The paper adds to a growing body of evidence showing how large infrastructure projects and top-down economic change can make communities in the Global South more vulnerable to climate change.
Category: Opinion
Collection of opinions relevant to the Mekong environment published in media outlets across the globe.
How Laos is overcoming landlockedness and bolstering growth
The country’s rapid growth in exports is more remarkable considering it is the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia.
Forest dictatorship at Kaeng Krachan
“Enough of your lies, cheating and violence. Enough of our hunger and loss of dignity from forced resettlement. Enough of threats and intimidation. We are going home for good.”
We neglect Asia’s freshwater fishes at our peril
But there’s no mystery about the cause of this crisis: It’s down to us – from building on wetlands and floodplains, to our poorly planned hydropower dams to over-abstraction of water for agriculture, unsustainable fishing, pollution, invasive species, sand mining and climate change.
Before the coup, Myanmar’s stunning biodiversity had a chance. Now it is not so certain
It’s understandable that the international aid community wants to distance itself from the military regime. But it’s important that development and conservation programs continue to be funded.
Complexities of Democratic Development in the Mekong
Of course, comparing democratic development in the Mekong region might sound like citing “the bad, the worse, and the ugly” but that is because we are using the most advanced frame of democracy from Western standard.
Fuel U-turn unfortunate
Launched over a decade ago, E20 — which uses ethanol from sugarcane and cassava — was at one point seen as the energy source of the future, especially when oil prices neared US$100 (3,000 baht) a barrel.
Cashing in on Sino-US ‘green’ race
Whether one cares about climate change or not, the “green industry” is the future and it is here to stay. If Thailand takes too long to realise this, it will look back and regret the great missed opportunity that was right under its nose.
ASEAN Cities Threatened By Climate Change
The devastation will be unimaginable. How long before we realise that changing lightbulbs or eating plant-based diets is simply not enough without large-scale systemic change?
Trouble Brews in South-East Asia as Thailand Rejects Laotian Dam Report
With its biggest customer increasingly alarmed by the impacts of large-scale hydropower and the viability of building dams becoming poorer and poorer, it is uncertain why Laos has clung to its hydropower ambitions quite so stubbornly.