OPINION

On the right track

Re: "Chadchart plots campaign to plant 1 million trees", (BP, June 4, 2022).

Hats off to Bangkok's new governor for his great ideas for making Bangkok a more livable city.

I hope he gets the support needed to implement his ideas.

Expanding parks and green spaces in the city, and planting more trees, are practical measures that would reduce air pollution, cool ambient air temperatures, improve the mental and physical health of residents, and help absorb greenhouse gas emissions.

Mr Chadchart is also definitely on the right track in recognising that successfully growing trees doesn't stop with tree planting. He is absolutely correct in noting that, "trees shouldn't be forgotten after their roots take to the ground".

The vast majority of tree-planting projects fail because of a lack of post-planting follow-up and nurturing.

The spike in inflation is driven in part by rising energy costs. Urgent action is also needed to reduce and end reliance on fossil fuels.

Electricity from solar is viable but where to put the solar panels? Displacing farmland with solar panels is like growing crops as biofuel feedstock. It undermines the purpose of agriculture which must be to grow food.

Current food price inflation can only be exacerbated by using agricultural land for solar farms.

Perhaps if the solar panels were mounted a few metres above ground level the land could be shared with grazing livestock.

Roof-mounted solar panels are a much better option and the UK and the world have an abundance of roof space that could be utilised.

Roofs at commercial and industrial premises have great potential as sites of renewable electricity production with the power either used by the industry at the premises or fed into the national grid to ease energy cost inflation for consumers.

But this requires a big effort that I believe can only be achieved through a state agency.

Re: "Proposal to ease visa rules put forward", (Business, June 11).

Most assume the likely termination of the Thailand Pass would mean the end of the insurance requirements, at any rate for short-stay tourists. But an article in your June 11 Weekend Business carried the surprising news from the tourist ministry that they would still need to show -- presumably to the immigration officer on arrival -- an insurance document plus vaccine certification. Urgent clarification would not be amiss.

Re: "Tip of the tongue", (PostBag, June 10).

I must thank Alec Bamford for his most eloquent criticism of my recent letter published June 2 regarding issues pertaining to mask wearing and their effects on the teaching of clear English in Thailand. I most sincerely apologise if some of my mouth/tongue generalisations did not meet his exacting auditory standards. Nevertheless, his phenomenal use of high-end English augmented by an exciting array of technical mouth words has really cemented the mask debate.

Well done that man!