Environmental news from Thailand — climate, air quality, conservation and sustainability, in English from Thai PBS World.
Chiang Mai’s air quality slightly better today, as the air quality index (AQI) improved from the world’s worst for the past two days, to third most polluted city, according to the Air Pollution Mitigation Centre. Air pollution in the north today is rated from moderate to health-threatening, with PM2.5 in Chiang Rai, Chiang Mai,Nan, Mae
Airborne pollution in 15 northern provinces has reach the Red level today, with the amount of PM2.5 dust in the atmosphere between 50.1µg/m³ and 182µg/m³, the Air Pollution Mitigation Centre reported on Saturday. Mae Sai district in Chiang Rai province recorded the highest reading of 182µg/m³. The 15 northern provinces with excessive PM2.5 today are
Former Move Forward leader Pita Limjaroenrat is the latest major political special guest to visit the northern province of Chiang Mai this weekend, following incumbent Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin and one of his predecessors, Thaksin Shinawatra, who has been there since Thursday. Srettha travelled to Chiang Mai, ostensibly to observe the problems of forest fires
The number of dugongs in the seas off the southern province of Trang has declined substantially, raising concern among marine scientists and conservationists that the mammals may face extinction as sea grass, their main food, reduces. The Marine and Coastal Resources Research Centre of the Lower Andaman Sea recently conducted aerial and sea surveys around
It has been many decades since Wanna Kerdzab’s family started using an area of over nearly five hectares, located near the edge of Kui Buri National Park to the east, as a source of food and land for farming. They grow pineapples and other crops, similar to other villagers in the adjacent area, who have
The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) has been trying to solve the problem of street stalls stealing footpath space from pedestrians for decades, but with little result. This challenge is a tough one because street stalls don’t just benefit the vendors but are also used by most Bangkokians. Street vendors, usually low-income earners, don’t have to
Forest fires are still raging in Thailand’s northern provinces, sending thick smoke into the atmosphere, as Forest Department and Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation firefighters try to control them. Meanwhile, the Pollution Control Department reported today that PM2.5 levels in almost every northern province have exceeded the safe threshold, with the worst
Air quality in Chiang Mai province was measured at 153 on the US AQI listing on Saturday, being ranked as having the world’s 8th worst air quality, as forest fires rage and 150 hotspots were detected, according to the Pollution Control Department. The most polluted city on Saturday, according to the US AQI, was Calcutta,
Officials from the Pollution Control Department have started testing the air quality around a chemical storage warehouse in the Phachi district of Ayutthaya, following a fire last night. It took firemen more than six hours to bring the blaze under control, using chemical foam. The warehouse was storing about four tonnes of various chemicals, which
Twenty-six northern and north-eastern provinces have been found to be suffering excessive PM2.5 airborne pollution today as 258 hotspots were detected, most of them in Chiang Mai. Forest fires at Ob Luang National Park in Chiang Mai, near Highway 108 from Hot and Mae Sariang districts, spread out of control on Saturday night. Flames were
Numerous forest fires are now burning at the base of Doi Suthep mountain in Chiang Mai, billowing plumes of white smoke into the sky, as fire fighters attempt to control the outbreak. A park official said today that one fire is located close to the former Region 5 Appeals Court judges’ housing estate, which has
More than 650,000 people have received medical treatment for illnesses caused by air pollution since the beginning of this year, particularly related to PM2.5, according to the Ministry of Public Health. Of these, more than 300,000 had respiratory diseases, about 80,000 heart and brain diseases, over 110,000 eye infections and irritations and over had 140,000
