“TAKE TIME” Mountains of cheap spare are dumped into the ocean every year by violent storms, some of which travel for hundreds of kilometers and ends up on Bali’s beaches. According to Dalem, the garbage wave is” everything that repeats” on Kedonganan beach and other locations in the area everyContinue Reading
Nguyen Minh Huong, an office worker, said,” I have had to wear a helmet whenever I go up over the last few days because the air quality has been so poor.” It’s difficult to breathe, she says. I have had to cut off my day outside because I sneeze allContinue Reading
BEIJING: China’s solar capacity growth could slow in 2024 to 31 per cent, a solar manufacturing association said on Wednesday (Feb 28), after a record 55 per cent increase last year as the industry struggles with renewable power overcapacity and curtailment. China has the world’s largest renewable power capacity butContinue Reading
BAYANMUNKH SUM, Mongolia: More than two million animals have died in Mongolia so far this winter, a government official said Monday (Feb 26), as the country endures extreme cold and snow. The landlocked country is no stranger to severe weather from December to March when temperatures plummet as low asContinue Reading
BANGKOK: Bangkok city employees have been told to work from home to avoid harmful air pollution, as a layer of noxious haze blanketed the Thai capital on Thursday (Feb 15). City authorities asked for cooperation from employers to help workers in the city of some 11 million people avoid theContinue Reading
CLARK: NASA has kicked off a series of marathon flights in Asia with the world’s biggest flying laboratory, in an ambitious mission to improve the models that help to forecast and fight air pollution. Millions of deaths each year are linked to air pollution, and improving the ability to identifyContinue Reading
Politicians were n’t really interested in having this conversation before the money started coming in, he claimed. It used to be believed that God is to blame for all natural catastrophe. All of a sudden, they are all the result of climate change. A little audience gathered to listen toContinue Reading
Genetically modified soy and corn seedlings have recently received Chinese approval for production and sale, opening the door for this year’s business farming of GM crops. According to the policy, it may speed up plant research and the choice, breeding, and advertising of high-quality varieties that are desperately needed forContinue Reading
Murmurings about rampant land speculation, buying large areas cheaply with the aim to sell at a profit later when value rises, are loud in the community. Many are adamant that political figures are behind the push to purchase land around the project.
In this mostly ageing community of lifelong farmers, the prospect of selling up and moving remains a hard sell.
Further east, the terrain flattens and falls away to the straw sands of the Thai Gulf, the finish line of the land bridge, where shipping containers would be processed onto waiting ships bound for China or Japan.
For now, small resorts, seafood restaurants and aquaculture farms line the coast at Lang Suan in Chumphon.
Development has been lethargic here and life moves accordingly for those who call it home.
Little reliable information has been disseminated to the community here. The same whispers about aggressive land buying persist. But in the eyes of some, with progress comes sparks of opportunity.
Mr Perawat Thiparat, a local restaurant owner, says he thinks increased economic activity will naturally draw more people to the area, and to his family’s resort.
“When I heard about the project, I thought it might be good for the economy and there would be development, but I don’t know what impacts it will make,” he said, while fishing off a pier at sunset.
On the very same pier, Sureephon Sophonmanee thinks she might be the sole opposing voice in the area. The 57-year-old still plies the seas in a small fishing boat to make a living.
A lone helicopter waits for the few tourists who have still come, offering flights over higher peaks that have a dusting of snow. “Our guests are mainly skiers, and they have all cancelled their bookings,” said hotel manager Hamid Masoodi. “Those who come despite no snow are also disappointed.” SkiContinue Reading