Widespread sugarcane burning continues uninterrupted by local authorities

[Borzandy]

13 hours ago, Mitkof Island said:

Hoping these farmers are the first to drop dead from the smoke. They don,t seem to care who they are making ill.

Don't forget these farmers don't have any education.

[crutchy26]

1 hour ago, Wiggy said:

Then ask your god to get rid of all us whiners. If your prayers work, we’ll all leave you alone and you can continue living your smoke-filled, happy, (but shorter) life. 

A little smoke. Bangkok is gagging again, Kohn Kaen has a smoke & smog haze. Not too much sugar in locale, but stubble burning and waste burning is resulting in above considered safe levels. Only a little smoke...………….ye jest!

[The Deerhunter]

Gosh.  That is nearly as much carbon back into the air as my local  Amphur does by burning the road verges and centre highway drain every year at this time.   At least there will probably be less power and telephone lines directly overhead in sugar fields, luckily by the height of those flames.  My wife went was admitted to hospital with an asthma attack from rice paddy burning about 8-9 years ago in our area of Chonburi North.   

[Bundooman]

13 hours ago, VocalNeal said:

You think this is small farmers. How many gallons of E10,E20,E85 do use in a month?

You're blaming us here on TV for this Asian ecological disaster?

Wow!

How many pfharts does the poster puff out monthly - producing mathane gas?

 

[Thian]

5 minutes ago, newnative said:

Pathetic government--starting at the top.  Just useless lip service pretending to do something.  Didn't the supreme leader INSTRUCT that this problem be solved sometime ago?  Guess the instruction got lost in the smoke haze.

Yes last year he ordered that it had to be gone within 5 days or so iirc.....well nothing new there, he can do nothing at all.

[DPKANKAN]

14 hours ago, CharlieH said:

I suggest its more driven by finances, if they can get more money for one than the other they dont focus on the future they focus on eating this week !

You mean the local officials focuses on the 'finances'!!! 5555

[hotchilli]

2 options...

#1 petition the PM to pen an open letter CC every governor of every province:

"if burning is proven to be taking place in your province you will be removed from office immediately"

#2 start to burn the offending farmers homes! 

 

[rocketdave]

The whole system in Thailand is based on money being handed out to get round rules. Out drinking with a Thai colleague he said "you know what Dave Thailand has the best police force money can buy." The punch line is he's a senior police officer himself!

[metisdead]

Please use discretion in your references to the government. Phrases which can be considered as anti-coup will be removed. Referring to Thailand or the government as a dictatorship, military dictatorship or other such terms will be removed.

[kwak250]

13 hours ago, VocalNeal said:

You think this is small farmers. How many gallons of E10,E20,E85 do use in a month?

None i drive a pick-up

[tonray]

Here in Bang Yai, Nonthaburi..just a few kilometers from Central Westgate Mall....right across the street from my new housing estate....they burn off the rice stubble after each crop...not only do the authorities do nothing about it....but the folks in the sales office shrug it off by telling you it's Thai everyday life. They accept everything without question.....that's why the air is <deleted>. The complex pool is right across from the rice fields so when burning day is here....forget swimming unless you want to take in some charcoal.

[cardinalblue]

Rumak,

 

it sounds Like you had A very unhappy And hateful life from where you came from to compromise a basic right...

 

a little smoke? Number of thailand cities rank among top 10 air polluters year in year out now....

 

I don’t accept incompetency on an incredible important topic - actually a a human rights violation 

 

it’s one thing to have unintentional burning fires like in Australia or California who take it seriously; it’s another when it is intentional as it becomes willful negligence by the gov and guilty burners... 

[spiekerjozef]

Love the smell of fire in the air

[kwak250]

10 hours ago, rumak said:

my great 12 year old Honda dream down to the local shop, new inner tube and headlight bulb.  Installed while we joke about something inane instead of the cost of condos or cappuchinos.  Fifteen minutes, job done, 200 baht.  I almost felt guilty, they charged me so little. 

Inner tube 80 baht bulb maybe 20 baht so i know what he was joking about .

Did he mention kwai in his joking?

[edwinchester]

14 hours ago, CharlieH said:

I suggest its more driven by finances, if they can get more money for one than the other they dont focus on the future they focus on eating this week !

Close friend of my wife does not burn her sugarcane plantation. Why? Because she makes more money than if she burns it.

The problem is one of labour. They all want to cut the cane as quickly as possible to make the most money and it is quicker to cut burnt cane.

This year my wifes friend used a combine for the first time to cut the cane. She made even more money compared to burning.

The problem of burning is simple to solve...just make it illegal for the factories to buy in burnt cane.

If the labourers still wanted a job they would have to cut the unburnt cane anyway.

 

[Jimbo2014]

Welcome to lovely LOS (Land of Smog).  Have a nice holiday. 

[Filipplenoir]

Authorities certainly don't want a farmer's revolution.  Or no helmet people revolution, etc. 

[Penicillin]

12 hours ago, rkidlad said:

Yeap, start living more now because the pollution will shorten your life.

 

When you’re dead, you don’t know you’re dead. It’s only painful and difficult for others. The same applies when you are stupid, Rumak. 

Thanks for that valuable insight on death. I’ll make a note of it......just in case.

[jingjai9]

Seems like the burning and black snow have gone on for a long, long, time. It is very difficult to ask people to change after many years of the same practice... no plastic, conserve water, follow strict traffic rules that didn't seem to matter so much a few years ago. The only think certain is change and it is all about the will to change. 

 

Change and the will to change is an issue in all countries.

[ThailandRyan]

15 hours ago, VocalNeal said:

Someone lost their life burning sugar cane?

Do you not pay attention to the consequences to ones health from breathing all of this acrid smoke and pollution in, or are you just trying to wind-up folks.  Your just being silly with this comment Neal.

[mickey rat]

38 minutes ago, Filipplenoir said:

Authorities certainly don't want a farmer's revolution.  Or no helmet people revolution, etc. 

No to mention no mounting babies on front of motorcycles revolution! In all fairness however these people are dirt poor, uneducated and powerless by design and it's only gotting worse over the last 20 years. Most people make less than half of what I spend on breakfast in a day. This is a paradise for who? Most certainly not the locals.

[toofarnorth]

11 hours ago, ChakaKhan said:

Saw quite a bit of burning and could smell it inside bus coming back from mae sai today.....cough.

Yep I live about 30k south of Maesai and each day now the mountains are starting to disappear into the twilight zone.

The Sleeping Lady has gone for a while , can't see past the rice fields.

[allenberg]

1 hour ago, Dice Man said:

Is he serious or deluded??

BOTH!!!

[Denim]

16 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

powerless or reluctant

 

Missed out ..........  lazy and disinterested

[toofarnorth]

1 hour ago, Jimbo2014 said:

Welcome to lovely LOS (Land of Smog).  Have a nice holiday. 

Nah!  More like LiS  ( Lost in Space ).

[thaibook]

12 hours ago, URMySunshine said:

You  are trolling , right. But you are also right , nothing will change and now this is the new normal. The air will turn to shiite for 3/4 months of the year in many provinces. And that is just the way it is.Like it or lump it. Get  mask get an air purifier and hope you don't get sick. Or leave if you can. Well I was coming for 3 months and now once we have finished business I'm off to the clean air of Europe and Thailand can take care of itself. Maybe in the old days it was just as bad but we didn't have AQI index and the internet bubble to magnify everything. And maybe all the oldies were so old and their lungs weren't so broken as to matter. Who knows.....

Has anybody on TV heard of irony?

[404error]

The authorities are so smart on so many levels in this country.

[GeorgeCross]

16 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

Owners of sugarcane plantations have always claimed that they cannot afford the costs of hiring workers to cut the plants and have to resort to burning, which will make the cutting of the canes much easier and save cost

 

*translation - business not profitable so turned to crime

[johnarth]

when the law to stop burning cane came into effect in queensland that was the end of it, the cane factories had everything ready to go, one or two farmers tried to be smart and started fires said someone else started them, after they lost a lot of money that was the end of burning

 

[CGW]

1 hour ago, cardinalblue said:

I don’t accept incompetency on an incredible important topic - actually a a human rights violation 

It's certainly escalated to be a "human rights violation" agree there!

What was/is the root cause of the problem?

Trying to grow crops on land that will sustain few crops due to the climate & absence of water?

Personally I put the blame on the "government", the volume of sugar cane that is grown in the country has increased significantly in recent years due to the "government" subsidising the change over from rice to sugar cane to keep the farmers happy. When the farmers started to grow what to them was a new crop, they were never told that they would not be able to burn it! up to a few years ago the burning of sugar cane wasnt as big an issue as it is now as there was so little (instead they were burning the rice fields!) of it being grown.

Lack of forethought by the "government" if it had been planned correctly with no burning being the end result they should have made sure that it was possible to harvest the crop without burning and should have made this a condition of planting.

They have made the problem and as usual they have no solution?