How Healthy is Doi Suthep? Citylife follows up on a 2006 article, ‘Doi Suthep in Crisis’
So began my cover story, ‘Doi Suthep in Crisis’ in our August 2006 issue of Citylife. Over a course of three months, I’d interviewed over a dozen people on the ‘health’ of Doi Suthep; from the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, the infamous Plodprasop Suraswadi, to the abbot of Wat Phra That Doi Suthep as well as a number of botanists and entomologists. My conclusion was grim; water resources were diminishing, encroachment on national park land was rife, overpopulation had resulted in lack of waste management, wild plants and animals were disappearing, and the mountain was getting ‘sick’. A botanist from Chiang Mai University told us that only about 25% of the park remained somewhat close to its original condition, explaining that the rest was, at best secondary growth, and at worst developed. Coming across that old issue recently, I thought that it was time to revisit this topic and I shall be borrowing liberally from the past to ease the step into the present so that perhaps we can navigate a path towards a healthy future.
Wasting Away: Chasing Chiang Mai’s Rubbish Trail
Like most of you, I dare say, I don’t give much thought to what happens once my rubbish has been collected, assuming it ends up somewhere far away and that someone is sorting it all out. But this month I got curious and decided to look into how much garbage we produce as a city, who manages it, where it goes and generally sticking my nose into some stinky business.
The Rise of Gaming in Chiang Mai
From family-friendly bestsellers like Agricola and Catan to Dungeons & Dragons and a broader role-playing resurgence, the global popularity of tabletop and board gaming continues to rise — and Chiang Mai has not been spared. Around our beloved city people are putting aside their phones and tablets, and looking away from their screens (for a while at least!), in order to flip cards, connect til … Continued
Keeping Your Brain Strong
We’ve all experienced the irritating feeling of walking into a room and forgetting what it is that we’re looking for. Or the embarrassment of forgetting someone’s name, even though they just told you. But imagine forgetting where your own home is, or what your own family members look like.
Editorial: October 2017
Just over eleven years ago our cover featured my story ‘Doi Suthep in Crisis’, where I offered up an alarming prognosis of a mountain range being sucked dry of its natural resources — water, wildlife, biodiversity, land — while at the same time being inundated by the alien —people, waste, traffic, development. Thankfully, much of the damage many experts anticipated at the time never materialised due to the Herculean efforts of so many, from academics and researchers to the private sector.