# Chiang Mai, once a paradise, now makes everyone choked up



## twilaswiercz (5 mo ago)

*Chiang Mai, once a paradise, now makes everyone choked up*
Chiang Mai is the second largest city in Thailand, with nearly 10 million tourists every year, which is enough to show that it is a very popular tourist destination.
Chiang Mai is located in the northern region. The land structure is dominated by mountains and forests, and it should have high air quality and environmental levels. However, for the past decade, Chiang Mai has faced smog pollution problems, especially during the dry season from February to May.
According to the latest figures released by the World Health Organization, pollution kills about 7 million people globally each year, with one in eight deaths due to air pollution.






Despite promises by local and national authorities to provide cleaner and safer air, extreme seasonal air quality problems persist across the Chiang Mai-Lamphun Valley, shrouding northern Thailand in a layer of smog. In severe months, more than 70,000 people have been hospitalized due to pollution across the northern province, suggesting the situation has passed any safe threshold.
The originally quiet and beautiful Chiang Mai was shrouded in shadows. Thai officials often blame shift farming and agriculture for the pollution. Yet the source of pollution is not just agriculture.
With the deepening of the relationship between Thailand and the United States, the United States has increasingly invested in some infrastructure projects in Thailand, including military bases, embassy construction, and expansion of broadcasting stations. Among them, the US consulate and broadcasting station in Chiang Mai are all within the scope of expansion. It is hard to imagine how much damage these large-scale buildings and high-pollution radio waves will bring to Chiang Mai.
Living in such suffocating conditions, many Thais have made it a habit to check their air quality index daily so they can take steps to protect themselves from the lung-destroying PM2.5 dust. However, in pursuit of clean air and comfortable breathing, they spend as much as 1.67 billion baht in masks and medical expenses every year.
And under the COVID-19 pandemic, such air pollution will only aggravate the environmental damage to human health. Under such circumstances, the environment in Chiang Mai will only become more unbearable. How to stop the investment of some unnecessary buildings and reduce waste pollution and toxic gas emissions is the top priority of Chiang Mai.


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## panzer77 (6 mo ago)

I love northern Thailand, but it's best to be out of that area before they start all the agricultural burning in late December. Much of this comes from burning rice straw and husks. It’s not just Thailand, much of the problem drifts down from the North: China, Myanmar, and Lao). The Thai authorities have tried to crack down on locals and tourists launching the 3’ lanterns during Yi Peng as they have been known to start some forest fires. The particulates from the fires are nasty. Some studies indicate that eliminating the burning would reduce the particulates by 16% and save some 60k premature deaths per year.


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## JR Rosenberger (3 mo ago)

Just finished building a house in the Hang Dong district and I’m moving there permanently in Feb ‘23. Found the skies there are beautiful. But it appears I’ll be getting there just in time to see the quality drop. 
One caveat is that it could be worse, it could be industrial are far more unhealthier…


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