Thailand’s struggling battle against air pollution
For weeks now, most of the friends and families I know have had a cough of some kind. The pollution in the dry season in Thailand has long been a problem.
But recently, it’s reached dangerous and deeply worrying levels.
Bangkok was the fourth most polluted city in the world this month. Across 31 districts 352 schools were also closed because of pollution.
People wearing face masks because of poor air pollution in the Thai capital. Pic: Reuters/Athit Perawongmetha
For weeks, I’ve had to rush my children into school with masks on, as the cheery teachers apologetically declare: “Pollution day so straight into class please.”
I like to go running with my son before school. But these days we’ve had to check the air quality index before we venture out.
Unfortunately, there have been plenty of mornings when the red bar appears, the screen reads, “very unhealthy” and we have to stay in.
It’s not a ritual I ever imagined having to go through with my kids in an era when governments know full well the dangers of pollutants and have the technology and know-how to reduce it.
A woman in Bangkok amid high levels of air pollution. Pic: Reuters/Athit Perawongmetha
Pollution is linked to the deaths of 100 children under five daily in South East Asia and the Pacific, according to a report this week by UNICEF.
This when clean air should be a universal right.
I’ve started to really worry about what living in Bangkok and many other parts of Thailand is doing to little lungs long term.
You can feel the smog in the back of your throat and sometimes, you can see the haze. But other days it’s hidden – a silent killer.
The ‘rainmaker’ plane dumping water over parts of polluted Thailand
‘Rainmaker’
The Thai government hopes a plane that’s become known as the “rainmaker” might help.
In Hua Hin, about a three hour drive south of Bangkok, we get on board for a flight back to the capital. Two big plastic containers are being filled with 1,000 litres of icy water through a pump.
Today they’re dropping it over 16km of land shrouded in pollution. They do it twice a day across the country.
Sky News Asia correspondent Cordelia Lynch on board the ‘rainmaker’
It’s an unconventional method and critics say so far unproven, but the hope is that it will cool down the warm air below and help disperse the trapped polluted particles cloaking the city.
The big worry right now is the PM 2.5 levels – cancer-causing particles that get into the lungs and bloodstream. Recently, they were eight times what the World Health Organization recommends.
Pollution ‘getting worse every year’
Pilot Aim Suracharttumrongrat tells me: “It’s a very huge scale problem. Our mission here is one of helping. But it’s not solving the problem.”
He gestures out the window to show how hard it is to see. “I’m very surprised,” he says of how bad the pollution currently is. “It’s higher every year.”
Thick air pollution over parts of Thailand
A couple of hours drive away in Ratchaburi province, you can see a big part of the problem – burnt fields of rice, sugar cane and corn – the product of slash-and-burn farming.
It’s a cheap and efficient way for poor farmers to clear the land, and they’re encouraged by big businesses driving up demand.
International smog and toxic traffic
It’s not the only problem.
Toxic traffic is playing its part too. The government has been trying to counter that by offering free public transport.
Winds from China and India have also contributed to the recent haze – earlier and more intense than previous years.
The government has rules in place against burning crops. But punishments aren’t always enforced and if Thailand and other countries are serious about improving the situation, holding big agricultural companies to account will be key.
China and Singapore are two nations that have turned things around.
Read more from Sky News:
Trump faces choice in new space race
Plane crashes into vehicles on busy road
River in Argentina turns bright red
Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra recently admitted despite adopting a wide range of measures, air quality is still bad.
She said she had personally raised the issue of transboundary smog with ASEAN foreign ministers.
But Thailand will arguably have to go much further than that if it’s to turn things around – in policy and practice.
World
Trump criticises Putin after potentially ‘historic’ meeting with Zelenskyy before Pope’s funeral
Donald Trump has criticised Vladimir Putin and suggested a shift in his stance towards the Russian president after a meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy before the Pope’s funeral.
The Ukrainian president said the one-on-one talks could prove to be “historic” after pictures showed him sitting opposite Mr Trump, around two feet apart, in the large marble hall inside St Peter’s Basilica.
The US president said he doubted his Russian counterpart’s willingness to end the war after leaving Rome after the funeral of Pope Francis at the Vatican.
Follow live updates: 200,000 mourn at Vatican
In a post on his Truth Social platform, he said “there was no reason” for the Russian president “to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days”.
The two leaders held talks before attending the Pope’s funeral
He added: “It makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war, he’s just tapping me along, and has to be dealt with differently, through ‘Banking’ or ‘Secondary Sanctions?’ Too many people are dying!!!”
The meeting between the US and Ukrainian leaders was their first face-to-face encounter since a very public row in the Oval Office in February.
Mr Zelenskyy said he had a good meeting with Mr Trump in which they talked about the defence of the Ukrainian people, a full and unconditional ceasefire, and a durable and lasting peace that would prevent the war restarting.
Other images released by the Ukrainian president’s office show Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron were present for part of the talks, which were described as “positive” by the French presidency.
Mr Zelenskyy‘s spokesman said the meeting lasted for around 15 minutes and he and Mr Trump had agreed to hold further discussions later on Saturday.
The world leaders shared a moment before the service
Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy meet in the Basilica
But the US president left Rome for Washington on Air Force One soon after the funeral without any other talks having taken place.
The Ukrainian president’s office said there was no second meeting in Rome because of the tight schedule of both leaders, although he had separate discussions with Mr Starmer and Mr Macron.
The French president said in a post on X “Ukraine is ready for an unconditional ceasefire” and that a so-called coalition of the willing, led by the UK and France, would continue working to achieve a lasting peace.
There was applause from some of the other world leaders in attendance at the Vatican when Mr Zelenskyy walked out of St Peter’s Basilica after stopping in front of the pontiff’s coffin to pay his respects.
Donald Trump and the Ukrainian president met for the first time since their Oval Office row. Pic: Reuters
Sir Tony Brenton, the former British ambassador to Russia, said the event presents diplomatic opportunities, including the “biggest possible meeting” between Mr Trump and the Ukrainian leader.
He told Sky News it could mark “an important step” in starting the peace process between Russia and Ukraine.
Professor Father Francesco Giordano told Sky News the meeting is being called “Pope Francis’s miracle” by members of the clergy, adding: “There’s so many things that happened today – it was just overwhelming.”
The bilateral meeting comes after Mr Trump’s peace negotiator Steve Witkoff held talks with Mr Putin at the Kremlin.
They discussed “the possibility of resuming direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine”, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said.
👉 Listen to Sky News Daily on your podcast app 👈
Russia and Ukraine have not held direct talks since the early weeks of the war, which began in February 2022.
Mr Trump has claimed a deal to end the war is “very close” and has urged Mr Zelenskyy to “get it done” in a post on his Truth Social platform.
He has previously warned both sides his administration would walk away from its efforts to achieve a peace if the two sides do not agree a deal soon.
Meanwhile, the Polish armed forces said a Russian military helicopter violated its airspace over the Baltic Sea on Friday evening.
“The nature of the incident indicates that Russia is testing the readiness of our air defence systems,” they said in a post on X.
On an extraordinary day, remarkable pictures on the margins that capture what may be a turning point for the world.
In a corner of St Peter’s Basilica before the funeral of Pope Francis, the leaders of America and Ukraine sit facing each other in two solitary chairs.
They look like confessor and sinner except we cannot tell which one is which.
Leaning forward hands together in their laps, Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy stare at each other in one photo.
In another, the Ukrainian president seems to be remonstrating with the US president. This is their first encounter since their infamous bust-up in the Oval Office.
The two leaders held talks before attending the Pope’s funeral
Other pictures show the moment their French and British counterparts introduced the two men. There is a palpable sense of nervousness in the way the leaders engage.
We do not know what the two presidents said in their brief meeting.
But in the mind of the Ukrainian leader will be the knowledge President Trump has this week said America will reward Russia for its unprovoked brutal invasion of his country, under any peace deal.
Mr Trump has presented Ukraine and Russia with a proposal and ultimatum so one-sided it could have been written in the Kremlin.
Kyiv must surrender the land Russia has taken by force, Crimea forever, the rest at least for now. And it must submit to an act of extortion, a proposed deal that would hand over half its mineral wealth effectively to America.
The world leaders shared a moment before the service
Afterwards, Zelenskyy said it had been a good meeting that could turn out to be historic “if we reach results together”.
They had talked, he said, about the defence of Ukraine, a full and unconditional ceasefire and a durable and lasting peace that will prevent a war restarting.
The Trump peace proposal includes only unspecified security guarantees for Ukraine from countries that do not include the US. It rules out any membership of Ukraine.
Ukraine’s allies are watching closely to see if Mr Trump will apply any pressure on Vladimir Putin, let alone punish him for recent bloody attacks on Ukraine.
Or will he simply walk away if the proposal fails, blaming Ukrainian intransigence, however outrageously, before moving onto a rapprochement with Moscow.
If he does, America’s role as guarantor of international security will be seen effectively as over.
This could be the week we see the world order as we have known it since the end of the Second World War buried, as well as a pope.
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports1 year agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business3 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway