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An Update on Chiang Mai’s Air Pollution Problem

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It’s not easy for us to make the changes we know we should make in our lives no matter how much we would like to. As human beings this has been our greatest challenge and still is today as we face what appears to be a never ending litany of problems around the world. Most of us agree that our number one challenge is how to deal with our changing climate and yet we seem to be unwilling to make the necessary changes  to deal with it.

Last year I wrote a post entitled   Waking Up to the Effects of Climate Change  resulting from my visit to Chiang Mai in April when the city’s pollution index soared high enough to beat out New Delhi in India. Granted it can be exciting to gain world recognition for being the best at something, but in this case to break the record for being the most polluted place in the world has done this city no favours. It’s now February 2020, and I have seen no improvement. In fact, the pollution has gotten worse.

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Thailand and Climate Change in 2020

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Upon arriving in Chiang Mai for my twelfth time, I have been noticing obvious and more subtle changes in the city that will have me seriously considering why I should continue to return and look at it as a possible second home.

The most obvious problem for me has been the air quality issue. I arrived on the fifth of January which is normally a good time to be here before the effect of the burning which occurs every year in the North wafts its way down to Thailand’s second largest and most popular city.  This year smoke haze was already here to greet me with a pollution index climbing up to  170 PM2.5. This is considered too high and unhealthy for sensitive groups or people with respiratory problems such as the elderly or very young children. If it goes up to over 200, then we are in the very unhealthy range for everyone. Purple is over 300 so you can imagine what that must mean!  Last year Chiang Mai managed to reach that level some days in late March and April when the effects of the burning and drought were at their worst. This year it’s all up for grabs. No one knows what it will be like this April. The odd thing about all of this is that not every day is so bad. Recently, the index registered a healthy 71 because of the the way the wind was blowing. We could see the mountains all around us, and I felt my energy returning. The next day it was back up to 170! The government says it’s going to clamp down heavily on the farmers who insist on burning so as to get in two crops for the  season, but the big question is whether or not they will enforce that law? It’s always easier to say rather than do with  promises the Thai have all heard before.

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Taking the Road Less Travelled

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“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less travelled and that has made all the   difference.” –  Robert Frost

A brisk, Sunday morning walk in late November was all I needed to be inspired to write something for my blog which has been sorely neglected these past months. The inspiration to write often hits me on a Sunday especially when I am walking in the midst of nature. One of my favourite walks is the French Basin Trail located a few meters from my apartment in Annapolis Royal.

I had just begun my recent walk when Robert Frost’s quotation from “The Road Not Taken” popped into my head. Why this particular poem, I wondered? I had come to a fork in the trail. Before me lay two different paths meaning I would have to decide which one to take. This was easy because I was familiar with both, so what was the real reason for this poem’s appearance? Interesting how one thought or word can lead to another and another…For me this had to mean something deeper in my life at this time.

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Dealing With Climate Change on a Personal Level

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Climate change is finally working its way up to the top of our list of concerns these days. How can we ignore it when our newspapers and other social media are bringing it to our attention every day? In fact, it’s no longer about climate change but about a climate crisis.

Young people around the world are worried  that there may not be a future for them and if there is , it won’t be anything like what we have now. Fear for their future is luring them to protest and camp out in the streets of large cities around the world in order to gain the attention of their governments to do something about it. If you dare to listen or read about what’s in store for us, it can be scary even for us older folk who will most probably escape it. We can’t help feeling frightened for our children and grandchildren who will have to deal with the brunt of it. Continue reading →

It’s Time to Respect our Forests

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For awhile now, my mind has been filled with concern for what is happening to our forests, not only here in Nova Scotia, but all around our world.

This new found concern was temporarily relieved while packing up my books for a recent move.  My eye was drawn to a small, soft covered book simply entitled ” Love of Nature”…. a book given to me by my cousin, Joan Starr Murray, now deceased.

For many years, Joan and her husband spent her summers at their cottage in the Kawarthas’ in Ontario. By combining her deep love for the nature that surrounded her and using her keen eye for photography, she created an inspiring collection of poems and sayings by some of our most famous writers and philosophers. After reading her book from cover to cover, I chose those that clearly spoke to me and inspired me to write this post:

“The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.” – John Muir (1838-1911)

“The forest is a peculiar organism of unlimited kindness and benevolence that makes no demands for its sustenance and extends generously the products of its life activity; it affords protection to all beings, offering shade even to the axeman who destroys it.” – Gautama Buddha c.563- c 483 BC

And finally these much loved words written by William Wordsworth I learned in school:

“One impulse from a vernal wood may teach you more of man, of moral evil and of good, than all the sages can.” 

A September walk in the woods in Kejimakujik.

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