2015 is set to be yet another historic year in the battle to save our Earth from destruction by the Sun as the nations meet at Paris for the United Nations Climate Change Conference. Where Copenhagen failed is there hope Paris will succeed? Well as the panorama below shows Chiang Mai is doing nothing one can see to help move away from fossil fuels with high energy consuming concrete apartments cheek by jowl and NOT ONE SOLAR PANEL in view. (click on the pic and then again to magnify )
Here in Chiang Mai there is a condo building boom just like Pattaya but while all the flat roofs could be covered with solar panels but there are none. Why is this so? The answer is like that to the question of why so much farmland goes unproductive and farmers feel forced to clear forest to make a living or go overseas to work. Yes, the ultra rich have cornered the market for solar panels and have laws in place to exclude others. This was the information supplied to a recent forum* in Chiang Mai about damming the Mekong to supply electricity for the Thai EGAT grid by former senator and environment campaigner Kraisak Choonhavan. He told us that for a building ( other than a small house I suspect ) to install solar panels it must first be registered as a factory, a process which takes many months. Little wonder hotels and condos do not bother, but also it is clear that factories do not as well. So write to Mr Prayuth, I suggest ,and insist he open the field up and remove import duties while he is about it.
*
Film by Tom Fawthrop Screening and Discussion on Don Sahong Dam in the Lao PDR
THE GREAT GAMBLE ON THE MEKONG- ARE WE KILLING THE MEKONG DAM BY DAM? 30th January 2015
If you are interested in obtaining a copy of this documentary, please write to gumhakdoisuthep@yahoo.com
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