A Northern Holocaust?

[Lacessit]

Exhibit 1. The PM 2.5 reading on my meter on the balcony of my condo in Chiang Rai this morning. The official reading is 206, I prefer to believe my meter.

 

Exhibit 2. The PM 2.5 reading in my closed room with two air purifiers running.

 

Exhibit 3. The PM 2.5 reading when the meter is sitting on top of the air purifier.

 

 

There are approximately 3 million Thais living in the Chiang Mai/Chiang Rai provinces. It’s probably fair to say 99% of them don’t have the luxury of air purifiers. I don’t know what the outside reading translates to in terms of packs of cigarettes each day, 2 – 3 maybe. Most of the surgical masks worn by Thais are not PM 2.5 standard.

 

Now consider what will happen when the lungs of these people, impaired by decades of burning, collide with a coronavirus whose most salient attribute in more critical cases is difficulty in breathing. Potentially a health disaster in the making, genocide by indifference and ignorance.

 

I am betting health professionals here are well aware of the issues, and are preparing for a holocaust.

 

Solutions? I have plenty, involving a truckload of tough love.

 

Curfew from 6 pm to 6 am.

 

Shoot any arsonist caught in the act, as if they were a looter. They are looting the lungs of their fellow Thais.

 

Confiscate and destroy any mushrooms which do not have documented provenance.

 

Nationalise without compensation any land on which rice and sugar trash is burned. Sell to rural Thais on favorable terms. Proceeds go to funding health services.

 

This is not a problem which will be fixed by an occasional show visit from Bangkok. Or are Thais up here expendable?

[CharlieK]

4 minutes ago, Lacessit said:

Nationalise without compensation any land on which rice and sugar trash is burned. Sell to rural Thais on favorable terms. Proceeds go to funding health services.

And you think rural Thais won't set fires prior to the new growing season! 555

[damascase]

I consulted https://aqicn.org/city/thailand/chiangrai---gaia-station-03/ around 8am this morning, in CR, and I saw readings up to 380.
For a couple of nights now, sitting outside around 9pm, I smell the smoke coming in and I can see the light of fires north of the Mae Kok. This is absolutely the last year that I’ll spend these months in the North.

[jak2002003]

2 minutes ago, damascase said:

I consulted https://aqicn.org/city/thailand/chiangrai---gaia-station-03/ around 8am this morning, in CR, and I saw readings up to 380.
For a couple of nights now, sitting outside around 9pm, I smell the smoke coming in and I can see the light of fires north of the Mae Kok. This is absolutely the last year that I’ll spend these months in the North.

Same for me.  I LOVE Chiang Mai so much, the weather most of the year is perfect for me, and the scenery, culture, food and people are fantastic.

 

I will be very sad to leave this place, but as soon as things with this virus get back to any level of 'normal' we will be selling up and moving (after 14 years living here full time).

[1FinickyOne]

15 minutes ago, jak2002003 said:

we will be selling up and moving

have any gardening equipment? 

[OneMoreFarang]

Holocaust

Is that really the appropriate word here?

[baansgr]

4 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Holocaust

Is that really the appropriate word here?

How about Armageddon...

[donnacha]

The 42 you are getting indoors is pretty dangerous. Consider getting an additional purifier if you are spending much time there.

 

[soalbundy]

where's my cigarettes ?

[Nyezhov]

@Lacessitwant me to start checking the courses in Cambodia?. They have some kiddie ones that would be pefect for those massive 50 meter drives you manage off the tee.

[Blue Muton]

29 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Holocaust

Is that really the appropriate word here?

"destruction or slaughter on a mass scale, especially caused by fire or nuclear war."

 

I'd say theat's what he means, a holocaust, as opposed to the holocaust.

[spiekerjozef]

The immune system is working 24 hours a day because of the bad PM 2.5 readings. It will only make you stronger.

Sitting inside with clean air purifiers makes your immune system weak.

[Lacessit]

1 hour ago, Nyezhov said:

@Lacessitwant me to start checking the courses in Cambodia?. They have some kiddie ones that would be pefect for those massive 50 meter drives you manage off the tee.

Stand 50 meters from the tee. Give me 5 shots. You'll be ducking for cover like an American in Iraq after the first, if it has not collected you.

However, thank you for thinking of me. I do need a golf fix.

[Lacessit]

59 minutes ago, spiekerjozef said:

The immune system is working 24 hours a day because of the bad PM 2.5 readings. It will only make you stronger.

Sitting inside with clean air purifiers makes your immune system weak.

You do win my prize for nutty logic. I suppose you have supplements of strychnine and cyanide you ingest daily, for the same effect.

[Nyezhov]

Just now, Lacessit said:

You do win my prize for nutty logic. I suppose you have supplements of strychnine and cyanide you ingest daily, for the same effect.

Arsenic was big in the olden days. Ask Florence Maybrick.

[Lacessit]

8 minutes ago, Nyezhov said:

Arsenic was big in the olden days. Ask Florence Maybrick.

In the Basque region of Spain, some villages ingest it to acquire shiny skins. Same effect with silver, a condition called argyria. Right up your alley, you can admire yourself in congress with a Basque maiden. Dammit, stop luring me off topic.

Edited April 5, 2020 by Lacessit

[Nyezhov]

7 minutes ago, Lacessit said:

Same effect with silver, a condition called argyria.

 

I would look great! Like the Tinman!

[ezzra]

1 hour ago, Blue Muton said:

"destruction or slaughter on a mass scale, especially caused by fire or nuclear war."

 

I'd say theat's what he means, a holocaust, as opposed to the holocaust.

None of the above really, and why go to a dictionary to look up the meaning of the word 'holocaust' as the usage of this term immediately and automatically conjures up the atrocities perpetrated by Nazi Germany on millions of people, a calamity, a disaster and catastrophe would have been more suited terms to use, here...

[Logosone]

Curfew from 6 pm to 6 am.

 

That's the tourist industry killed off then.

 

So you basically want Thais to starve to death?

 

I

[Lacessit]

2 hours ago, Logosone said:

Curfew from 6 pm to 6 am.

 

That's the tourist industry killed off then.

 

So you basically want Thais to starve to death?

 

I

Last time I looked, the tourist industry is already killed off.

 

Thais won't starve to death. Barter in the villages for food and services has been going on for centuries.

 

I'd just like them to realise the money they might make out of mushrooms is swallowed up by their reduced life spans, and healthcare, which could well be swamped by what is coming.

 

Keep the non sequiturs flowing, you are entertaining in a schadenfreude kind of way.

[Blue Muton]

3 hours ago, ezzra said:

None of the above really, and why go to a dictionary to look up the meaning of the word 'holocaust' as the usage of this term immediately and automatically conjures up the atrocities perpetrated by Nazi Germany on millions of people, a calamity, a disaster and catastrophe would have been more suited terms to use, here...

Well I can differentiate between a holocuast and The Holocaust, I know full well what The Holocaust was, thank you and I've never been one to deny or belittle it, one of the greatest attrocities in the history of mankind.

[villagefarang]

Nothing short of a massive wind and rain storm is going to have an impact this year but I am encouraged by a groundswell of Thai comment and activism online recently.  It is after all their problem to solve not ours.  It is going to take some time for a new generation of Thais to come to power but I believe they are waiting in the wings for their opportunity. ????

[Logosone]

44 minutes ago, Lacessit said:

Last time I looked, the tourist industry is already killed off.

 

Thais won't starve to death. Barter in the villages for food and services has been going on for centuries.

 

I'd just like them to realise the money they might make out of mushrooms is swallowed up by their reduced life spans, and healthcare, which could well be swamped by what is coming.

 

 

Clearly the tourist industry will come back, but not if there are mandatory curfews from 6pm to 6am.

 

Isn't it the farmers, sugar cane and such, rather than mushroom hunters, that are causing the fires?

[BangkokReady]

22 hours ago, CharlieK said:

And you think rural Thais won't set fires prior to the new growing season! 555

Didn't you know?  Once you go below a certain socioeconomic class you become innocent and virtuous, living at one with nature and never doing anything wrong.  As you go up the classes, however, you become evil and exploitative, turning into a faceless corporation and it doesn't matter if you lose your income or your children starve.

 

"Real communism has never been tried!"

[cerox]

After 2019 smoky season, which I watched from remote, I said I will give it another year to see if it is always like that (new pattern) or if it was an exception.

I am now not in CNX but I was there in December/January, which caught me totally by surprise that they now burn 6 months per year instead of the already long 3-4 months before.

 

There is nothing you can do apart from leaving/moving which I will do too after that virus thing when I am able to return to Thailand.

 

Do not waste your time:

- measuring AQI (it is bad anyway so just use your purifier)

- listening to people who tell you it is no problem

- listening to people who complain about it all day and tell you what Thais should or should not do - will not change anything

 

Something in Northern Thailand obviously has changed. So much more to burn. I do not know what it is - e.g. more forest burning, mushrooms, corn fields, or corporate burning. Whatever it is - it does not matter because it has changed and is here to stay.

 

The days of "I live in Chiang Mai for 9 months of the year" are over. It is a constant thing now.

[Logosone]

12 minutes ago, cerox said:

After 2019 smoky season, which I watched from remote, I said I will give it another year to see if it is always like that (new pattern) or if it was an exception.

I am now not in CNX but I was there in December/January, which caught me totally by surprise that they now burn 6 months per year instead of the already long 3-4 months before.

 

There is nothing you can do apart from leaving/moving which I will do too after that virus thing when I am able to return to Thailand.

 

Do not waste your time:

- measuring AQI (it is bad anyway so just use your purifier)

- listening to people who tell you it is no problem

- listening to people who complain about it all day and tell you what Thais should or should not do - will not change anything

 

Something in Northern Thailand obviously has changed. So much more to burn. I do not know what it is - e.g. more forest burning, mushrooms, corn fields, or corporate burning. Whatever it is - it does not matter because it has changed and is here to stay.

 

The days of "I live in Chiang Mai for 9 months of the year" are over. It is a constant thing now.

No, that's absolutely not true. I was here in November and December and it was nowhere near as bad as it is today.

Not even close.

 

You could easily do the 9 months thing.

 

Personally the poor air quality has me considering my options due to the quality of life factor.

 

 

[Lacessit]

1 hour ago, Logosone said:

Clearly the tourist industry will come back, but not if there are mandatory curfews from 6pm to 6am.

 

Isn't it the farmers, sugar cane and such, rather than mushroom hunters, that are causing the fires?

If you live anywhere near Lamphun or Lampang, you wouldn't say that. True, sugar cane, corn and the rice fields contribute. That's mostly very dry stuff. It's the moister ground cover in forests that produces more of the nasty particles.

I don't recall suggesting the 6pm to 6 am curfew would last indefinitely, just long enough to fix the problem.

[motdaeng]

49 minutes ago, Logosone said:

No, that's absolutely not true. I was here in November and December and it was nowhere near as bad as it is today.

Not even close.

 

You could easily do the 9 months thing.

 

Personally the poor air quality has me considering my options due to the quality of life factor.

 

 

... but hardly any "green day" ...

... but already a lot of unhealthy days ...

 

(in 3 months time only 9 "green days", probably rainy days!!!)

[Lacessit]

7 hours ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Holocaust

Is that really the appropriate word here?

If I had used a title such as the Northern Holodomor, nobody would have known what I was talking about. Although that man-made disaster was arguably worse on sheer numbers.

I've been to the Holocaust Museum at the Elephant and Castle in London, no disrespect was intended. However, I don't think it's a word reserved for single use.

 

[sammieuk1]

The powers that be are to busy right now polishing their watch collections and submarines but sure one will pop up soon and order it gone????