ABOVE: Crowds line up for photos in front of a sign in front of a new mall on its opening day March 27. Photo: Coconuts Bangkok
Why is Thailand backing environmentally destructive hydroelectric projects along the Mekong River? To keep our luxury malls along Sukhumvit Road nice and cool, of course
Bangkok’s Siam Paragon mall alone consumes about twice the power as the quarter million residents in Mae Hong Son province, according to data assembled in December by Mekong Commons and republished Sunday by Quartz.
“As Thailand’s natural gas supplies run low, that electricity increasingly comes from environmentally destructive dams on the Lower Mekong River, particularly in Laos,” Adam Pasick writes. “Some 240 million people in the region depend on the river for their livelihoods.”
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