[rametindallas]

This would be an excellent time for all believers in Al Gore's Anthropogenic Global Warming or as the White House renamed it yesteday, 'Global Climate Disruption', to move away from Bangkok now. That is all.

[creck]

It is clearly BS that not cutting down a few (in a global context) trees in Chiang Mai can save Bangkok. That should not obscure the fact that Bangkok will go under. The seven years is almost certainly also BS. The rate of sea level rise is increasing but it may slow or speed up more.

This mixing the evitable with transparently unlikely suggestions is what has confused us. Global warming is a fact not a prediction. The important prediction is based on the fact that no one can find any evidence that it will stop before causing damage to our living situation on a previously unseen scale in our era. As diverse organisations as NASA and the Institute for Creation Research have been convinced (climate.nasa.gov/evidence/ and www.icr.org/article/evidence-for-global-warming/ ).

When I say defensive action I mean only that; not interventionist in trying to control global warming. We need to think what we are going to do for our children to survive - it is going to happen.