Haze From Indonesian Fires Spreads
President Widodo cuts short his U.S. visit to manage environmental crisis that has enveloped the capital, Jakarta
Wall Street Journal | 27 October 2015
JAKARTA—Indonesia’s leader cut short his U.S. trip Tuesday, opting to skip meeting Silicon Valley executives to help manage an environmental crisis at home caused by the worst agricultural fires in years.
President Joko Widodo’s decision underscored the gravity of the growing disaster, as haze from the weeks-old fires spread in recent days to cover three-quarters of Indonesia’s territory, including the capital. It also has led to flight cancellations in Thailand and health warnings in the Philippines.
More than 40 million people on Sumatra and Borneo alone were exposed to the toxic haze, the government said. More than 500,000 people in Indonesia have sought treatment for respiratory problems since the fires began in September.
Most of the blazes are set by landowners about this time each year to make way for lucrative crops of trees for palm oil, pulp and paper.
They have been exacerbated by the El Niño weather phenomenon, which is prolonging the dry season. A short respite of rain might hit in the coming days, meteorologists said Monday, but the dry season is likely to last until late next month.
NASA satellites have detected almost 116,000 fires in Indonesia this year, according to the Global Fire Emissions Database, a figure that has already surpassed 2006, one of the worst years on record.
The fires are largely on peat land, which store large amounts of carbon. On at least 26 days, estimated greenhouse-gas emissions from the fires were higher than average daily emissions from the entire U.S. economy, according to the World Resources Institute, a U.S. research organization.
“This is an amazing crime against humanity,” said Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman for Indonesia’s national disaster agency. He said it was unlikely the fires could be put out in the next two weeks.
Philippines President Benigno Aquino III said on Tuesday that there was little to be gained in castigating Indonesia for the pollution. He said he would rather help them address the problem “rather than concentrate on apportioning blame.”
In the wealthy city-state of Singapore, skies remained gray on Tuesday, with air pollution at unhealthy levels and likely to rise, the government said. Haze crept over the weekend into the greater Jakarta metro area, home to more than 25 million people.
Since the 1980s, the fires have been an annual occurrence on Indonesia’s vast agricultural lands, home to the world’s largest palm oil industry. Indonesia’s national disaster agency said 99% of the fires are caused by humans.
Golden Agri-Resources Ltd., one of Indonesia’s largest plantations and palm-oil companies, said the haze has limited the sunlight that trees need for photosynthesis. Whether that will damage crops won’t become clear until early next year.
Planes on the tarmac of Jakarta’s International airport in Tangerang on Sunday. PHOTO: AFP PHOTO / BAY ISMOYOBAY ISMOYO/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Scientists at the Indonesia-based Center for International Forestry Research said the cost could reach about $14 billion in environmental damage, health costs, lost business and other factors.
The vastness of the burning lands have hampered Indonesia’s response. More than 20,000 Indonesian personnel have been fighting the blazes and coordinating response.
For the first time in years, Jakarta has sought outside assistance, including from Singapore, Malaysia and Australia. The U.S. Embassy in Jakarta said this week it would give Indonesia $2.75 million in aid, including firefighting gear and technical advice from a U.S. Forest Service team.
Indonesia has also prepared navy ships to evacuate people as a last resort, if efforts to house evacuees in schools and government buildings equipped with air purifiers prove insufficient.
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