Once again, northern Thailand is choking under a blanket of toxic smog. What’s really causing it – and how can we get rid of it for good?
Many experts believe cutting down forests to plant corn for animal feed is a major cause of the air pollution, with Chiang Mai ranked the world's worst for several days in mid-March.
Animal agriculture is the elephant in the room when it comes to climate change, as portrayed in the documentary narrated by Kate Winslet, "Eating Our Way to Extinction".
Check out these articles in the Bangkok Post:
Feeding the beast: Chiang Mai smoke seen as world's climate change problem
Slaughtering the planet - on a farm
More reading:
Global elimination of meat production could save the planet
References:
Reijnders S. Quantification of the environmental impact of different dietary protein choices. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Volume 78, Issue 3, pp. 664S–668S. Published 2003. Accessed 2020. https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/78.3.664S
Bala G, Caldeira K, Wickett M, et al. Combined climate and carbon-cycle effects of large-scale deforestation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Published online April 9, 2007:6550-6555. doi:10.1073/pnas.0608998104
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . Climate Change and Land: An IPCC Special Report on Climate Change, Desertification, Land Degradation, Sustainable Land Management, Food Security, and Greenhouse Gas Fluxes in Terrestrial Ecosystems. In press; 2019:12