When the Air You Can't Breath Changes Your Politics

[Thailandnotes]

Thailand most popular tourist islands, Phuket and Samui are experiencing pollution so bad flights cannot land. Imagine booking a tropical beach vacation and checking into a bungalow only to find you cannot see the waves and will have to stay in your room the whole week to breath. When the ppm index hits 150 in Chiang Mai the mountains disappear. A little above that…you cannot see the traffic lights up ahead. After a month of this, tens of thousands of people flood the hospitals with acute respiratory problems, about half coughing up blood.

Palm oil is the cheapest, most ubiquitous ingredient in processed foods. Palm trees don’t last very long and when a grove is done, the cheapest way to start over is to set fire to the whole landscape. The pollution in Indonesia has reach 2000 parts per million which can kill people with stressed lungs very quickly. In Singapore it is 200 – 250 which means schools are closed and outdoor work is suspended.

Almost all of this pollution is coming from “Borneo,” part of Indonesia that has long been exploited by owners of a handful of plantations. Basically it’s the same as Central American where nine or ten families control close to 100 % percent of the land. Roads, transportation, food, stores, gas, everything is owned or controlled by a few cartels. It you dare to walk outside a tourist area, there’s a good chance a four-year old girl will pop out while you are walking down the street and with both middle fingers extended hiss, “Fuck You!”

http://news.asiaone.com/news/asia/ha...phuket-tourism

[charliebrown]

Re: When the Air You Can't Breath Changes Your Politics

Normally I have a prejudice against the nanny state, but when I went to Lima a decade ago, my eyes hurt, and I coughed due to
the pollutants in the air from unregulated automobiles. I'g glad we have some regulations here.

[radon]

Re: When the Air You Can't Breath Changes Your Politics

Normally I have a prejudice against the nanny state, but when I went to Lima a decade ago, my eyes hurt, and I coughed due to
the pollutants in the air from unregulated automobiles. I'g glad we have some regulations here.

My problem with auto emissions is they end up getting applied universally resulting in additional weight, expense, and failure points for everyone. It's great if it solves the problem in your town but making the rest of us pay for it isn't justifiable. So many great engines today are hobbled, and when I try to figure out why the answer ends up being because California. I wish automakers would make state specific models.

[radon]

Re: When the Air You Can't Breath Changes Your Politics

Thailand most popular tourist islands, Phuket and Samui are experiencing pollution so bad flights cannot land. Imagine booking a tropical beach vacation and checking into a bungalow only to find you cannot see the waves and will have to stay in your room the whole week to breath. When the ppm index hits 150 in Chiang Mai the mountains disappear. A little above that…you cannot see the traffic lights up ahead. After a month of this, tens of thousands of people flood the hospitals with acute respiratory problems, about half coughing up blood.

Palm oil is the cheapest, most ubiquitous ingredient in processed foods. Palm trees don’t last very long and when a grove is done, the cheapest way to start over is to set fire to the whole landscape. The pollution in Indonesia has reach 2000 parts per million which can kill people with stressed lungs very quickly. In Singapore it is 200 – 250 which means schools are closed and outdoor work is suspended.

Almost all of this pollution is coming from “Borneo,” part of Indonesia that has long been exploited by owners of a handful of plantations. Basically it’s the same as Central American where nine or ten families control close to 100 % percent of the land. Roads, transportation, food, stores, gas, everything is owned or controlled by a few cartels. It you dare to walk outside a tourist area, there’s a good chance a four-year old girl will pop out while you are walking down the street and with both middle fingers extended hiss, “Fuck You!”

http://news.asiaone.com/news/asia/ha...phuket-tourism

We have forest fires here that produce the same atmosphere. They are left to burn uncontrolled sometimes for years. No help from the EPA for us.

[shiny!]

Re: When the Air You Can't Breath Changes Your Politics

We have forest fires here that produce the same atmosphere. They are left to burn uncontrolled sometimes for years. No help from the EPA for us.

Where is this, if I might ask?

[radon]

Re: When the Air You Can't Breath Changes Your Politics

Here's an example.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Alaska_fire_season

This was a pretty bad year too. If there is no threat to people or property fires pretty much get ignored. Doesn't help the air quality though.

[shiny!]

Re: When the Air You Can't Breath Changes Your Politics

Here's an example.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Alaska_fire_season

This was a pretty bad year too. If there is no threat to people or property fires pretty much get ignored. Doesn't help the air quality though.

No, I'm sure it doesn't. OTOH... I don't know what your forests are like in Alaska, but down here in the lower 48, forests that have been heavily managed with decades of wildfire suppression burn hotter and experience much worse destruction when they do catch fire, than forests that have been allowed to burn naturally from wildfires. When forests are allowed to burn, dead tinder and saplings are burned, leaving the mature trees well-spaced with the area between them clear of excess fuel. Fires burn quickly, the mature trees aren't harmed.

When fires are suppressed, fuel builds up, too many saplings survive, trees become too crowded. Then when wildfires hit everything burns way too hot for too long. The mature trees burn, the forest is destroyed.

So maybe it's a good thing for the long-term health of your forests to let them burn.

[radon]

Re: When the Air You Can't Breath Changes Your Politics

No, I'm sure it doesn't. OTOH... I don't know what your forests are like in Alaska, but down here in the lower 48, forests that have been heavily managed with decades of wildfire suppression burn hotter and experience much worse destruction when they do catch fire, than forests that have been allowed to burn naturally from wildfires. When forests are allowed to burn, dead tinder and saplings are burned, leaving the mature trees well-spaced with the area between them clear of excess fuel. Fires burn quickly, the mature trees aren't harmed.

When fires are suppressed, fuel builds up, too many saplings survive, trees become too crowded. Then when wildfires hit everything burns way too hot for too long. The mature trees burn, the forest is destroyed.

So maybe it's a good thing for the long-term health of your forests to let them burn.

The forests here are mostly tiaga/muskeg in the north and temperate rainforest in the south and east, and they probably have a natural burn cycle. What bugs me is the EPA busting someones chops for heating their home with wood in the winter. It's small potatoes when you cant see 20ft in the summertime for a month because the wind is blowing the wrong way. It's just a cheap, and somewhat dishonest, way to appear to be doing something.

[shiny!]

Re: When the Air You Can't Breath Changes Your Politics

The forests here are mostly tiaga/muskeg in the north and temperate rainforest in the south and east, and they probably have a natural burn cycle. What bugs me is the EPA busting someones chops for heating their home with wood in the winter. It's small potatoes when you cant see 20ft in the summertime for a month because the wind is blowing the wrong way. It's just a cheap, and somewhat dishonest, way to appear to be doing something.

That would bug me, too. I guess no matter how far you run you can't escape your tax dollars at work.