Peatland fires in Indonesia’s Sumatra and Kalimantan have generated toxic smog that has drifted to parts of neighboring Malaysia and Singapore.
It returned to Malaysia and Singapore this year after a hiatus of about three years as peatland fires intensify in Indonesia.
At a time when climate change is presenting an existential threat to human beings, the fear is that these seasonal haze situations will worsen as intensifying global warming renders the peatlands and forests even more combustible in the dry season., and these fires and resultant emissions and toxic haze are turning out to be a serious driver of climate change.
Her denial echoed past Indonesian leaders. In 2015, then Indonesian Vice-President Jusuf Kalla scolded neighboring countries for complaining about the haze.Malaysian officials are undoubtedly haunted by the memory of the 2015 and 2019 transboundary haze episodes. In 2015, the last time El Nino worsened the impact of the dry season, 2.7 million hectares of forest were burned in Indonesia.
"When drained in preparation for planting or other development activities, the organic material is exposed to the air, kick starting decomposition and the release of greenhouse gasses. When burnt, this process is accelerated, further speeding up global warming," they added., peatlands store nearly 550 billion tons of carbon — twice as much as all the world's forests — even though peatlands cover only 3 per cent of the global land surface.
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