Chiang Mai Fire Season Starts 4th January 2552 – สถานการณ์หมอกควัน 18 กุมภาพันธ์ 2552

February 18th update

Every year a large grassy tract of government land along the Irrigation Canal opposite the Golf course is torched.

This year on the day before government offices reopen after the new year break it was ablaze again.

On December 16th last the Governor of Chiang Mai issued strict instructions to set an example to the public and allow no open burning.

Who will be made to answer for this open defiance of his order?

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On December 3rd, 2008 dozens of activists with the Northern Climate Change Network gathered in Chiang Mai to learn about Climate Change. As a result of their seminar, a group of them wrote the following letter to President Elect Barack Obama, asking him to make sure the U.S. takes a leading role in global efforts to reduce carbon emissions that are the direct cause of global warming.

Specifically, they asked the President Elect to set a long-term limit of 350 parts per million of atmospheric carbon dioxide, considered essential to prevent catastrophic impacts to the global environment:

Northern Climate Change Network

c/o Urban and Environmental Studies, Social Research Institute, Chiang Mai university, Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand

December 4, 2008

Dear President-elect Barack Obama

As citizens of Chiang Mai, Thailand we are concerned that the latest research is showing that we must achieve a carbon dioxide concentration of about 350 ppm to be sure of preventing an irreversible melting of the great ice sheets. Because the concentration now in 2008 is about 385 ppm and rising faster every year it is clear that we must reduce our net emissions drastically. We propose that we should aim for 350 ppm by 2525. Without a serious and rapid response major environmental change can be expected to threaten civilizations around the world.

We are writing to you as we see the US as the only nation that can effectively lead the world on this matter. All of us are responsible for net emissions and some of us are trying hard to reduce them but we have felt a terrible lack of formal leadership for many years.

We understand that the US must put most effort into supporting green research and jobs in the US but we seek leadership on measures that will inspire and provide incentives for all nations. In particular we seek support for renewable energy technology for electricity, forest conservation, building design and those people who are most vulnerable to climate change and sea level rise, many of who are already suffering.

Yours sincerely,

[ Long list of names and signatures here ]

Questions about the seminar or this letter can be addressed to Marty Bergoffen or Dr. Duongchan Apavatjrut Charoenmuang, via this Email Address.

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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

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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.

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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

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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

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“An additional problem is that national borders get in the way, with man-made burn-offs also occurring in Burma’s Shan State and in Laos,” says your editorial, “Burning issue plagues North” on March 29.

Having recently returned from a 1,500km motorcycle trip in northern Laos, half of it off road on dirt tracks in the mountains, I can assure you the toxic soup that passes for air in Chiang Mai is an entirely Thai-made problem.

I did not see so much as a wisp of smoke in northern Laos or along the Burmese border. The air is clear and there is no haze until one is south of Chiang Rai.

As someone who lived and worked in Chiang Mai for six years before moving to Bangkok for the vastly improved air quality (oh yes), I assure you there is nothing even remotely encouraging in the health and forestry authorities’ promised campaign to urge villagers not to burn off forests, rubbish or grass. We hear the same hot air from them every year.

Villagers continue their nightly burning of leaves and plastic, as local government officials and racketeers continue to pocket the cash from refuse contracts, ensuring that the rubbish is dumped in fields and burnt instead of going into landfill sites.

Meanwhile, thousands of heavily polluting empty songtaews continue to drive around all day, and the dust from the current frenzy of construction fills the air.

The result is that Chiang Mai has the highest rates of lung disease in the country. No amount of spineless local councillors commissioning yet another report into the cause of air pollution, analysing another air sample, waffling on about traditional lifestyles, handing out masks or pointing a barely visible finger through the smog toward Laos or Burma is going to solve the problem.

The solutions are clear, easily identified and easily solved. Start by getting rid of the incompetent buffoons who have mismanaged Chiang Mai for the past decade.

I do not know how anyone can reside in Chiang Mai today. The putrid air makes it one of the most unliveable cities in Thailand. I hung on until bronchitis brought on by nightly burning of waste in our village forced my reluctant retreat.

With its rich culture, beautiful scenery and easy-going people, Chiang Mai had so much going for it.

Unfortunately, self-interest, apathy and ignorance have taken a heavy toll on the city. That’s a shame, because I miss it desperately and would love to move back, but not until I can do so without wheezing.

Author: Mick Shippen

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HM wants daily reports on situation in North

His Majesty the King has voiced concern over the haze situation in the North as the air quality in several northern provinces is poised to reach danger levels.

Amnat Decha, caretaker of the Phuping Palace in Chiang Mai, said yesterday that His Majesty had instructed that reports on the haze situation in the northernmost provinces be sent to the Royal Household Bureau every day.

If the situation does not improve, the King would order artificial rain-making to help relieve air pollution in the haze-hit provinces, said Mr Amnat.

In a bid to fight the haze, the Public Health Ministry is to send 200,000 face masks to the areas to protect people from air pollution caused by dust particles smaller than 10 microns in diameter, also known as PM10, that come with the haze, said Public Health Minister Chaiya Sasomsab.

Pollution Control Department chief Supat Wangwongwatana said heavy dust in northern provinces is closely related to “hot spots” found in the country and also in neighbouring countries, referring to areas at risk of forest fires.

“We have found that the number of hot spots in Indochina was getting high on March 22 with 952, and gradually dropped to 575 and only 271 on March 24. Moreover, we have made strong and effective efforts to clear and control hot spots, which helps improve the situation,” he said.

However, higher humidity in the air should minimise the dust’s impact.

Spokesman for the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry Pichet Wangtepanukhor said the ministry has been working closely with the Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry to deal with the problem, especially fire prevention in paddy fields. However, rain was arriving in many areas and this has helped to reduce the dust problem.

Among the haze-affected provinces, Mae Hong Son has been hardest hit due to wildfires.

The level of dust in the province was yesterday measured at 134 microgrammes per cubic metre, higher than the safe level of 120 microgrammes per cu m, according to the Pollution Control Department.

At the same time, the province’s air quality level was measured at 106 on the Air Quality Index, which is higher than the safety level of 100.

Outside Mae Hong Son town, wildfires could be seen raging upon high mountains at night, especially in Ban Nam Kad and Ban Huai Phung.

Mae Hong Son deputy governor Wanchai Sutthiworachai said forest fires had broken out frequently this summer.

The latest was on Monday night, when a fire broke out in a public park in Muang district and more than 60 provincial authorities in the province spent over two hours putting out the fire.

Triroj Nawamarat, manager of Thai Airways International office in Mae Hong Son, said THAI had had to cancel a flight scheduled to land at Mae Hong Son airport at 11am yesterday due to poor visibility at the airport, which was measured at 1,200 metres, far below the safe visibility level for commercial aircraft of between 3,000 and 3,500 metres.

The chief of the meteorological office in Mae Hong Son, Thada Sattha, said haze in the northern province was mostly caused by forest burning in Pai, Pang Ma Pha and Muang districts.

However, in Chiang Mai, deputy governor Wiboon Sanguanphong insisted the air conditions in the province were still far from hazardous and that the haze has not yet driven tourists away.

He believed rain would help ease the dust level in Chiang Mai’s air within 14 days.

The deputy governor added that wildfires in Chiang Mai recently broke out in Hot, Mae Chaem and Omkoi districts where corn farmers usually burnt their fields after the harvest season.

Nevertheless, adviser to the Association of Chiang Mai Tourism and Hotel Businesses Bunlert Buranupakorn said advance bookings for hotels in Chiang Mai this and next month have dropped by 20%.

He believed this was due to tourists’ concern over their health and environmental conditions in Chiang Mai.

Written by: Cheewin Sattha, Theerawat Khamthita & Apinya Wipatayotin

Read the full story

on the Pollution Control Website from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment

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International Citizens of Chiang Mai (ICCM)
Minutes of Meeting held at the Doi Suthep Study Centre, Huey Keow Rd., 12th March 2008
Meeting commenced 4.20 pm Adrian in the Chair.

Apologies: Dave Arthur, Tommy, Boong, Nikom

Present: Wasan,John Hobday, Alexander, Marty, Klaus, Bill Tuffin (Track of the Tiger), John Richard (retired USA), Paul Fihn (Los Angeles), Winnie Tan (USA), Alan Bull (UK), Barn (Chiang Mai Friends Group),Op, Ric Richardson, Kook, Nopbuan (Social Science Fac CMU).

Minutes of February meeting where Jere Locke spoke not presented.

Agenda:

• 1. Working Groups
• Report
• 2. Structure of ICCM
• 1.1 – Education
  Group has had only one meeting. The chairman and John Hobday who chaired the Education Group discussed the issue of cooperation with local NGO’s, John reporting that this seemed too difficult at present. The discussion broadened to that of the role of ICCM raising possibilities that the focus be networking, advocacy or otherwise. No motion was put.
• 1.2 – Smoke & Fire
  An interest group (Adrian, Klaus, John H & Wasan) has formed concentrating on management of the eastern face of Doi Suthep adjacent to Ban Chang Kien. It plans, with the Assistance of 2 CMU students, to study 6 watersheds and the use made of the area by forest product collectors, water users and businesses. A stake-holders meeting is proposed in 2 months time.
  Alexander announced he was advanced in developing a village (72 households) waste management and rubbish burning proposal I n Mae Rim.
  The meeting resolved that the Smoke & Fire group meet on Friday 15th March.
• 1.3 – Urban & Climate change
  Has met only once in January resolving to meet again once a briefing on planning for Chiang Mai could be arranged. Chiang Mai municipality (Tessaban Nakorn Ping Chiang Mai) covers 46 sq.km. but urban development extends beyond this area. Dr Wasan advocated we concentrate our work in one “model” Tessaban and discussions with Tessaban Chiang Kian were well advanced. A Land Use Plan has been prepared by the Ministry of Interior not the Tessaban.
  The meeting resolved to invite the Planning Director and an academic to address the next general meeting. Dr Wasan offered to arrange this.
• 1.4 The Vegetation Group
  Planned to meet at Samoeng at the invitation of the local Wat but monks there were ordered to other activities and a small meeting was held in Chiang Mai.
• 2. The time for the meeting having expired the question of the structure of ICCM was deferred. Adrian offered to write a proposal (see below). Meeting adjourned to 16th/21st April.

Ideas for Our Group – by Adrian Peiper

1. Maintaining a web site presenting the mission, the activities of the group and the way to register as a member.
2. Distributing an electronic newsletter to the members every three months, in which they can report their activities related to the environment of Chiangmai.

The “executive committee”

There will be the following functions:

1. A coordinator and an assistant coordinator. It is their task to coordinate between the group and invited speakers or guests, the local administration, universities, NGOs and civic groups. They should be Thais or bilingual foreigners with long experience in Chiangmai. At the moment this function is being taken care of by Dr Wasan. There should be somebody to take care of his function when he is not present or does not have enough time.
2. A secretariat consisting of three persons.
• One person takes care of the management of internal communications by email, mainly announcing the date, place and agenda of the general meeting and the meetings of the subgroups.
• One person takes care of making and maintaining the web site.
• One person collects information for the quarterly newsletter, makes the newsletter and sends it around to the members by email.
• These three persons help or replace each other when necessary.
3. Three persons who, in turn, act as chair of the general meeting.
4. A “press officer” for the Thai press and one for the English language press. It is their task to write articles about information, opinions and decisions coming out of the general meetings and about activities reported in the Newsletter and to send them to the press. They also invite journalists to attend the general meetings and press conferences organised by the group.
5. A treasurer. He would be necessary if we need funds to pay for activities of the group.

Funding

Funds may be needed to facilitate activities of the group, such as for room rent, stationary, travel or press conferences. These funds will be raised from the members.

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