Thailand faces major challenges with economic issues,
political protest, and human rights. As
the country continues through the 21st century, corrections are
being made to help with these problems but there is still a long way to go
before the damage is repaired. The most
challenging task Thailand is being faced with is the repair of their
environment. After the Thai economy has
struggled for many years, the recent booms in growth have taken a toll on the
environment.
As examined in one of my previous blogs on the environmental
issues in Thailand, the country faces just about every problem possible in
their environment: water pollution, air pollution, deforestation, erosion,
water pollution and scarcity, a declining wildlife population, and issues with
hazardous waste. These problems are
caused by many actions of everyday life in Thailand but a main fuel to all of
this is the economic growth the country has been experiencing.
A country case study on www.fao.org
of Thailand said, “Rapid economic growth was achieved at environmental
expense.” A perfect display of this
statement is the air pollution occurring in Bangkok where industrialization is
booming. Air is polluted mainly by
emissions from industrial developments, transportation, and electricit Once these pollutants are
emitted into the air they can cause health problems for the Thai people and can
also result in acid rain.
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| Cycle of air pollution creating acid rain |
Larger Thai cities also produce a lot of water pollution for
cities downstream of them. Water is
exposed to urban runoff, sewage, animal manure, and acid rain. “Environmental Problems and Green Lifestyles
of Thailand” by Dr. Xu Ping, reported a statistic that, “92.68% of the total
area in Thailand is at risk from water pollution.” If not taken care of, 4.4 million Thai people
will be impacted.
Deforestation has also become a much larger problem in the
country of Thailand as they've grown. The
forests are being taken out in order to make room for economic growth and
expansion. If the forest isn’t getting
taken out, it is likely becoming eroded from the pollution.
Next, deforestation causes the population of wildlife to
decrease because without a place to live or food to eat, wildlife won’t make it
very long. This is all caused by a series
of events: (1) a growing economy, (2) pollution from the advancement, (3)
further growth and the need for more room resulting in deforestation, and
(4) finally, the loss of the beautiful forest and wildlife inhabiting it.
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| The loss of forests in Thailand up to 1990 |
A growing economy is great and much needed in the world
today, but Thailand needs to find ways to save the environment while they do
so. Changes are being made but, as you
can tell, a lot have damage has been done.
Thailand has faced and continues to face many challenges in
the 21t century but environmental issues are the largest because they are the
result of Thailand growing as a country.
Thailand has been focused on the generation of income, no matter
the cost. Since they’ve gotten closer
and closer to this through reducing the poverty in the country and having more
success in their larger cities, Thailand will hopefully set more time out for
repairing the environment and finding ways to grow their economy without such an environmental impact.
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