Toxic fumes from the Indonesian fires that have spread a choking haze across Southeast Asia might be doing more harm to human and plant health than officials have indicated, scientists measuring the pollution said.
Farmers are expecting a poor harvest, because plants have too little sunlight for normal photosynthesis, while government figures of 500,000 people sickened by the smoke are only the “tip of the iceberg,” said Louis Verchot, a scientist with the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR).
Meanwhile, the fires are converting carbon stored in burning peatlands into greenhouse gases, contributing to climate change.
Illustration: Kevin Sheu
“When the sun goes up, the whole world is yellow. On the worst day, the visibility was less than 100m,” said Verchot, who led a workshop on the crisis in Central Kalimantan province last month with about 20 scientists from Indonesia, the US and Britain.
While taking measurements on a burning 5,000-hectare plot, the scientists — equipped with gas masks and a drone — trod carefully across the ash-covered peatland to avoid calf-deep holes, hot from the smoldering underground.
They are still analyzing their data, but Verchot said they had found harmful gases in the air including ozone, carbon monoxide, cyanide, ammonia, formaldehyde, nitric oxide and methane.
“It irritates your eyes, it irritates your throat. Without a mask, I don’t know how people live in this stuff,” he told reporters by telephone from Jakarta.
Many people wear simple masks that are ineffective at filtering the dangerous compounds, or no masks at all, he added.
The smoke from the fires on Borneo, Sumatra and elsewhere in Indonesia has spread to neighboring Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand.
Local media reported that schools in Central Kalimantan had closed for almost five weeks over the past two months, while the haze killed at least 10 people and sickened 504,000 on Borneo and Sumatra — although Verchot believes the figure is much higher.
“People in rural areas seek medical attention when it’s really bad. I’m pretty sure it’s an underestimate. This must be the people who are seriously affected,” he said.
Daytime flights to Central Kalimantan have been postponed to night when winds blow the all-permeating smoke in a direction that improves visibility for landing, Verchot said.
Martin Wooster, a professor at King’s College London who joined Verchot on the trip, tested his equipment in his hotel room, several kilometers from the fires, and found 30 molecules of carbon monoxide per 1 million molecules of air — enough to trigger a household carbon monoxide detector.
Outside near the burning peatlands, Wooster’s preliminary data indicated more than 1,000 micrograms of particulate matter per cubic meter of air, and sometimes up to 2,000.
The US Environmental Protection Agency considers any amount greater than 300 micrograms per cubic meter hazardous.
“I’d never seen anything like that ... I thought it was catastrophic for the local population, having to live with that level of air pollution for such an extended period of time,” said Wooster, who has studied burning biomass in Mexico, Canada, South Africa and Britain.
“The geographic coverage of the smoke was enormous. You could drive for many tens of kilometers and still be in thick smoke. And it is persisting for weeks, even months,” he said by telephone from London.
The smokiest burn sites in Indonesia are the tropical peatlands that large companies and small-scale farmers have deforested and drained for agriculture, palm oil and wood products such as pulp and paper. Lacking a forest canopy, the dried-out peatlands are prone to fire.
Once considered a problem mainly in drought years, the smoldering fires on these “forest cemeteries” of dried peat and wood debris are now occurring annually.
This year has been particularly bad due to lower rainfall linked to the El Nino weather phenomenon, although recent downpours have doused some of the fires and reduced the haze.
While the Indonesian government is struggling to control the crisis, Verchot described the haze as “totally preventable.”
“This was predicted. The solution is not reacting to the crisis, it’s preventing the crisis,” he said. “It requires serious effort. It’s something the government could do if they wanted to.”
CIFOR has urged a reduction in forest conversion and peatland cultivation, better income opportunities in rural areas and restoration of degraded peatlands.
Greenpeace has called on the pulp and palm oil industries to implement an immediate ban on forest and peatland development and for peatlands to be reflooded to mitigate fire risks.
To discourage palm oil-related forest destruction, the Union of Concerned Scientists and other green groups have lobbied for companies to trade and use palm oil that is not produced in a way that causes deforestation.
FOREST FIRE FACTS
‧ By early this month, scientists had tallied almost 121,000 fires across much of Indonesia, concentrated in Riau and Jambi provinces on the island of Sumatra, and Central and West Kalimantan on Borneo.
‧ 1.7 million hectares of forests and plantations have been razed by fires on Sumatra and Borneo islands, according to government data.
‧ Fire is a cheap, easy way for farmers and companies to clear land for crops, but fires on peatland are difficult to put out, often smoldering underground for days or weeks. Only heavy downpours in the wet season can extinguish them.
‧ The Indonesian fires have emitted an estimated 1.7 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent so far this year.
‧ On many days in September and last month, the carbon dioxide emissions from the Indonesia fires exceeded the average daily emissions from all economic activity in the US, researchers estimated.
‧ Scientists conducting research in Central Kalimantan found harmful compounds in the air including ozone, carbon monoxide, cyanide, ammonia, formaldehyde, nitric oxide and methane.
‧ Between July 1 and Oct. 23, the haze killed 10 people and sickened more than 500,000 in six provinces: Jambi, South Sumatra, South Kalimantan, Riau, Central Kalimantan and West Kalimantan.
‧ On many days near the burning peatlands, preliminary data indicated levels of particulate matter at more than 1,000 micrograms per cubic meter of air, more than three times the level considered hazardous by the US Environmental Protection Agency.
‧ 20 percent of fires occur on oil palm concessions.
‧ Indonesia is the world’s largest palm oil producer, supplying half of the world’s palm oil last year.
Sources: World Resources Institute, Global Fire Emissions Database, Center for International Forestry Research
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