I would not say with such conviction you have.. it is not this.. it is not that. One would have thought from reading in passing that it is a rigorously proven piece of exact science.

You can at most say.. it is consistent with.. it correlates with.. if that

Environmental science is difficult.. it takes a lot of painstaking work to do it right. I wouldn’t cheapen it by just using something like this with not enough data to score some points against the ancien regime. It’s not like that you have a shortage of ammo. You know.

Handley speaks Thai, lived in Thailand longer than you have, and unlike you, doesn’t consider fabrications part of Thai culture. He doesn’t drive a big car _ unlike many PAD supporters I know _ and values his family highly.

So please don’t waste people’s time.

Jo // Aug 24, 2008 at 5:10 am

Yo – you freaks are all talking about how the King is so this and that – but every country all over the world – and every president is greedy – you all complain about The Thai King – but look at Bush? He has in the last 10 years killed the majority of The Middle East – and he is close friends with Taksin – They are close friends. And Taksin’s bithazz is the one contributing to most of the problems in Thailand now – I don’t understand? The Thai people are not like you Western small-minded idiots who think driving big cars and making only money for your life is everything – they value family, and belief, and they love their country and their King – The one thing that you western freaks never learn is that to leave others alone and look at your own idiot reflection in the mirror before you try to fix everybody else’s – Since the beginning it’s pretty much been westerners going around trying to change every country to be Christian, and bombing other countries – Let me ask you a question? What is any of somelse’s business with yours? Let me tell you something this Handley. He can’t speak Thai, he’s never lived in Thailand, and doesn’t know anything about Thai Culture. Culture of a country is not written in a book – and can not be explained by words – it is felt and experienced in real time – And I am from America, but speak Thai fluently, and have lived in Thailand for already about 2 years.

I’m afraid you are more than likely right about that. And monoculture tree plantations are nothing more than green deserts that look nice from a distance. Japan provides classic examples of that- and the Japanese ones don’t really look that nice at all when vast plumes of cedar pollen are issuing from them. The Japanese have caught on to their mistake, albeit a bit late, but I am not too sanguine about the prospects here.

So much for HMK being the guiding light of the Thai nation.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/110807_News/11Aug2007_news12.php

I haven’t seen an analysis anywhere.
Does it come with property rights?
Thanks for the hydrology references.

I don’t think Andrew was arguing that destroying forests was a good idea, just that many of the ideas used to defend forest monoculture in Thailand simply do not add up, and we have to look for alternative, political explanations for how these ideas hang around. And stating the value of riparian forest is not the same as saying the Queen’s views are state-of-the-art.

Anyone worried about forests and hydrology should really start by looking at what has been written by hydrologists: start with Ian Calder or L. A. Bruijnzeel or (older:) Larry Hamilton.