The city administration is doing everything to combat global warming
SUPAWADEE INTHAWONG
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| Workers place ferns and orchids around a pillar of the skytrain station at Siam Square. |
Bangkok has been ranked by business operators in the international tourism industry as one of the world's top tourist destinations. Thais are very proud of this honor given to their city, which indeed is a great place to visit. Yet that doesn't make it a great place to live in.
As much as Bangkok has been a desired destination for tourists, the city has also been undesirable to many long-term residents who have to put up with its scorching heat, intense pollution, dirty and noisy streets, infamous traffic jams, lack of green spaces and various other not-so-environmentally-friendly features.
But still, there is hope in this massive tangled mess of a megapolis known as the City of Angels. Both the government and private sectors are trying to improve the city and gear it toward sustainable development, as well as good environmental management, hoping to make the city as habitable as possible.
Such efforts will not only directly benefit Bangkok and its residents, but will also help the Earth combating global warming effects as well.
Five plans to reduce global warming effects in Bangkok
Former Bangkok governor Apirak Kosayodhin said his administration gave priority to environmental management as the global warming issue has long been neglected.
He laid out five "action plans" as part of the attempt to fight global warming.
- Reduce the use of cars
Bangkok is expanding its mass transportation systems, the BTS and MRT, and will encourage the public to switch to different modes of transportation. The city plans to create more bicycle routes and build park-and-ride facilities to feed commuters to the mass transportation system.
- Promote energy saving
Bangkokians will be encouraged to switch from the use of incandescent and fluorescent lights to the compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) that are more energy efficient. They will also be asked to perform regular check-ups of the air conditioners to reduce the unnecessary loss of energy.
- Add more greenery
Public parks and gardens will be built around the city, making maximum utilisation of empty spaces, and Bangkokians are encouraged to plant more trees in their gardens and around their vicinities.
- Encourage the use of the alternative energy that is a "cleaner" energy
The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) has successfully converted its vehicles to use bio diesel, CNG and gasohol. It also buys used oil from the public and uses it in the production of alternative energy.
- Campaign for the separation of rubbish
The administration will launch a project for the public to trade trash for cash at various schools in the city.
Bangkok: The great capital of carbon dioxide and rubbish
As the centre of Thailand's administrative and economic activities, Bangkok is unsurprisingly the province that releases the most carbon dioxide to the atmosphere and is a major culprit of the global greenhouse effect.
Main sources of carbon dioxide in Bangkok are electricity consumption, transportation and the industrial sector.
Carbon dioxide aside, the Thai capital is also mired with another major environmental issue - rubbish. About 8,500 tonnes of trash on an average, or about 10,000 tonnes of trash on certain occasions, are collected each day by the city.
That amount of rubbish can fill about 340 trucks if each truck can take 25 tonnes of rubbish.
Although the city separates its waste and recycles it, most of it will end up in a "sanitary landfill", which may not be entirely sanitary as some have pointed out the possibility of the hazardous waste leaking into underground water sources.
Moreover, the management of Bangkok's waste has a cost as high as 988 baht per tonne.
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