Clean-up 'should start here'

Last week Bangkok Governor Apirak Kosayodhin held his latest international gathering in the ongoing campaign to position our capital as one of the world's leading cities working to combat global warming. One observer from Singapore remarked, "Forget about global warming, I think Bangkok needs to clean up its air quality first, then it can talk about helping to save the planet."  

Of course these two issues are very much related.

The transportation sector is the city's number one contributor to airborne pollution, and the number two cause of greenhouse gas emissions. I've been a bit perplexed as to why linking these two issues has not been a core part of the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) campaign.

Take the conversion to biodiesel, for example. The particulate matter in diesel fuels is one of the city's biggest public health problems. Although improvements have been made with slightly cleaner fuels and removing older, dirtier vehicles from the road, the lines of respiratory patients at the hospitals continue to grow, says Chulalongkorn Hospital's lung specialist Dr Chanchai Sitthiphan.

"The number of people with respiratory problems continues to grow over the years in Bangkok partly because of growing road traffic," he said. "Sulphur dioxide and particulate matters are the two major culprits." Biodiesel is non-toxic, non-irritating, and biodegradable. It produces 50 per cent less smog and 30 per cent less particulate matter, which is the primary by-product contributing to respiratory problems.

Certainly the benefits to Bangkokians of a much more aggressive campaign to use biodiesel could go much further than reducing our plastic bag consumption or installing more potted plants along the bus stops and sidewalks. Study after study shows there are tremendous productivity losses and huge public health costs associated with asthma and other respiratory ailments brought on by air pollution.  So why not align public sector aid in anti-global warming efforts by joining in an all out campaign for cleaner burning fuels?

While it may cut into his business, a pharmacist in my neighbourhood would very much like to see the BMA take air pollution more seriously.

"People complaining of breathing problems far outweigh those seeking medication for other ailments," he says. "Both my son and I have breathing difficulties and pills and sprays don't always help. It would be far better to just fix the problem at the source and clean-up the pollution." 

Many marketers and campaigning professionals advise that other than taxes, one of the main motivators to change public behaviour is tying an issue to public health, especially the health of their children.

So what better way to get Bangkokians interested in global warming than providing them with a road map for a better quality of life?  This is something that will help everyone.

By contrast, more Skytrains and rapid buses are not going to make much of a dent in the black smoke coming out of delivery trucks and construction equipment, not to mention they will benefit only

a small percentage of the population.

Once people see and feel that combating global warming also makes their lives a lot more enjoyable, it's going to be much easier to gain their support for more costly changes. Whether limiting the number of cars on  roadways, investing in modern, renewable electricity generating technologies or building a civil infrastructure to combat the more severe weather our warming atmosphere is likely to create, people will be far more supportive if they can directly relate to how such initiatives will benefit their own and their children's quality of life.