Bangkok Metropolitan Administration Introduces 'Voluntary' Work-From-Home Policy as Pollution Season Kicks Off
Here we go again. Bangkok’s Pollution Season starts earlier and earlier each year. Basically as soon as the monsoon season ends, farmers opt for the slash and burn approach to clear their fields, with the rice stubble burning giving off horrendously toxic black plumes of smoke, resulting in hazardous levels of particle matter at 2.5 microns (PM 2.5) throughout the country.
Look at the pollution levels for today and the forecast for the rest of this week:
I understand that the farmers burning their fields are doing so out of convenience, as well as out of not being able to afford machinery and fuel to clear their fields before planting the next crop. I understand this is, in part, due to many small farm holders being proxies of the larger Thai corporations, which squeeze their profit margins. I recognise that this occurrence in of itself, could be weaponised by the government to demonise farmers. I have written about the war on the food supply all over the world, and I know that no farmers means no food. This is a complex, intricate web of agendas. Further recommended reading on the articles I have written on these topics will be at the end of this piece.
At least the Thai MSM is no longer pinning the PM 2.5 solely on vehicle emissions. Many mainstream articles are acknowledging the reality of the farmers’ field-burning, resulting in the toxic air quality.
Right now, I am observing a soft return of what I see as seed sowing within the public consciousness for potential Climate Lockdowns for Bangkok:
The governor also mentioned plans to simplify work-from-home measures to encourage voluntary participation, which will also reduce traffic congestion, one factor driving up PM2.5 levels. Details of the guidelines will be introduced on Monday. "The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) is preparing to use three measures to solve the PM2.5 dust problem. If the PM2.5 level reaches a critical level that threatens public health, we will seek cooperation from the private and public sectors to work from home," he said.
Voluntary for now. Could it become mandatory?
Schools can conduct online classes if fine dust pollution reaches critical levels, the Education Ministry says.
[…]
Deputy Democrat Party leader, Suchatchavee Suwansawas, suggested the BMA designate a low emission zone (LEZ) to be piloted in 16 inner-city districts to curb air pollution. He proposed the measure spanning 130 square kilometers should cover Phra Nakhon, Pomprap Sattruphai, Pathumwan, Samphanthawong, Dusit, Ratchathewi, Phaya Thai, Sathon, Bang Rak, and Yannawa districts.
He said in a Facebook post that doing so would result in cleaner air. The policy involves charging drivers of fossil-fuel vehicles to enter the zone, while electronic vehicle drivers would be exempt.
In a 2023 post, I quoted from a Bangkok Post article:
Tackling climate change isn't easy because the of transboundary nature of the problem, so unless there is a commitment from all stakeholders to work together to solve the issue, the only thing an individual government can do is to treat the "symptoms".
But how long can the government force the closure of schools, issue a work-from-home order, or restrict outdoor activities? Unfortunately, as campaigning for the election enters the home stretch, no candidate has made inter-governmental cooperation to tackle the causes of global warming at its roots a priority.
In another article, I wrote:
Beware the trojan horse being snuck in through the city’s smog-covered gates…The ability for the authorities to declare an emergency, should the Clean Air Bill be passed. Could that be a climate emergency declared? Would climate crises be made synonymous with public health crises? Is Thailand sneakily following the 200 “health journals” calling on the WHO / UN to recognise ‘climate change’ as a ‘global health issue,’ and thus encompassing the criteria to cite a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) by March 2024?
Do climate lockdowns await Bangkokians?
There is an excuse for mask lovers to muzzle up all year round in this city. It’s either COVID / FLU fear-mongering or some other boogeyman virus hitting the media reels, or it’s the bad air quality. I don’t believe that N95 masks do anything to protect from dangerous PM 2.5 levels, and besides, I’m not putting a mask on ever again; it’s too synonymous with the fake Covid era - although the tyranny was very real. No doubt I will see people in full on gas mask respirator get-ups out and about over the next few months.
Do I choose to stay trapped in my little clean air cocooned apartment for six months? No.
Will I check the PM 2.5 levels like I check the news each morning, before deciding whether or not to venture outside? Probably.
Will my eyes itch, and my breathing become raspy and irritable if I do go outside? Certainly.
Will I sacrifice my health in order to go the park at sunrise and sunset, to exercise outdoors, and to play sports? Likely.
Do I want to move out of Bangkok? Absolutely. Alas, my life is here, the work is here, my wife’s family is here, we are building a house here.
We can escape to my wife’s Grandma’s house in Chantaburi often, which is a beautiful area, with better air quality than Bangkok. The best air quality is usually in the South - Phuket, Surat Thani, Koh Phangnan.
I’m so fed up with pollution season.
Let’s see how far this voluntary work from home policy is pushed, along with ESG nonsense - still favoured here by the government and corporations jumping on the green transition bandwagon.
Carbon credit scoring awaits. Personal carbon footprint tracking apps are already rampant and encouraged by the government here.
FURTHER RECOMMENDED READING
Part 3 of my 2023 series on Thailand’s ‘Climate crisis’ has some useful tips on how to make your own DIY air purifier much more cheaply than buying an air purifier tower, and much more on the government-media team-up to craft the narrative of the “climate crisis” being synonymous with a “health emergency”:
Thailand's Pollution Season: Making The "Climate Crisis" a "Health Emergency" (Part 3)
Thailand’s “pollution season” has started early this year, as monsoon season winds down, and burning mania commences. As local expats chime in on the Bangkok Post forums about how great the government’s newly proposed Clean Air Bill is to solve the PM2.5 crisis, climate cultists froth at the mouth demanding lifestyle adjustments for all.
This piece covers the founding of Thailand’s department of climate change. Yes, really:
Thailand's Department of Climate Change
🚨It seems to be all-climate-alarmist-propaganda-systems go! for the month of April 2024, in the land of smiles masks.
A historical analysis of UN affiliated directives to facilitate government and corporation land-grabbing, as well as the tricks used to hoodwink the farmers:
Thailand's Gift to Farmers: Debt Swaps For Nature
Examining the rich tapestry of warm, fuzzy language, replete with UN Agenda 2030 soundbites gorged upon insatiably by the latest implementation team running the show. Thailand, most pertinently Bangkok, is primed to become a Technocratic State, embracing Net Zero and the erosion of individual sovereignty, with open loving arms.
Nicholas Creed is a Bangkok based writer. Any support is greatly appreciated. If you are in a position to donate a virtual coffee or crypto, it would mean the world of difference. Paid subscribers can comment on articles, videos, and podcasts, and also receive a monthly subscriber newsletter.
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"The ability for the authorities to declare an emergency, should the Clean Air Bill be passed. Could that be a climate emergency declared? Would climate crises be made synonymous with public health crises?"
The kakistocrats are harnessing two unicorns--public health and human-caused climate change, two things that don't exist--to pull the chariot of dictatorship. Health is an individual, not collective attribute, and the climate changes with or without human input. And as with "covid," the chariot can run only when people pretend to believe in it.
The pot of frogs is simmering on low with "encouraging voluntary participation." For now the kakistocracy is "seeking cooperation" the way a mafia boss seeks cooperation so he doesn't have to burn down your restaurant. Everything it does is a step down the road to the real goal: coercion for the sake of coercion. If they really felt an ounce of solicitude about human beings they'd stop trying to control them. They'd repeal the regressive, oppressive laws and policies that keep people stuck using ten-thousand-year-old agricultural techniques. They'd let people make their own decisions about when, how, and whether to adjust to pollution levels--levels which would fall as economic freedom rose, if politicians would just get out of the way. But that won't happen until enough people make it cost them something they aren't willing to pay.
Nicholas, in South Africa on our highveld region, we have a similar phenomenon, but it is natural, it's known here as the winter inversion where there is very little wind to blow away pollution which is caused by many many factors. We also have our winter during the inversion and it is very dry and low humidity and we also have wild fires refereed to as Veld Fires here. So, the pollution caused by many players and mainly due to factories is trapped.
With the high electricity cost we are now experiencing due to stupid political policies driven by the UN, exacerbate the issue, as the poorer people burn wood and coal and any combustible material even vehicle tyres to keep warm. They push up the costs of natural gas too to prevent people generating lower cost electricity so that the "Green New Dealer's" can make more and more profit. Now they are wanting to tax people for putting up solar generation to reduce the cost of generation and imposing tariffs and "smart meters" to enable more punitive control.
Our farmers were also targeted by the State and were forced to burn fire breaks at their cost. Most crops up here in the highveld are Zea Maize and sunflower grown in summer and cattle enjoy this during winter as grazing. They don't burn those stalks. Our fires here burn the thatching grass and unpalatable grasses to generate greener grass at the start of summer when our rains come.
We must never forget what the Club of Rome said.
“The First Global Revolution,” they declared: “The common enemy of humanity is man. In searching for a new enemy to unite us, we came up with the idea that pollution, the threat of global warming, water shortages, famine and the like would fit the bill. All these dangers are caused by human intervention, and it is only through changed attitudes and behavior that they can be overcome. The real enemy then, is humanity itself.”
Objective is population reduction by any means necessary.