{"id":6307,"date":"2011-10-20T02:00:51","date_gmt":"2011-10-20T10:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blitransfer.wpengine.com\/?p=6307"},"modified":"2017-06-21T14:20:49","modified_gmt":"2017-06-21T19:20:49","slug":"record-floods-in-thailand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelivingideas.com\/2011\/10\/20\/record-floods-in-thailand\/","title":{"rendered":"Record Floods in Thailand"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>While much of the United States continues with extreme droughts<\/a>, huge swaths of Asia are struggling with record rains.<\/p>\n

The Thailand floods in September and October of 2011 are some of the worst the country has seen in living memory, resulting in more than $3 billion in damage.\u00a0 The rainfall in Thailand has been about half again what is expected during a normal monsoon season.<\/p>\n

At least ten percent of Thailand\u2019s rice crop has been destroyed.\u00a0 With Thailand a leading world producer of rice, severe weather could raise food prices again this year.<\/p>\n

The waters have breached flood barriers in much of the country, including, it\u2019s rumored, in Bangkok.\u00a0 With more than nine million people living in Bangkok, there is enormous potential for loss of human life and property damage.<\/p>\n

According to Kamal Kishore of the United Nations Development Program, the problem is part nature, part manmade.<\/p>\n

In Thailand, as in much of the world, development for expanding human settlement has paved over much of the natural landscape.\u00a0 This alters drainage patterns.<\/p>\n

Bangkok used to be surrounded by marshlands, which serve as a natural buffer during wet years.\u00a0 Extensive deforestation has also resulted in increased runoff.<\/p>\n

However, it\u2019s not just Thailand.\u00a0 Since rivers flow across international borders, a dam in China can have serious consequences for a downriver country.\u00a0 Thailand and the surrounding nations will have to look at what they can do inside their borders, while working together to create a regional solution to flooding.<\/p>\n

Image by anothersaab<\/a>, used with Creative Commons license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While much of the United States continues with extreme droughts, huge swaths of Asia are struggling with record rains. The Thailand floods in September and October of 2011 are some of the worst the country has seen in living memory, resulting in more than $3 billion in damage.\u00a0 The rainfall in Thailand has been about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":6308,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false},"categories":[11,25],"tags":[2854,751,1763,1822,2154],"yst_prominent_words":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/bluelivingideas.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/Thailand-Flood.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelivingideas.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6307"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelivingideas.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelivingideas.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelivingideas.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelivingideas.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelivingideas.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6307\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelivingideas.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelivingideas.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelivingideas.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelivingideas.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6307"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelivingideas.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=6307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}