BreakFree2016 in Thailand
By Areeya Tivasuradej
It was a Friday afternoon in early May. I just walked through old town Bangkok for a kilometer before I saw my friend at a cafe. My back was all wet with sweat. Thailand’s hottest days are usually around mid-April when Thais celebrate Songkran, traditional new year. But that was two weeks ago. The news reported this morning that Thailand is facing prolonged drought and it could be hotter than 2015, the hottest year.
“What do you know about #BreakFree2016? Should we do something?”
A Thai climate justice activist asked me after spending at least 2 hours talking about all-things Thai and the environmental movement in Thailand while we’re sipping coffee and devouring ice-cream at a cafe. She’s been a friend and a teacher, who’s slowly turning into my partner in change. Our dialogue turned into a brainstorm session on how we could take part in the collective action to keep fossil fuels in the ground.
During Songkran, EGAT, Thailand’s electricity generating authority, reported the nation used 29,000MW, surpassing its previous peak demand, but there was nothing to worry as we could generate over 40,000MW. This means that we have at least 11,000MW left in reserve or 38%. But even with 38% reserved, Thailand’s PDP lists 5,800 MW of coal-fired power plants to be built over the next 20 years. The country explains that it’s still a developing country and it needs to boost economy. But we have enough of this.
Our water is poisoned because of mines. Our air is polluted because of coal-fired power plants. Our fish is disappearing because of hydropower dams. Our students and workers are falling asleep after breathing in exhausts during morning commutes. Our children and adults are losing green space to connect with Nature. We are facing food insecurity for the sake of development.
What can we do to make the world a better place? I usually hear adults say youth is the future of the country, but I disagree. Youth is here and youth is now. We can tackle the problem and be part of the solution towards a just and ecological-respected society. What can we actually do?
We start looking and talking.
News reported many communities throughout Thailand are standing firm to protect their homes and livelihoods against fossil fuels and extractive industries. During the past few years, coal has become the main threat to local self-sufficient livelihoods in Thailand. But it’s not like we don’t have a lesson from coal.
The largest lignite mine and coal-fired power plants in Thailand is in Mae Moh of a northern province named Lampang. Thousands of people are forced to move out to make way for the project. Those who remain suffer from respiratory related diseases. Many have lost their family members to coal ash. Mae Moh has become a tragic warning and a reminder for other communities in Thailand to take caution when they hear a coal-related project proposal arriving their communities.
Grassroots resistance has sprung up to shield themselves from coal. In northeastern Thailand, Bamnetnarong of Chaiyaphoom Province poses question to potential toxic pollution in the community’s 120 acre freshwater lake and protests a 55MW coal-fired power plant which will serve an underground potash mine. In the north, Ban Haeng of Lampang persevere fearlessly to keep its ground from a lignite coal mine. Down south, communities in Thepa urge neighbors and Thai public to step away from adding toxic 2,200MW coal project into ongoing violence in the area. Krabi is calling a united voice to protect coastal and marine landscape from an 800 coal-fired power plant project.
Grassroots resistance remains persistent but it’s being crippled by the interim constitution and laws oppressing public dissidence. Thailand has been under the military coup, known publicly as National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), for over 700 days. They impose laws limiting public assembly, freedom of expression, freedom to criticize national policies. Additionally there are orders to convert green space into industrial zones, exempt environmental impact assessments and open spaces for industrialization under the name “special economic zone,” as well as forced eviction of local communities from the forests for the sake of conservation. There is also an order that allows authority to take a person in custody without notice or clarification if he deemed a potential threat to national security. Above all, the junta empowers itself with Article 44 of the interim constitution and justify punishment on any acts “deemed harmful to national peace and stability.”
I see frontline communities who are simply trying to keep their homes and environment sustainable being harassed by these laws. I felt that at least we could do something to show our supports to their movements.
One key opportunity is to make Thailand obliged to its intention to reduce emission. Thailand pledged to reduce 20–25% from 2005 BAU in its INDC. But that’s just another BAU because it still means hundreds of million tons of CO2 emission per year from burning fossil fuels. That’s not the future we want. We need something more radical. We need real action to take part in this global action. We want to break free from fossil fuel and keep it in the ground.
But we cannot do it alone. Thai public has to realize that we can be part of the solution to keep humanity from climate apocalypse. We have to at least get people to realize that we can do this and we are not alone. The whole world is doing something to make their voices heard. 10,000+ in the Philippines demand a moratorium for a proposed 600MW coal-fired power plant in Batangas. Los Angeles is marching to stop urban oil drill. 3,000 europeans gather in Proschim, Germany to shut down a coal mine. 3,000 people rallied in Jakarta to say an end to coal and a beginning to 100% renewable energy.
How can we get Thai public to feel the global momentum? Thousands of pictures and words are in foreign languages that make many Thais feel distant. To overcome this, we decide to ask our friends to take part and set up a translation team. They turn into a group of passionate volunteers who take their time to make these amazing stories, compiled mostly by 350.org, accessible for Thai readers.
To avoid risks of getting arrested but still get people to act, we launch an online campaign between May 17–20. Our requests require the audience to do 3 things: 1) go through an album of photos we created to explain climate change in Thai context and the urgency to Break Free from Fossil Fuels; 2) find a piece of paper and write their own message with hashtags: #BreakFree2016, #THClimate, #NoCoal; and 3) share the campaign by posting their pictures on social media and talking to friends. This would take them 10 minutes.
We also reached out to communities. We shared with them stories about #BreakFree2016 and to let them know that they are not alone. Bamnetnarong, Ban Haeng and Krabi joined our #BreakFree2016 online activity and spread their message via social media.
On the last day of the campaign, several friends and I meet up in front of one of the two gas power plants in Bangkok for a final photo act. This power plant located at the headquarter of EGAT — the Electricity Generation Authority of Thailand — who make decisions how power are generated in the country. It also symbolizes that Bangkok can generate only a quarter of its own electricity demand while we consume one third of what is produced from the whole country. This photo act is not as dramatic as pictures of our friends shutting down coal mine or marching through their cities to call for a complete independence from fossil fuels. But we thought it would at least spark people in Thailand to question the real cause of climate change and draw attentions to responsibilities of the authorities to guarantee our livable future. More importantly, we hope this abrupt online campaign would lead to more discussions on the need to break free from fossil fuels and the urgency to rethink development route.
Two days after our campaign, Bamnetnarong community releases a statement urging the military force to stop threatening and harassing anti-coal movement. The statement is a response to an incidence on the morning of May 21when two men in military uniform, one plainclothes officer and a local village administrative seek for a community organizer who have been actively engaging in Bamnetnarong anti-coal movement. Fortunately he is not home so they leave for his office and find no one. They come back to his house to photograph the house and his sister and finally leave.
Such incident is perceived to be an act to threaten any opposition to the coal project and a violation on human rights to protect his/her life and environment and freedom of expression. Sadly, this is not only happening in Bamnetnarong; it’s happening everyday and everywhere in Thailand wherever there is a strong voice against extractive and fossil fuel projects.
Our #BreakFree2016 online campaign is not huge. But at least we believe that this will be a start of a dialogue to put a real end on fossil fuel and move towards something more ecologically democratic and safe air and water.
