Thai activists call for worldwide efforts to cut CO2 emissions

[webfact]

Activists call for worldwide efforts to cut CO2 emissions
Janjira Pongrai
The Nation



BANGKOK: -- POINTING to the world's need to prepare for more global warming-triggered disasters, the Thai Climate Justice (TCJ) Working Group and climate-justice movements in Southeast Asia and the Mekong region yesterday urged a combined worldwide effort to reduce greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions.

They said Thailand should also use this opportunity to reveal GHG emission figures for all sectors.

After observing this month's "COP 19 UN" climate-change conference in Poland, where they called the recent Haiyan typhoon a result of global warming, the group hosted a press conference on the lessons from the disaster at Bangkok's Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand.

Philippine Movement for Climate Justice coordinator Pudila Commet said the country was hit by more and more devastating storms in the past couple of years, but local governments were unable to tackle such disasters due to lack of preparedness.

People, especially those in risky areas, should be prepared for storm or flood disasters and the typhoon Haiyan case should be used as a lesson for better planning for disaster mitigation, she said. The use of "dirty energy sources" such as coal should also be stopped, she added.

TCJ representative Faikham Hannarong urged all countries to work towards ending global warming, especially by stopping GHG-producing dirty energy sources - and for developed countries to pay for disaster damages.

"However, the atmosphere at COP19 in Poland showed that superpower countries continued to resist the call," she said.

Activist Pablo Solan said the international conferences on global warming was not a success because leaders and political-sector representatives from member countries were still supported by energy-producing companies.


-- The Nation 2013-11-21

[yourauntbob]

Headline should be "gullible people use natural disaster to spread propoganda"

[selftaopath]

While briefly scanning the headline I "flashed" on the typical rural village - in Isaan - without trash pick up where EVERYTHING is burned. Ahhhhhhhhhh the smell of burning plastic in the morning...... what a treat. Oh and soon the fields will be set abaze as the recent rice crop has been harvested. Smoke!!!!!!! indeed. Gas masks anyone?

[PaullyW]

OK, so the goal is a good one. However, one wonders if Thais understand the general principle of not preaching from a disadvantaged position. Thailand is among the world's worst when it comes to polluting. So, don't address the world. Address your country FIRST, commit to leading by example, and THEN call on the world. Thailand is NO position to call on anyone outside of Thailand. It would be something like

Thailand -> AEC neighbours -> APAC (including China) and then -> world.

[Lupatria]

The Thai capital city is one of the most polluted metropoles on earth. Not the best location for finger pointing, I guess.

[F4UCorsair]

They're pi$$ing into a 40 knot northerly if they think emissions will be reduced.

Recent UN figures show there has been NO increase in world temperatures over the past 15 years, and if ever there was going to be an increase as a consequence of emissions, it would have been the second industrial revolution, immediately post WW2, but temperatures decreased for a lot of years.

The wind is out of the 'emissions result in increased temperatures' brigade's sails, but they continue banging away with the same old rhetoric. An imbecile Greens (political party in Australia) member called the Australian Prime Minister "Typhoon Tony", inferring that his non belief in global warming was somehow responsible for the Philippines typhoon!!

Climate change is real, has been happening since time began, but doesn't seem to be related to increased temperatures 'caused by emissions'. Scientists recently drilled under the Antarctic ice cap, 3000+ feet down, and came up with debris from palm trees that had been growing there in an age past. Ice ages have come and gone, long before man made emissions occurred. The most recent figures I read indicate that man contributes only 4-5% of the total CO2 emissions, the rest being form natural phenomena. Of course the climate change believers either don't agree or won't acknowledge that's the case, and the only reason can be that people like Al Gore push it along so that they can make bulk $$ out of it.

[joepattaya1961]

It's like screaming for stricter traffic-law-enforcement while driving in the opposite direction and against upcoming traffic.

[noikrit]

Best start at home ( Thailand ) ... Look around.... Trucks belching smoke , 2 strokes still on the road, burn offs....Charcoal factories.. etc .. etc ...etc...,

[Local Drunk]

It should read...

"Activists Call for Yinglucks Government to Shut Their Mouths in Worldwide Effort to Cut CO2 Emissions"

[silent]

Best start at home ( Thailand ) ... Look around.... Trucks belching smoke , 2 strokes still on the road, burn offs....Charcoal factories.. etc .. etc ...etc...,

Think about the saying and what always goes on.

If it weren't for those black kettles and pots, theThai language probably wouldn't have developed to the point that it already has.

Edited November 21, 2013 by silent

[Thaddeus]

Stig of The Dump tells Steptoe & Son to clean up their act.

[FM505]

Best start at home ( Thailand ) ... Look around.... Trucks belching smoke , 2 strokes still on the road, burn offs....Charcoal factories.. etc .. etc ...etc...,

Not to mention a daily face full of 'spicey chili smoke' from food carts along the walk way....

[bigbamboo]

That's a good idea.

I wonder why no one has ever thought of that before.

[transam]

Best start at home ( Thailand ) ... Look around.... Trucks belching smoke , 2 strokes still on the road, burn offs....Charcoal factories.. etc .. etc ...etc...,

Don't think the folk that come up with the OP stuff really understand about their own countries lack of control over emissions, or they don't really know where the emissions come from in their country. They should go out in the sticks and have a look around, or walk around town without a mask and have a look at uncontrolled stuff coming out of exhaust pipes of old vehicles. Or look at the country they are buying all the crap from and the lack of pollution control there.

[Tywais]

They (TCJ) should have their meeting in Chiang Mai in March to see what is happening in their own back yard.

[JoeThePoster]

"However, the atmosphere at COP19 in Poland showed that superpower countries continued to resist the call," she said.

Careful now Khun Faikham, don't wanna upset China here.

[harryfrompattaya]

The Thai capital city is one of the most polluted metropoles on earth. Not the best location for finger pointing, I guess.

Thai basing at ir best Have you seen Washington DC, London or Cairo

Look at those and than tell me

[Lupatria]

The Thai capital city is one of the most polluted metropoles on earth. Not the best location for finger pointing, I guess.

Thai basing at ir best Have you seen Washington DC, London or Cairo

Look at those and than tell me

Don't worry, I visited Washington DC, London, Cairo and all in all 100 countries.

Is it Thai bashing already citing facts? Sometimes it helps to be informed before making accusations…

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/636428-bangkok-is-asias-13th-most-polluted-city/

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Bangkok-is-Asias-13th-most-polluted-city-30205189.html

http://www.numbeo.com/pollution/city_result.jsp?country=Thailand&city=Bangkok

click to enlarge

Edited November 21, 2013 by Lupatria

[Muhendis]

They're pi$$ing into a 40 knot northerly if they think emissions will be reduced.

Recent UN figures show there has been NO increase in world temperatures over the past 15 years, and if ever there was going to be an increase as a consequence of emissions, it would have been the second industrial revolution, immediately post WW2, but temperatures decreased for a lot of years.

The wind is out of the 'emissions result in increased temperatures' brigade's sails, but they continue banging away with the same old rhetoric. An imbecile Greens (political party in Australia) member called the Australian Prime Minister "Typhoon Tony", inferring that his non belief in global warming was somehow responsible for the Philippines typhoon!!

Climate change is real, has been happening since time began, but doesn't seem to be related to increased temperatures 'caused by emissions'. Scientists recently drilled under the Antarctic ice cap, 3000+ feet down, and came up with debris from palm trees that had been growing there in an age past. Ice ages have come and gone, long before man made emissions occurred. The most recent figures I read indicate that man contributes only 4-5% of the total CO2 emissions, the rest being form natural phenomena. Of course the climate change believers either don't agree or won't acknowledge that's the case, and the only reason can be that people like Al Gore push it along so that they can make bulk $$ out of it.

I agree with most of what is said.

Yes. Climate change is real. It comes in cycles. Our world has a few wobbles as it spins around the sun. On an astronomical time scale the longest is a 10,000 year cycle (I think) which caused the last ice age. It is currently running late. We do not enjoy a circular orbit around our sun. It is a variable ellipse which periodically affects our planetary disposition. In addition to that we live on continually shifting tectonic plates that have seen, for example, the european continent move from an equatorial location to where it is now. On this basis we should not be too surprised to find the remains of tropical plants beneath the antarctic ice cap. All these things are happening in a long time scale. The shorter time scale is what we should more concerned about because what we do, in our masses, affects the world in which we live in. We cannot change the astronomical events that control our environment but we can, and should try to stop spoiling it for ourselves and future generations. We [globally] need to produce less carbon dioxide and stop destroying the mechanism [tropical rain forest] that removes it from our atmosphere and gives us oxygen.

This is where politics come into play. It is important for the leaders of the countries of the world to understand that our contribution to short term global warming is real. It is their policy decisions that can slow down and hopefully reverse what is happening. Sadly it is quite likely that this will not happen. The UN figures which show no global warming for the past 15 years are not based on fact. Below is a graph from NASA which shows quite clearly that short term warming is real. http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/graphs_v3/ . There are many factors which can cause this but the main contributory element is HUMANITY.

[Thaddeus]

Wow.

Where to start?

Don't think I'll bother, if you can't even get the basics right, nothing I say will change your mind.

[JRSoul]

They're pi$$ing into a 40 knot northerly if they think emissions will be reduced.

Recent UN figures show there has been NO increase in world temperatures over the past 15 years, and if ever there was going to be an increase as a consequence of emissions, it would have been the second industrial revolution, immediately post WW2, but temperatures decreased for a lot of years.

The wind is out of the 'emissions result in increased temperatures' brigade's sails, but they continue banging away with the same old rhetoric. An imbecile Greens (political party in Australia) member called the Australian Prime Minister "Typhoon Tony", inferring that his non belief in global warming was somehow responsible for the Philippines typhoon!!

Climate change is real, has been happening since time began, but doesn't seem to be related to increased temperatures 'caused by emissions'. Scientists recently drilled under the Antarctic ice cap, 3000+ feet down, and came up with debris from palm trees that had been growing there in an age past. Ice ages have come and gone, long before man made emissions occurred. The most recent figures I read indicate that man contributes only 4-5% of the total CO2 emissions, the rest being form natural phenomena. Of course the climate change believers either don't agree or won't acknowledge that's the case, and the only reason can be that people like Al Gore push it along so that they can make bulk $$ out of it.

The evidence of antarctic palm trees has little to do with climate change or ice ages, but much more to continental drift and pole movement.

[F4UCorsair]

I guess the protagonists will beat their heads together over this issue forever.

I'm an advocate of never wasting resources, I have a solar power installation, although I'm not confident that the resources used in the manufacture of panels, recycling them, etc., equals the benefits, I recycle every drop of water through my house, don't waste electricity, don't drive unnecessarily, and on it goes, but if it's as serious as people like Al Gore insist/pretend, governments should be legislating accordingly. Airlines should be limited to a number of aircraft, Formula 1 should be shut down (one car uses as much fuel in one GP as a family car in over a year), etc. That's never going to happen. The necessity is to develop alternative fuels.

It's unfortunate that people like Gore use their previous 'credibility' to push the line to the party faithful/easily influenced for no reason other than to enrich themselves financially.

I agree with whoever said that climate is cyclic, or perhaps 'evolutionary' is a better description. Whatever it is, there are several cycles operating simultaneously, e.g., 10, 100, 1000, etc., years cycles, and when the peaks or troughs coincide, cataclysmic weather events occur.

We have a w***** here in Australia who formerly headed the government's climate change authority, $180K a year for a part time job to propagate the government's agenda (now defunct with a change of government). He used his position to be given government subsidies (gifts) of $90 Million for a company in which he's a major shareholder to develop 'relatively simple hot rock technology'. He proclaimed in 2007 that we would never see rain as we had in the past, dams would dry up, and there would be wars over water. Any rain that fell would evaporate on contact with the super heated lands. The project in the South Australian desert was washed out by record rains a couple of years later, dams overflowed, towns were washed away.

It's worthy of note that he's a self styled 'environmentalist/conservationist' and his qualification (PhD) is mammologist, specializing in mammals (not breasts as the name may imply). I'd say his specialty is 'alarmism', because there is big money to be made from being an alarmist.

We have the Greens (political party) hiding behind a name and a couple of obscure environmental policies but pushing extreme left views, tax the rich and give money to losers, blaming the current government (because they don't push the CC philosophy with the same gusto) for every environmental event, including the Philippines typhoon, etc., even though they've only been in government less than 3 months!! Imbeciles. They're known as the Watermelon Party, green on the outside, red on the inside. Whenever pushed for a policy they spruik 'it must be sustainable'. How do you have a sustainable education policy? It will always absorb $$, never produce $$. It is a one way street, and can never be otherwise, but it's worthy spending, nevertheless.

But....I digress. I think the problem we face with climate change is not that it's changing, because it always has and always will, but that we have pretenders whose sole aim is to generate wealth for themselves, running their agendas, confusing/clouding the real issue/s.

I have a cousin in the US, head of a big consulting company, who says, "If you're not part of the solution, there's big money to be made by prolonging the problem", and I think that sums it up.

Edited November 21, 2013 by F4UCorsair

[F4UCorsair]

The time out facility beat me before I could edit, so I'll do it in another post.

It's worthy of note that he's a self styled 'environmentalist/conservationist' and his qualification (PhD) is mammologist, specializing in mammals (not breasts as the name may imply). I'd say his specialty is 'alarmism', because there is big money to be made from being an alarmist.

Whatever he is, he was prepared to sell out for a few pots of gold and push a line for a government that thought its new found, populist environmental policies would keep it in government, when reputable/real scientists wouldn't do so.