Handling the purse
Re: "MFP needs solid team", (Editorial, May 22).
I fully agree with your editorial that, being newbies in Thai politics, the Move Forward Party should not underestimate the importance of the Finance Ministry.
The Finance Ministry is one of the most important ministries in a government. It requires a credible, charismatic, and experienced leader to ensure that the country's economy is handled with utmost care and integrity as well as a fair amount of trust from the outside world.
The MFP-led government should be reminded not to give this job to any "greenhorn" that only it sees fit.
Vint Chavala
Unforeseen results
Re: "The baby bonus just does not work any more", (PostBag, May 25).
Gwynne Dyer, in his piece, was telling us that the populations of some 150 countries were declining. He was almost bemoaning that no matter what financial inducements and other benefits women were being offered, the drop in baby numbers continues.
Dyer's argument was that high population levels are essential for humanity to prosper. In 1970, only some 50 years ago, we had this first wonderful vision of our blue planet rising above our moon's horizon. Hominids (us, the surviving version) have only existed for some two million years; other creatures whose remains we find were here for hundreds of millions of years. The human population of the Earth over the last 50 years is more than double what it was in 1970.
All the problems that we face today: immigration -- caused by deprivation and war; climate change; deforestation; droughts; floods; pollution; the plundering of our world's resources, point to this extraordinary rapid increase in our numbers, bringing unintended consequences, many yet to be revealed to us.
Nick Nicholson
Meaty options
Re: "Stop the denial", (PostBag, May 22).
Eric Bahrt is correct that beef production remains a major source of greenhouse gas production, specifically methane, which "is more than 25 times as potent ... at trapping heat in the atmosphere" (US EPA, 2022) than is boring CO2.
Unfortunately, I could not find the sentence Mr Bahrt quotes that claims "Beef production remains the biggest source of greenhouse gases", which sentence, according to Google, exists solely on a few Facebook pages run by avid vegetarians, and now the Post's.
But 25% is still a lot of methane to be pumping into our atmosphere by ruminative animals converting plants into tasty flesh at low cost, except to our shared environment. Happily, methane also breaks down relatively quickly, making it sensible to focus on containing global warming.
Even more happily, science and technology now provide us with alternative ways to grow real meat without releasing harmful methane. With cultured (lab grown) meat now becoming a reality, that sustainable alternative to real meat needs to be further developed with economic incentives to make it more attractive for research and production.
Felix Qui
Error needs fixing
Yesterday, I went to Thammasat University at Tha Phrachan Campus and paid respect to the statue of Pridi Banomyong, the founder of the university and also a prime minister of the country. His story in English, written on an engraved black marble at the bottom, said he was a leader of "Khaha Ratsodon (People's Party)" not Khana Ratsadon, as I remembered. (According to Ajarn Plueng Na Nakhon's dictionary, Khaka means house while Khana means party and group).
I just hope someone helped correct this misspelling, as this name is important, isn't it?
Teacher Yongyut, Nakhon Nayok
