Disaster warning

The natural disasters which have occurred in Thailand are a warning to us all. The more we destroy nature, the more we will be punished by nature.

The Thai people are still destroying forests. Plastic bags are still widely used. Everyone still uses their own private car, causing traffic jams every day. Likewise, fuel continues to be burned for energy, and so on.

It is time for the Thai people to be aware of these serious natural disasters and respect Earth. Or soon the day will come when the world will have nothing left for us.

PEMISA KERDLARP

Chiangmai University

(Postbag)

As long as there is no awareness of any kind of sustainabilty, as long as fossile ressources seems endless, there wont be much of a change. I always wonder why energy and water supply is still relaitively cheap here.

In Europe every child is taught to turn off the light after leaving the room to reduce the monthly costs of energy. Everybody tries to avoid to ride a car to save fuel.

Environmental protection and sustainable development are mainly a financial matter. You cn only teach people and change their behaviour when it costs money. Pity, but a fact.

I love these old thai houses, but concrete is way cheaper than a teak house of similar size. Termites dont eat concrete, but conrete doesnt breathe. Ever wondered why there is mould in many bathroom corners even in quite new hotels ?

Appeals cost nothing at all. Therefore they wont change behaviour. Change of attitudes are only achieved when it costs our money.

If Pemisa doesn't like the way things are done around here, she should just go home!!

...oh, wait a minute.

LOL@Rob

Socially visible products here (including some Asian countries) are overrated.. i doubt if rich people will take a bus to work, or unplug electrical devices when they are not in the room! As long as they think they can always "afford to pay", nothing would change this behavior. I'm sure we all are "aware" of this but have no effort to start.

By the way, got electricity bill today and it was down to 2xxx sth (it was 4xxx THB before) because I set my AC to turn off at 5.30am instead of 9.30am.. wow !

it's only at a certain moment most likely when billions are wiped out in a short period of time that we will react with any kind of enthusiasm as a unit.

Pretty good comments. I think there's a power struggle between EGAT-PTT and RE &EE section in Gov. EGAT doesn't want to much energy efficiency or Solar PV, they like those "nice" kick-backs on 4 Billion dollar coal & gas power plants. The Thai Gov. walks softly, making small baby steps (promotion) so not to make EGAT-PTT upset... regarding clean energy.

Seem s to me, thinking Green and Buddhist beliefs sync together, so maybe one day (soon) things will change.

when **** hits the fan you get a new fan....

Very good journal!

One of the problems in Thailand is that all the basic items are subsidized. I am simply amazed at how low my electricity and water bills are here in Thailand. This month I think my water came to 144 baht. That's like $5 USD. I don't even think that I've ever had a water bill for $5 in my entire life. I drink more than $5 worth of bottled water back home every month.

Same with electricity. My bill this month was just under 1000 baht. That's like $33 USD. And I run the air con all night. I run a fan all day. I have two computers that are constantly on. Blah, blah, blah. I think the base rate if you didn't use a single watt of electricity is something like $25 or $30 (that's just to have you hooked up on the grid every month). When I was living in Gibraltar, I don't think I ever saw an electricity bill for under 100 GBP (4,700 baht) and I didn't even have air con.

Oh, and I was told by my landlord that if the bill is less than 100 baht the government just pays it for you which is why landlords never even bother paying the electricity bill when an apartment is vacant.

By keeping the prices artificially low the people don't notice that the income gap in Thailand is growing. As long as people can put food on the table, have fresh water, and basic electricity for roughly what they were paying last year they don't tend to notice that their income did not keep up with inflation.

But this also means that people have no incentive to cut consumption. Even if you're poor the difference between 100 and 144 baht isn't enough to make you take any sort of serious water conservation efforts. Same with electricity. While Dr. Sassy was about to save 2xxx baht per month by cutting her air con off earlier (and just how damned big is that air con??? You saved more than twice my entire electricity bill and I run the air con all night LOL) the price differential for remembering to turn off the lights or to unplug things isn't going to be big enough to motivate anybody to go to the extra effort.