Environment and natural resources
Pollution and waste
Smog crisis in North blamed on authorities’ top-down approach
Academics put down the authorities’ failure to control this year’s smog crisis in the North to an inappropriate “command-and-control approach”, adding that this problem will persist if the strategy is not revised.Keep reading ...
Pratch Rujivanarom
A clear path to cleaner air?
Upgrading European emission standards is high on the agenda for policymakers amid hazardous dust pollution and PM2.5 particles in the northern, northeastern and central regions. Thailand adopted the standards in 1996 to tackle pollution, aiming to implement them a year later. At that time, Thailand ...
Piyachart Maikaew & Yuthana Praiwan
Thai government desperately needs a ‘clean air act’
Environment campaigners are urging the government to approve a clean-air act to solve the country’s chronic smog problem and honour citizens’ right to breathe clean air.Dr Wirun Limsawart, a policy analyst at the Society and Health Institute and member of the Clean Air Network Thailand, ...
Pratch Rujivanarom
How green buildings improve air quality
Bangkokians’ awareness of the importance of clean air has increased substantially in recent months, as the country has suffered from unprecedented levels of air pollution. Elevated levels of microscopic particulate matter (PM2.5) can cause significant health issues, and the city is now focused on long-term ...
Rise in temperatures linked to air pollution, say experts
Climate change and air pollution are interrelated, say environmental experts as they call for the authorities to take simultaneous and urgent action to tackle these problems and avoid serious consequences.Keep reading ...
Pratch Rujivanarom
Zero Burn campaign minimizes farming emission
The Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives has joined forces with the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives and private companies to launch a Zero Burn campaign discouraging burning of waste at farms to reduce emissions of smoke and dust from the agricultural sector.Keep reading ...
Tanakorn Sangiam
Thailand to ban three kinds of plastic by end of this year
By the end of 2019 Thailand will be free from three types of plastic – microbeads, cap seals and oxo-degradable plastics.Then by 2022 four other types of single-use plastics will also be banned – lightweight plastic bags less than 36 microns thick; styrofoam food containers ...
REPORT: Chiang Mai tries ‘clean rooms’ to protect vulnerable from toxic air
Since the air in entire villages or towns cannot be purified in the face of the raging smog crisis in the North, safety zones have been proposed as a way of protecting the most vulnerable people. The idea incorporates “Clean Rooms” where pollutants are filtered ...
Chularat Saengpassa
Tighter control on transnational food industry required to solve haze problem: expert
A stronger political will is required to take action against monoculture corn cultivation both inside Thailand and in neighbouring countries, or the transboundary haze problem will never be solved, environmental experts said, as Chiang Rai’s Mae Sai district continues to choke under hazardous smog.Keep reading ...
Pratch Rujivanarom
Clues emerge in the mystery of the ‘missing’ ocean plastics
It’s a puzzle that has perplexed scientists for years: humanity dumps millions of tonnes of plastics into the world’s oceans annually, yet almost all of it is swallowed up, with only a tiny fraction remaining visible on the surface.Now an international team of researchers believe ...