Indonesia's Deforestation-Fueled Wildfires May Be World's Worst Climate Crisis
A rash of wildfires in Indonesia and the resulting toxic haze of smoke and smog may be the worst climate crisis on Earth right now, NASA scientists warned this week as Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla announced that the administration was considering declaring a state of emergency.
Forest fires on the island of Sumatra, which were started in August as part of a “slash-and-burn” deforestation plan to clear land for palm oil plantations, have raged out of control for the past two months, sending thick plumes of smoke across the archipelago and much of southeast Asia, including Vietnam, Cambodia, and the Philippines.
Hundreds of thousands of people have reportedly fallen ill and 19 have died—some from battling the fires and others from exposure to the fumes. The smoke has also disrupted public transportation and forced school cancellations.
“The problem is too big,” Kalla said Tuesday, a day after President Joko Widodo cut short his first official visit to the U.S. to visit the affected areas.
Indonesia has used slash-and-burn tactics for decades. “Most burning starts on idle, already-cleared peatlands and escapes underground into an endless source of fuel,” explained David Gaveau of the Center for International Forestry Research.
Researchers with the World Resources Institute (WRI) wrote earlier this month:
But a particularly long dry season this year, along with the impacts of El Niño, have exacerbated conditions and set the outbreak on the track to be the worst environmental crisis on record.
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