Carbon from Indonesia fires exceeds US emissions: Green groups

The World Resources Institute, using findings from the Global Fire Emissions Database, said in a recent report that since early September carbon emissions from the fires had exceeded average US daily output on 26 out of 44 days.
Channel NewsAsia 21 Oct 15;

JAKARTA: Indonesian forest and agricultural fires cloaking Southeast Asia in acrid haze are spewing more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere each day than all US economic activity, according to an environmental watchdog.

The shock assessment came as Jakarta said the number of blazes was increasing across the archipelago despite a multinational fire-fighting effort, and announced plans to deploy more water-bombing aircraft.

For nearly two months, thousands of fires caused by slash-and-burn farming have suffocated vast expanses of the region with smog, causing respiratory illnesses to soar, schools to close, and scores of flights and some international events to be cancelled.

Much of the burning is in tropical peatlands rich in carbon but which are being drained and cleared at a rapid rate to make way for agriculture, particularly fast-expanding palm oil plantations.

The World Resources Institute said in a recent report that since early September carbon emissions from the fires had exceeded average US daily output on 26 out of 44 days.

The United States is the world's second-largest greenhouse gas source after China. The WRI, a US-based research organisation that focuses on environment and development issues, normally classifies Indonesia as the fifth-biggest emitter.

"The burning of tropical peatlands is so significant for greenhouse gas emissions because these areas store some of the highest quantities of carbon on Earth, accumulated over thousands of years," said the WRI.

"Draining and burning these lands for agricultural expansion, such as conversion to oil palm or pulpwood plantations, leads to huge spikes in greenhouse gas emissions."

In its report, the WRI used findings from the Global Fire Emissions Database, which uses satellite information to estimate emissions from blazes.

The smog crisis is escalating as world leaders gear up for talks beginning next month on a climate rescue pact, which will seek to limit global warming to two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-Industrial Revolution levels.

FIRES SPREADING

The fires and resulting region-wide blanket of smoke occur to varying degrees each year during the dry season as land is illegally cleared by burning, regularly angering Indonesia's smog-hit neighbours Malaysia and Singapore.

Malaysia, which in recent weeks has repeatedly ordered school closures across several states as a health precaution, did so again on Wednesday for the third straight day as pollution levels climbed.

The landmark twin towers in the capital Kuala Lumpur were shrouded in dense, grey smog, with air quality in the "very unhealthy" or "unhealthy" range across much of the country. In Singapore, air quality was in the "unhealthy" range.

Popular Thai holiday islands have also been affected with the haze forcing several planes packed with beach-bound tourists to turn back earlier this month.

While the loudest complaints have come from leaders in relatively affluent Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, it is poor Indonesian villagers who are suffering most.

One of the worst-hit areas, Palangkaraya, on Borneo, has been engulfed in thick, yellow haze, which has drastically reduced visibility and pushed air quality to more than six times "hazardous" levels.

Experts warn the current outbreak is on track to become the worst ever, exacerbated by bone-dry conditions caused by the El Nino weather phenomenon.

The fires on the huge islands of Sumatra and Borneo are typically only brought under control by November with the onset of the rainy season.

But Herry Purnomo, a scientist at the Indonesia-based Center for International Forestry Research, told AFP this week that climatology data indicated the rainy season may be delayed this year and that the fires could last until year-end.

Indonesia earlier this month agreed to accept international help after failing for weeks to douse the fires and last week launched its biggest fire-fighting push yet, with dozens of planes backing up thousands of personnel on the ground.

But the national disaster agency said the number of "hotspots" - areas detected by satellite which are already ablaze, or ripe to go up in flames - had risen to more than 3,200 and spread to the eastern Papua region, which is usually largely unaffected by fires.

Authorities hope to deploy a further 10 to 15 water-bombing planes, which will join about 30 aircraft already fighting the blazes. Singaporean and Malaysian aircraft have taken part in the operations, while two Russian planes arrived Wednesday to provide assistance.

- AFP/rw/ec


Indonesia's carbon emissions set to cross 2006 crisis level
David Fogarty, The Straits Times/ANN Jakarta Globe 22 oct 15;

Emissions from forest and land fires in Indonesia have rocketed in the past two weeks and will today surpass the total emissions for the 2006 fire crisis, the country's second-worst on record, according to an analysis of Nasa satellite data.

Fires have raged across large parts of Indonesia, particularly Sumatra and Kalimantan, for the past two months. Over the past two weeks, total emissions have soared from nearly one billion tonnes to nearly 1.4 billion tonnes.

The Washington-based World Resources Institute (WRI), using findings from the Global Fire Emissions Database (GFED), said in a recent report that since early last month, carbon emissions from the fires had exceeded average United States daily output on 26 out of 44 days. The US is the world's No. 2 carbon polluter after China.

Much of the burning is in peatlands rich in carbon but which are being drained and cleared for agriculture, particularly oil palm and pulpwood plantations.

Very few fire episodes globally, except Indonesia's 1997 fire crisis and massive fires in the Amazon early last decade, compared to what is occurring now, said Dr Guido van der Werf of the Faculty of Earth and Life Sciences at Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam.

"This is a different magnitude," he said. Dr van der Werf analyses daily hot spot data from National Aeronautics and Space Administration satellites and is a specialist in estimating greenhouse gas emissions from fires. He has been running daily analyses on the blazes in Indonesia for the GFED.

Along with emissions, the number of fires has soared as well, with Dr van der Werf's team recording more than 108,000 since the start of this year. His analysis for yesterday showed total emissions to be just a fraction under the 2006 total and expected the number to easily exceed 2006 levels by today.

With no rains expected until year end, Indonesia is rapidly closing in on the emissions record set in 1997, when haze produced by its worst forest fires blanketed large parts of South-east Asia.

Experts warn that the current outbreak is on track to become the worst ever, exacerbated by bone- dry conditions caused by the El Nino weather phenomenon. That could hurt Indonesia's climate emissions reduction pledge for a major United Nations climate conference in Paris in December. Carbon dioxide is the main greenhouse gas blamed for driving climate change.

"The burning of tropical peatlands is so significant for greenhouse gas emissions because these areas store some of the highest quantities of carbon on earth, accumulated over thousands of years," WRI said.

Dr Herry Purnomo, a scientist at the Indonesia-based Centre for International Forestry Research (Cifor), told Agence France-Presse this week that climatology data indicated the rainy season may be delayed and that the fires could last until year end. Yesterday, a Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency official also predicted the rainy season, which normally starts in November, would be delayed until December, Tempo.co reported.

The fires could also be producing more emissions than estimated.

"My guess is what we are going to see out here is much higher emissions than from your average fires," Dr Louis Verchot, Cifor's director of forests and environment, told The Straits Times last week.

Global NGO Wetlands International, in a position paper yesterday, urged Indonesia to adopt better peatland management practices. It also said Indonesia needed to develop a national peatland conservation and restoration strategy.

It recommended that Indonesia restore and conserve unused peatland, stop further drainage, block existing drainage canals and phase out drainage-based plantations, among other measures. (k)


Fires in Southeast Asia may be emitting more greenhouse gases than the entire U.S.
JONATHAN KAIMAN Los Angeles Times 21 Oct 15;

A toxic haze has repeatedly wafted over huge swaths of Southeast Asia in the last month, causing school closures, grounded flights, canceled events and widespread concern about public health risks across the region. Here’s what you need to know about the Great Haze of 2015.

Nearly 100,000 fires are burning, setting up what looks to be the worst fire year in the region since 2006. The carbon emissions from the blazes have now surpassed those of the entire United States — the world’s second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases — on 26 out of 44 days since September, according to a report by the World Resources Institute.

That’s because about half the fires are in peatland areas — concentrated mainly in South Sumatra, South and Central Kalimantan, and Papua — that are among Earth’s biggest carbon storehouses.

Compared with ordinary fires, peat fires can emit up to 10 times more methane, a greenhouse gas whose impact on climate change is 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The immediate effects on health are even more worrying.

What’s going on?
Every dry season, parts of Indonesia’s Sumatra, Kalimantan and Papua areas are reduced to smoking, burned-out landscapes, as palm oil and paper-and-pulp plantation farmers burn forests to cheaply clear agricultural land.

The upshot is a whole lot of smoke — enough to create a billowy haze which, since late September, has engulfed swaths of Indonesia, Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore, southern Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and the Philippines.

On Monday night, in parts of Singapore, one of the world’s most fastidious cities, readings of PM2.5 — particulate matter small enough to enter the bloodstream — soared to 471, shrouding the city in a deep grey smog that called to mind industrial centers like Beijing.

How bad is it, really?
It’s bad. Aside from posing a clear public health hazard — the World Health Organization estimated last May that 7 million deaths a year were linked to air pollution — the haze has put a major damper on the daily lives of millions.

Singapore canceled the 2015 FINA Swimming World Cup, and Malaysia canceled the Kuala Lumpur marathon. As monsoon winds blew the haze northeast from Indonesia, officials on the Philippine island of Cebu grounded flights due to low visibility.

The Malaysian government has advised asthma sufferers to remain indoors and ordered temporary school closures across four states and in the capital, Kuala Lumpur. In early September, an Indonesian government ministry declared a state of emergency across six provinces. Some of the country’s pharmacies have started selling bottled oxygen.

Has this happened before?
The haze has been a periodic event since the 1970s. Yet this year, a particularly dry autumn in Indonesia, brought on by the El Nino weather event, has made the haze one of the worst on record — about as bad as in 2006, when NASA satellite images showed the smoky clouds extending all the way to South Korea.

What is this doing to the environment?
Nearly 100,000 fires have been detected in Indonesia this year, according to Guido van der Werf, an expert on wildfire emissions at VU University Amsterdam. More than half of the fires have occurred on carbon-packed peatland — land covered in dense layers of decayed organic matter, which produces thick, acrid smoke when it burns.

Together, they’ve generated an estimated 600 million tons of greenhouse gases, he wrote on the Global Fire Emissions Database — about as much as Germany emits in a year.

What are countries doing about it?
Indonesia has deployed 14 helicopters to douse flames in Sumatra and Kalimantan, and has begun encouraging plantations to adopt more environmentally friendly agricultural techniques on peatlands.

Early this month, the country’s government — after repeatedly insisting that it could take care of the fires on its own — agreed to accept offers of personnel and equipment from Singapore, Malaysia, Russia and Japan to help douse the infernos. Singapore is also doing its bit: this year, the country began allowing legislators to prosecute companies — both local and foreign — that are involved in causing the fires.

"We have done the best we can,” the head of Indonesia's disaster agency, Willem Rampangilei, told reporters in early October. "It is understandable if other countries are upset, but we Indonesians are more upset."

And yet...
However, the Indonesian government has come under fire for not doing more to put the problem to rest.

In late September, about 150 protesters from 10 student and nonprofit groups gathered in Palangka Raya, in Central Kalimantan province, to protest what they described as official inaction. “We want disaster management teams to be prepared in advance in order to safeguard people’s health,” Ali Wardana, one of the protest leaders, told the Singaporean broadcaster ChannelNewsAsia. “And we want sanctions against those who burn the land for profit.”


South-East Asian haze strikes the Pacific as fires exceed greenhouse gas output of the US
ABC News 21 Oct 15;

Indonesian forest and agricultural fires cloaking South-East Asia in acrid haze are spewing more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere each day than all United States economic activity, according to an environmental watchdog.

The shock assessment came as Jakarta said the number of blazes was increasing across the archipelago despite a multinational firefighting effort, and announced plans to deploy more water-bombing aircraft.

The haze, which has sent air quality levels up to "very unhealthy" levels in neighbouring Malaysia and Singapore, is now affecting the Pacific nations of Guam, Palau and the Northern Marianas.

Guam's Office of Homeland Security and Civil Defence spokesperson Jenna Gaminde has warned the public to expect the haze to reduce visibility and adversely affect those with respiratory issues.

Western Melanesia is currently susceptible to winds from typhoons Koppu and Champi pulling smoke plumes from vast fires in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.

For nearly two months, thousands of fires caused by slash-and-burn farming have suffocated vast expanses of the region with smog, causing respiratory illnesses to soar, schools to close, and scores of flights and some international events to be cancelled.


The World Resources Institute (WRI) said in a recent report that since early September, carbon emissions from the fires had exceeded average US daily output on 26 out of 44 days.

The US is the world's second-largest greenhouse gas source after China. The WRI normally classifies Indonesia as the fifth-largest emitter.

"The burning of tropical peatlands is so significant for greenhouse gas emissions because these areas store some of the highest quantities of carbon on Earth, accumulated over thousands of years," the WRI, which used findings from the Global Fire Emissions Database for the report, said.

Much of the burning is in peatlands, drained and cleared by farmers illegally, and at a rapid rate, to make way for agriculture and in particular fast-expanding palm oil plantations.

Borders no barrier to haze

Malaysia, which in recent weeks has repeatedly ordered school closures across several states as a health precaution, did so again on Wednesday for the third straight day as pollution levels climbed.

Air quality was in the "very unhealthy" range near the capital Kuala Lumpur, under the government's rating system, with much of the rest of the country experiencing "unhealthy" air.

In Singapore, air quality was also in the "unhealthy" range.

What's behind the haze?

Find out what is behind the choking smoke covering Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore.
Popular Thai holiday islands have also been affected, forcing several planes packed with beach-bound tourists to turn back earlier this month.

Experts warn the current outbreak is on track to become the worst ever, exacerbated by bone-dry conditions caused by the El Nino weather phenomenon.

The fires on the huge islands of Sumatra and Borneo are typically only brought under control by November with the onset of the rainy season.

But Herry Purnomo, a scientist at the Indonesia-based Centre for International Forestry Research, said that climatology data indicated the rainy season may be delayed this year and that the fires could last until year's end.

As well as on Sumatra and the Indonesian part of Borneo, a substantial number had been detected in the easternmost region of Papua, the agency said. Papua is not typically affected by widespread outbreaks of agricultural fires.

Australian firefighters assist in 'mammoth size' battle

At a cabinet meeting late on Tuesday, the Indonesian government decided it needed another 10 to 15 water-bombing planes which it planned to rent from international allies, agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said.

About 30 planes are currently involved in water-bombing and artificially inducing rain, with Singaporean, Australian and Malaysian aircraft having taken part.

Two Russian planes also arrived on Wednesday to provide assistance.

Superintendent Ben Millington of New South Wales' Rural Fire Service recently returned from a seven-day deployment in Sumatra, and he reported that "the fires aren't expected to be put out any time soon".

"The task ahead is one of a mammoth size," he told the ABC's The World program.

"On Monday alone there was 236 fires or hotspots burning on the island of Sumatra alone."

But with Indonesia experiencing a prolonged dry season with no rain in sight, manned efforts to put out the fires remain hindered.

Mr Millington added that Australia is to remain in ongoing discussions with Indonesian authorities, but "until they experience their traditional wet season those fires will most likely continue to burn".