Environmental issues in Thailand

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Environmental issues in Thailand

Post by admin » Fri Apr 07, 2017 9:44 pm

Thailand introduced its Seventh Economic and Social Development Plan (1992–1996), declaring that protecting the environment was a top priority of the Thai government. The plan sought to achieve sustainable growth and stability, especially in the petrochemical, engineering, electronics, and basic industries.

Thailand's dramatic economic growth has caused numerous environmental issues. The country faces problems with air and water pollution, declining wildlife populations, deforestation, soil erosion, water scarcity, and waste issues. According to a 2004 indicator, the cost of air and water pollution for the country scales up to approximately 1.6–2.6 percent of GDP per year.[3] As such, Thailand's economic growth has come at great cost in damage to its people and environment.

admin
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Re: Environmental issues in Thailand

Post by admin » Fri Apr 07, 2017 9:46 pm

Vulnerability and governmental response

Some tropical ecosystems are being decimated by climate change far faster than expected—bleaching of coral reefs is one example—while many more habitats may be damaged over time. Tropical ecosystems appear to be particularly vulnerable because tropical species have evolved within very specific, narrow temperature ranges. With escalating temperatures, they may simply not survive.[4]

Extreme heat in Southeast Asia today reduces working hours by 15 to 20 percent, and that figure could double by 2050 as climate change progresses, according to a paper published in Asia-Pacific Journal of Public Health. The paper projects a loss of six percent of Thailand's GDP by 2030 due to a diminution of working hours caused by rising temperature.[5] A paper published in Nature, by Mora, et al.,[6] forecasts that "...things will start going haywire in the tropics at around [sic] the year 2020,..."[7]

NASA reported that 2016 will be the hottest year ever recorded in 136 years of modern record keeping. Locally, the Thai Meteorological Department reported that the temperature in Mae Hong Son Province reached 44.6 degrees C on 28 April 2016, breaking Thailand's "hottest day" record.[8][9]:20 April in Thailand is typically hot, but 2016's hot weather set a record for the longest heat wave in at least 65 years.[10] In its WMO Statement on the State of the Global Climate in 2016, the World Meteorological Organization confirmed that 2016 was the hottest year in Thailand's history.[9]:6-7

The FAO's The State of the World's Fisheries and Aquaculture 2016 reports that a recent study finds that climate change will affect food security in Asia by the middle of the 21st century. It counts Thailand's fisheries as among the most negatively impacted considering all environments—freshwater, brackish-water, and marine fisheries.[11]:133

Researchers at Stanford and the University of California, studying historical records of how temperature affects economies, predict that, given current trends, global income will be 23 percent less by the end of the century than it would be without climate change. The decline in income is not evenly distributed, with tropical regions hardest hit. The study estimates that Thailand's GDP will have declined by 90 percent in 2099 relative to GDP 2016.[12]

Thailand's CO2 emissions per capita rose from 0.14 tonnes in 1960 to 4.5 tonnes in 2013 while the population rose from 27 million to 67 million over the same period.[13]

The Thai government's Climate Change Master Plan, 2012-2050 foresees that "Thailand is able [sic] to continue its economic, social, and environmental developments in accordance with sufficiency economy philosophy and to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, without impeding the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) or reducing its growth of developmental capability and competitiveness
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