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Published on March 31, 2008

He rightly says that further polluting our country will harm our tourist industry, which is one of our economic mainstays.

Arnone is assuming far too much and analysing far too little. He assumes that the plant will be environmentally unfriendly, but this need not be the case. For instance, I toured Thai Carbon Black's Angthong factory, where the shimmering exhaust from their smokestacks was absolutely transparent and colourless, and the foliage in their compound was free from any carbon (carbon black can be extremely dirty if not controlled). As a securities analyst, I often toured factories where the waste water was so clean it was used to water the compound's plants. (These companies were all SET-listed. Their care for the environment was not just to be good corporate citizens, but for their shareholders' long-term interests as well).

This is not to say that any factory will have zero effect on the environment; we must weigh the effects of the project as a whole in reaching a go/no-go decision. Any factory uses electricity, which may have been generated using fossil fuel - but does that mean that it should not be established, depriving employees and their families of their livelihood, and you and me of their output?

I am not saying "investment at any cost". Our government and you, dear reader, should encourage firms to be more environmentally friendly. Some multinational firms are voluntarily seeking to do precisely that, eg Wal-Mart has made a US$500-million (Bt15.8 billion) commitment to use 100 per cent renewable energy and create zero waste by 2009. Or, Tesco, which produces 2 million tonnes of carbon a year in the UK, said it would put new labels on every one of the 70,000 products it sells so that shoppers can compare carbon costs in the same way they can compare calorie counts - thus helping you and me to take care of our environment.

You and I should stop using plastic bags, and force our government to develop an integrated mass transit system attractive enough to use. But we should not give knee-jerk reactions to multi-faceted investment decisions.

Burin Kantabutra

Bangkok

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Without auto plants, who will provide jobs for people?

Re: "Another auto plant will add to Thailand's pollution", Letters, March 29.

John Arnone, the smoke-belching conspiracy theorist, is now focusing on an auto company from India and its plans to open an assembly plant. He seems to forget about all of the auto plant closures and ones scheduled to close in the near future. Where will all the auto workers find jobs to provide for their families?

He imagines that Thailand's number one industry is tourism and it will suffer as a result of the pollution from this one plant. Look around. The tourists are gone, at least temporarily. The rising baht, political turmoil, world economic woes, violent crime and unpredictable entertainment venue hours and closures have all contributed to a slump in the tourism industry.

As a developing country Thailand should welcome international business for the benefit of the nation's overall economy.

David Barkdull

Bangkok

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Same old tricks, same

terrible message

Samak's tales of "invisible hands" undermining his leadership and now a handwritten note warning him about an impending coup are nothing new. We remember all too well when Thaksin complained that people spread rumours against him through Bangkok taxi drivers and an "extra-constitutional charismatic person" was against him.

It must be our old karma that our leaders take turns in giving hints to the world that we are still in a back row of the Third World.

Netirat Intira

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