green | Sw-Eden.NET

5 years ago, I walk into the field of architecture with my best skill of artist and my proud knowledge from Mahidol Wittayanusorn school of science. I did not expect anything from this field, but I thought that architecture should have been the easiest way to graduate. Not so long time ago, my meaning of “Architecture” was changed. I saw many under-constructional areas around my village. Those places had been farm before, but then, they were just the surface of concrete and concrete housing.

Kanjanaburi, photo by Sw Eden on Flickr

Thailand is considered as a perfect country which its land can grow almost kinds of agricultural plants, and has a vast area of forest. King Bhumibol Adulyadej has kept teaching people to head to develop agriculture instead of industrial. Thailand is already good at agriculture, but Thai people just need to make it better and greater. Only less number of capitalists can hear what the King says. They have changed green lands to be nongreen buildings to make a lot of money. My family has been one of foolish people who stepped into their traps. 1997, when I was 10 years old, my family moved to their housing, which built on top of a lotus farm. Many city people love to move out from the crowd areas into suburban housing. They escape from traffic-jam streets and high-pollution air. Most of them have to have their own cars to use in rush hour to go to work in the city. They waste the gas/benzine and also waste the material to make the cars.

Moving Car, photo by Sw Eden on Flickr

The happy life with fresh air could not stay with the city people in suburban so long. When the capitalists invested in malls or supermarkets around those housings, the peaceful areas became the expanded city. The air and noise pollution came into the place. The time to move has come again then. The green areas have been destroyed very fast around many cities in Thailand, such as Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Songkla. Most capitalists do not do a green design, because they just want to pay less. They put a beautiful picture of house with a big grass field on the advertising board. We call those boards, “Air Junk”, because they hide all scenery and wind. People pay for those advertising housing projects before seeing the real houses. Most of real-estate projects in Thailand, people need to pay for every step to build a house, not pay for a finished house. The results that they get are small green areas, because most of green areas are cut to be the main circulation of the project, and that is made by concrete.

The expansion of the city may be a good economic sign in the business term or for the government, but in fact, it is a sign of disaster for environment and for an agriculture country as Thailand. The houses, buildings and factory keep releasing heat and toxic into the natural resources. They do not only hurt the nature by themselves, but they are also harmful for the agriculture areas around. Thai Government announced that rain of all province was not drinkable, because it contained very toxic substance. Although the toxic makers are in the city, the toxic can spread around many places, covering the tropical jungle area in Nakornsritummarach, the north east of Thailand.

Sprash Water, Thai Kid, photo by Sw Eden on Flickr

Cathleen McGuigan wrote on NewWeek.com under a topic of “The Bad News About Green Architecture” about the unpleasantness in the design of green building. She described that the green buildings work so good by themselves, but people still have to drive to work. In my opinion, moral is more important than an object. One Bryant Park has a system of recapturing rainwater which is good, but many people who do not pay for the water bill will never think about saving the water. For example, many women always turn on the tap when they are doing their hair in public restrooms, and many men liked to do that when they are shaving. I have visited a company that my parent worked with, and I saw the janitor turn on all taps in the restroom at the same time to clean an individual sink. Moreover, he spilled some detergent on the restroom floor, and he used whole roll of paper towel to absorb it, then he threw that roll away. Paper is made by the trees. If only people waste and kind of material, that is the way they waste the energy, because all manufacture processes have to use the energy. This mean many people cannot change their attitude, if the results do not impact them directly. If we can change their habits, the world will be able to save the energy by this method more than the green design many times.

Want to pee again, photo by Sw Eden on Flickr

Not only the gray water system that One Bryant Park has, it also has air-condition ventilator on the floor. Most of buildings in the world have air-condition on the ceiling, which is far from human living space. What One Bryant Park does should be so good during the winter, because people love to feel hotter at their feet and feel colder at their heads.

Green design is enjoyable as people love to hang out in the park. People like the sun rather than a electric bulb. I always cheer the green design, but we have to accept that there is no building in the world can be 100% green. Although the big window can save the electricity used in bulb, the building also lose its heat in the winder through the window about 30 times bigger than the wall. If the office loves to use air-condition so much, the big window can also heat the interior up as the system of greenhouse effect. The better way to save the energy during the summer is using fans and open windows instead of air-condition, but it is still the problem for the offices in the high pollution areas.

Narita Airport Facade, photo by Sw Eden on Flickr

One of the towers of K Bank (Kasikorn) in Thailand uses a special kind of glass for their facade. Its glass does not create greenhouse effect as other towers do. The color of its glasses seems white and can reflect the light very well. It is not dark color that will absorb the heat into the glass itself. Considering about the north pole, Greenland and the south pole, they are not only the cold place to keep the world cold, but they are also big white areas to reflect the heat out from the world. I tried to say that the colors of facade and rooftop are very important, too.

I went to Japan accidentally when the flight to USA was delayed. Narita Airport sent Thai people into its hotel for one night. It was winter at that time. We could not make a far trip, because we did not have Japanese visas. I walked to see its swimming pool. It was surprising me that it was covered by half-sphere glasses, and the water was one of the glass’ layers. The temperature was quite fine. The water can act better than the gas or air space actually. If you are a Bible reader and you can remember the Great Flood (Noah’s Ark), the water was from the sky and that means the planet earth had been surrounded by the water. The water can prevent many kinds of rays from the universe and the sun, and it acts very well in this Japanese swimming pool. The Bible also shows that after the Great Flood, humans’ ages were reduces from 800 to be less than 100 years old. Humans’ genes began to have mistake, because the water-atmosphere was destroyed. Brother and sister could not marry anymore after that time.

Koh Chang Tropicana Thai Spa, photo by Sw Eden on Flickr

For the case of using gray water in flush toilets, I cannot say that the toxic rain may destroy the toilet, and the owners may need to pay more to repair whole things. I had talked with a ship owner when I went to at the south ocean of Thailand. I asked him for the reason that he still used tab water for flush toilets in the ship, because he could get salt water from the sea very easily. He told me that salt water had destroyed his flush toilets before. I cannot fully believe in his words, when I think about how much pH in human’s urine comparing with pH in salt water. The rainwater should not have less pH than human’s urine, too. That’s mean using gray water may be good enough to be considered as a part of green design.

The Gherkin Building in London should be praised, especially its system of natural air ventilation which is created by the tower’s aerodynamic form and ‘double skin’ facade (Hannah Bullock, http://www.forumforthefuture.org.uk, 2003). Moreover it support the biking people by its bicycle service.

Queen Sirikit Botanic Garden, photo by Sw Eden on Flickr

For car industry, many new electricity cars were produced, because people believe that using the electric city is better for environment rather that using benzene. If they consider about electricity producing process, both types of cars are not much different. Most electricity is from coal factory outside the city. To use electricity cars is only move the pollution in the city to outside the city. All still heat up the world.

To get a clear energy may cost higher at the first installing, but it works very well in long term and it is also good to the world, too. The words that pop-up in your head should be solar, wind and water from dam. We can also think about other cheaper things to install, such as roof pond and water coil on the roof to make hot water for hot country.

Concrete Dam Water Container, photo by Sw Eden on Flickr

Dams are something truly green, although they do not look green. A dam does not only produce a lot of electricity, but it can be the biggest green project in the world. Although the government have to destroy a lot of forest area to make a dam and the concrete surface can heat up the temperature around, the dam can keep the water to serve people all year long. When people have water to use, especially for agriculture, they will create the evergreen lands around the rivers, because the rivers have never dried. The places that had been desert during the summer time, the dams can make it to be evergreen territory for whole year. I visited many dams in Thailand during my vacations. The weather was quite hot, especially on the highest part of the dams. People cannot stand without umbrellas in the sunny day. I looked into the town side, and I was very impressed. All territory was green with banana and rice farms. That dam is, “Kun-Dan” Dam (เขื่อนขุนด่าน) in Nakorn Nayok.

เขื่อนขุนด่าน Kun-Dan Dam, photo by Sw Eden on Flickr

I was in a seminar of Dr. Smith Dharmasaroja with other Silpakorn University professors and students in 2008. Dr. Smith explained about the disaster from the dam in the north part of the world. He said that that the current planet earth was just like a feeble spinning top with 23 degree leaning, and if people kept making dams above the equator, the earth would be end faster. Most of the lands on the earth are above the equator, so most of the dams will be above equator, too. This may be real, but I cannot fully believe it, because I cannot know if the south part of the world is exact the below part of the spinning top. The words, “North Pole” and “South Pole” are only what humans used to call for representation. (The first map was made by European, so they would love to show themselves on the North.) If we do not consider about what Dr. Smith said, the dam is still not so useful in many ways as I mentioned before.

Snow At prospect park, photo by Sw Eden on Flickr

I also have another reason to support that the south pole can be the top part of the world, if the world acts like a spinning top. Generally, we know that a biggest ozone hole is at the south pole, and the air of south pole is the lowest moisture air in the world (like the desert air). That mean the south pole does not have much of substance in atmosphere. If we notice the hurricane which acts in the same way, we will see the cloudless space at the eye of hurricane, which is the top part of it. That is the reason that I guess that the south pole is the real top side of the world. You can simply test this method at home. You just have a bowl of water with some sand or dust in it, and then you stir the water around; you will see the dust crowd at the bottom, and the water is hollow at the top when you are stirring.

NASA already found the water on the moon. It also loves to research the Mar. That means humans are looking for new places to live. Why don’t they want to make the world better rather than being hopeless to keep the world green. We cannot stop people who cut the trees down. We cannot stop people who burn the forest. We cannot stop people who keep punching the holes at the north pole for their ice testings (the ice melts faster if the bigger surface touch the water). We cannot stop people who consume everything wastefully. The results are bigger and stronger hurricanes and toxic. Finally, their acts just kill other innocent people who may have never hurt the world.

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Thailand is a tropical country which is rich with culture and natural environment. There are many kinds of forests in Thailand and many groups of people who live in them. Some of Thai cultures help to keep the forest environments. There are 3 groups of people who are not so well-known. They live in 3 different forests, and their life routines and their traditions do not hurt the forest and also keep it more plentiful. They are the tribesmen who live in the mountains, the houseboat families who live in mangrove forest and the people who live in deciduous forest.

The tribesmen’s beliefs help to keep the tropical forest on the mountains in the north of Thailand pure. These people believe in ghosts, and those ghosts live in the trees, so they have to protect the trees. They do not cut the big trees because they believe that the big ghosts live in them. Moreover, all children who are already 5 years old will grow the trees because each of them has to have a ghost to looking after, for their whole life. There are only two reasons that these tribesmen can cut the trees. The first reason is when they need new houses for their marriages. The second reason is when they need the area for their farms. For this second reason, they will cut only the small trees which are younger than ten years old. In my opinion, this is very interesting, that their belief which most people think that are stupid, can protect the forest much more wiser than people with education.

When I went to the west of Thailand with my high school friends, I met another community who grew the trees in deciduous forests correctly. Their lives was more modern than the tribemen. In fact, this has been a project of the Thai King since many decades ago. He began to inspire and give the growing tree methods to these people after Thailand lost more than half of its trees in this forest to Myanmar. Before this project began, many Thai people who wanted to grow the big trees in this forest would cut all grasses and small trees down, then, they put the seeds of big trees in. The seeds of the big trees cannot grow without other small trees, which grow more quickly at first and protect the big trees from the sun and animals. The group of people I met did not take anything from the land. They knew that the nature had its own way to bear again. What they can do was help the nature’s development to be faster. I did not just see their activities; I also visited some tunnels on the mountains. I had a hard time to get to those tunnels. I had to climb a wet mountain all along the way. There were no stairs there, and this was the only place in Thailand which did not have stairs for the visitors. It means they really kept the nature purely. I found many strange and colorful insects and they were not afraid of me. That was because no one disturbed them. In the tunnel, the water dropped from the top stones. All I saw, were the ways that people in this forest kept their homes naturally.

I also visit the mangrove forest every year and once, I found a group of house-boat families who were very harmonious with the mangrove forest environment. I was very excited the first time I saw their boat-houses, because I had seen people in other mangrove forests cut the trees and make houses on the land. I think that they did clever things because the level of the water always changed in the afternoon and at night. I saw the ways they found their food, and it was very intelligent. They made a big room with bamboo under the sea and its door faced to the direction of water. When there were many fish in that room, they would close it and take only the fish they could eat. The small fish and the other useless animal would be released back into the sea. They also got sea mussels by hanging a piece of rope down into the sea and the sea mussels would attach to it by themselves. These ways to find food were much more intelligent than other fishermen who use electricity and nets. Electricity can kill every animal around that area, and most of them cannot be consumed. Nets catch all sizes of the fish, and small fish get caught although no one wants to eat them. This is why I really like the boat-house living. Their perfect life does not hurt any the life cycle in the sea.

In conclusion, all these three groups of people who live with nature can adapt themselves to it, although most people in the world take the natural resources for themselves and waste them very fast. All people who have good knowledge and are destroying the world should be ashamed, at least if they see these three groups of common folks.