OPINION

Feeling the heat

Re: "Nation lacks a coherent solar strategy", (Opinion, June 3).

As each week rolls by, solar power is becoming a cheaper and more viable way of generating electricity. Southeast Asia is on the bandwagon, but Thailand is lagging behind. There are several reasons for this. One is a lack of expertise.

Whereas Thai universities pump out business graduates by the thousands, they do diddly-squat about alternative energy topics.

For several years recently, I endeavoured to sell PV (photovoltaic) solar panels. There were dozens of inquiries a week, nearly all from farang.

Each person asked for expertise and installation. I suggested they look around their Thai locality to find someone capable of installing solar arrays. Not one client could find any Thais with such expertise. Go figure.

We should also look into passive solar generation, which is what we all use to dry clothes after washing. It can also be rigged to produce electricity at lower cost than fossil fuels, including coal and lignite.

The largest such passive array is in a desert in California. Another is in Spain. What is Thailand doing?

Using the UN model, the Paris agreement will cost developed nations US$150 trillion dollars and reduce the global temperature by three-tenths of 1 degree by the year 2100.

The US component of the Paris climate agreement under Barack Obama was to reduce greenhouse gas levels by 26-28% of 2005 levels by 2025, which will cost the US economy $150 billion annually and also cost 6 million jobs. The cost of electricity would rise 20-30%.

President Donald Trump's claim that the Paris accord will put American citizens and taxpayers at a great disadvantage, as well as leave millions of American workers out of their jobs is not 100% correct.

Despite the US's pledge to contribute 3 billion dollars -- twice that of the second-largest pledge-maker, Japan -- other countries are paying much more in terms of per-capita contribution. According to the UN Green Climate Fund, Sweden and Luxembourg have pledged to pay nearly US$60 (2040 baht) per capita; Norway will pay $50 for each citizen; while the US -- if it remains -- is responsible for only $9.41 per capita.

Despite the fact that American coal-miners and petroleum company workers will lose their jobs as a result of the agreement, there will be new jobs in newly-developed industries that produce alternative energy.

During the past decades, the US has been the world's leader in the development and maintenance of democracy. Hence, it is a disappointment to see this country turn its back on such a responsible and respectable role.

Over the years much attention has been given to the government's anti-corruption campaign. Among others, the SEC, ACT and CAC have all pledged their support.

It is disappointing, therefore, that a submission to the National Anti-Corruption Commission (delivered by courier), involving institutions and individuals at the very highest levels, has been met with total silence. If, as some have already surmised, the fight against corruption is being managed on a selective basis (and weighted, as usual, in favour of the elite) then it is doomed to fail. (In fact, a recent, rather negative scorecard survey of the NACC's work caused speculation as to the possible presence of a "corruption virus" working from within, a super-virus that always remains well ahead of the real graft-fighters.)

Re: "Europe goes it alone", (PostBag, June 3).

Lupus needs to realise that the days of Churchill, Roosevelt, Eisenhower, and a few other great leaders have gone forever. What used to be excellence is now worse than mediocrity. But, strangely, it seems to be what people want and like.

This is because most voters (in the US and elsewhere), also suffer from indifference, ignorance and mediocrity. People are not interested in leadership, only entertainment.

When a motorcyclist fits a camera onto their helmet, I wonder what they are filming? Could it be the number of red lights they have gone through; or how many roads they have driven down on the wrong side; or how many pedestrians crossing the road they have tried to kill; or how many accidents they could have created by their weaving in and out of traffic at high speed? Only they know.