Haze risk returns as fires increase in Indonesia
Please visit the source of this article: Mongabay.com
The number of forest fires burning in Indonesia is increasing, raising concerns for the potential return of choking haze to the region.
NASA satellite imagery released Tuesday reveals hundreds of “hot spots” burning in Sumatra, Kalimantan (on the island of Borneo), and southern Papua (on the island of New Guinea). The fires are set annually by landowners seeking to clear scrub and forest for the establishment of plantation crops, especially oil palm, which is used for making palm oil. In dry years the fires can burn for months, spreading into pristine rainforest areas and releasing large volumes of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
The fires will be closely monitored by Indonesia, its neighbors, and environmentalists due to the wide-ranging impacts of previous burning seasons. Fires in some years have caused tens of billions in health and economic damages while releasing as much as two billion tons of carbon dioxide. Fires in peat swamps are a particularly large source of emissions.
Under an agreement with Singapore and Malaysia, Indonesia has pledged to reduce the number of hotspots by 50 percent by 2009, 75 percent by 2012, and 95 percent by 2025. 144,000 hotspots were recorded in Sumatra in 2006, although the number feel to 35,000 in 2007 due to wetter conditions.
NASA reports that the environmental group WWF will be using MODIS satellite data to track the Indonesian government’s progress in controlling fires. MODIS data will be provided via the University of Maryland’s Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS), an alert system that tracks hot spots in real time.
August 26th, 2008 at 9:48 pm
Makes me think that one of these years the planet will be nothing but one large city and one large farm. I think we should move to Mars and let the animals have the planet back.