International Citizens of Chiang Mai
General meeting minutes: 29/04/08
Meeting convened at 4:00pm at the office of Dr Wasan, Mechanical Engineering Dept. CMU.

Apologies given for: Adrien Pieper, Alexander Tinti, Bill Tuffin, Jeff Rutherford, Dr Wasan, Dr Duongchan.

The group discussed the possibility of setting up information booths for the upcoming display at Airport Plaza. The idea of using these booths as a platform to current local environmental issues.

Ricky told the group about a successful fire prevention plan implemented in Nan province that addressed very similar issues to those which are currently affecting Chiang Mai and its surrounding provinces.

Klaus gave a report on the continuing efforts of the Chiang Khian Fire Initiative. He explained how they had begun mapping trails and forest usage in the area and would continue to do this. He then highlighted their next stage of implementation which will be the interviewing of local stakeholders in the area to ascertain forest usage.

Ricky reported on the progress of the vegetation group’s initiative in the Doi Saket area. He reported on a meeting he had with Khun Boon and Khun Deng. They are working on a project which seeks to regenerate some of the heavily degraded lowland forests.

Dave reported on the last meeting of the Education sub-group, and Khun Boong’s initiative to work with local schools. He also discussed the feasibility of creating educational packs for local schools based around local environmental issues.

The meeting was closed at 6:00pm.

I think this short report is related to Chiang Mai pollution so I hope it will be well received by this group.

I’ve left Chiang Mai for at least the next 12-18 months except for one trip back in July. I’m working in Texas to build coalitions in 12 congressional districts for good national global warming legislation.

RIght now, I’m attending a 3 day conference called Climate Change Impacts on Texas Water which brought in many experts from all over the country. The first speaker is a Senior Scientist and head of the Climate Research section at the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

He was asked a question about tipping points where nature can abruptly change for the worst. He responded that the glaciers in Peru would definitely melt. I talked with him briefly afterwards and asked about the Himalayan glaciers. He said they would also definitely melt. He was visibly pained by this fact. He was confirming what I’ve read several places and heard in several documentaries.

40-50% of the worlds people get much of their water from those glaciers and snowpack– Pakistan, India, China, and SE Asia. Those glaciers and snowpacks and their water are why these huge ancient civilizations developed there.

African scenarios in the cards are equally as grim not to mention those depending on the Andean glaciers.

Author: Jerry Locke

The next ICCM General Meeting will take place at 4.00 pm on Tuesday 29th April @ Mechanical Engineering Department Chiang Mai University.

To get there travel West from the CMU PTT gate by the Irrigation Canal to the Clock Tower round-about. Proceed West and take the first Soi on the left. The meeting room is on the right, past the car park on the right next to the Boi Fuels lab.

Agenda – Fire & Mae clean up report from Khun Sanya and Environment Week activities and Adrian’s paper on ICCM.

For your information – the following event is taking place in a few days time in Chiang Mai:

Earth Day Tuesday 22nd April – We Care & Share – Kad Suan Kaew – 9am to 10pm

Sponsored by Toyota Foundation & Min Nat Resources.

Stop Global Warming – Its Everybody’s Responsibility. – Music & Fun for youth.

I am new to this forum, but I would like to quickly share my experience of living next to the forest in Mae-on since last August:

Our house was completed last year, and sits on a hill overlooking large tracts of forest. For most of the year the views are amazing. Since January they have a nightmare. On around January 20th (a full moon) people started burning the forest litter. It has continued almost every day (last night was one of the few without any fire) with has many as 9 separate fires burning in a single evening. The burning appears to have been approached systematically from one hill side to another. For most of February and March visibility has been appalling (much worse than central Chiang Mai, where we drive to every day).

Fires got within a meter or so of our perimeter. We called the Pug Yak and Police, both promising help but none came. I managed to film the burning one night and was amazed to see 5 individuals with dogs lined up in the forest, down wind from the fire. We heard a wild pig had been killed the following morning.

My youngest son has been sick because of the poor air quality and my wife has suffered too. Repeated calls to the Mayors hotline have resulted in nothing (“They never pick up the phone in Mae On”); My wife managed to drag the local Puu Yai and a fire officer up to our house one evening and they couldn’t understand what the problem was – as the fires were not threatening our house that particular day.

We will not be staying in Mae On next February / March. However, if anyone is interested in the perfect research station to study this practice then they would be welcome to use our house during that time (a small contribution to satellite TV / Internet and staff wages is all I would ask).

Thank you.

Richard Rhodes

We are all concerned about Climate Change and Jere Locke from our group is working on the issue at an international level and will be travelling back and forth from Chiang Mai to Texas.

He has sent the following alarming report which I urge you to read.

You may recall that we have a group to work on climate and Urban Issues and its January meeting felt we needed a briefing about new planning rules for Chiang Mai.

That briefing will be at our next general meeting to be arranged after Songkran in the week beginning Monday 21st April.

Safe & Fun Songkran Festival

Ricky Ward

Dear EGA Colleagues:

In an important new analysis published in the current issue of Nature magazine (released today), an influential group of climate-policy experts charges that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has grossly underestimated the challenges of reducing and stabilizing greenhouse-gas emissions. See this article.

According to Nature’s commentary, “[most of the emissions scenarios that the Intergovernmental Panel on Change Change (IPCC) considered for its last report include significant ‘built-in’ technological change. In other words, the IPCC assumes that a good deal of climate-friendly innovation will happen spontaneously, in the absence of climate policy
measures.”

In an analysis that has “stirred up a hornet’s nest,” energy experts Roger Pielke, Tom Wigley and Christopher Green argue that the IPCC plays “a risky game” and that the assumption of a lot of spontaneous technological change could be misinterpreted as a license for policymakers not to take aggressive action. The commentary authors warn that “assuming that pure market forces will readily come to our aid in matters of climate change might be too optimistic.”

The analysis is accompanied by initial reactions from other leaders in the field. See this article.

For a debate funders may want to engage. Just as it will be important for policy makers to be as well informed as possible, it will be critical for funders to base their grantmaking strategies on a clear view of the technological and political challenges ahead.

All my best,

Peter Teague
Director, Environment & Contemplative Practice Programs
The Nathan Cummings Foundation
475 10th Ave., 14th Floor
New York, NY 10018

To all members of International Citizens of Chiang Mai.

Tomorrow – Wednesday 2nd April @ 4:00 pm – there will be a meeting of our Vegetation & Open Space sub-committee.

The venue will be 11th Floor, 103 Condominium, Sukassem Rd , (off Nimmenhaemin Rd.) T. Suthep, A.Muang, Chiang Mai

The Agenda will include:

1. Report of Mae Orn Nursery visit
2. Report on visit to A.Fang
3. Funding offer from Don Cox
4. Funding submission
5. Other business

R.S.V.P Ricky Ward