The haze is choking South East Asia. Its been weeks since I’ve enjoyed blue skies with clouds. About 10 days ago there was just a few days when it seemed that the haze season was finally over for 2015 but it came back to all our consternation in the Klang Valley worse than ever! Its bad enough that this man made problem in South East Asia has become so ubiquitous that we’ve had to become somewhat impervious to its nuisance begrudgingly accepting it as a season as if it was a natural quirk of nature, this year we have to endure a longer and more hazardous period. This situation however has been predicted for this year. We are feeling the adverse effects of El Nino. For all the efforts of daring fire fighters and no matter how much money governments can throw at the problem with expensive water bombing and cloud seeding operations only Mother Nature can douse her own fiery tempest with seasonal monsoon rains that are failing due to El Nino.
The South East Asian haze is probably one of the most ignored ecological disaster that is being perpetrated by man. Forest fires are not at all the norm for equatorial rain forests which are so important to mankind and all life on earth as its function as the lungs of the planet. The intensity of photosynthesis that occurs year round in equatorial rain forests not only recycles carbon dioxide into oxygen, it also sinks tons of carbon into plant tissue. Much of the carbon becomes trapped in the food chain and a big portion of it gets sunk in the ground as forest peat. The peat is supposed to be constantly damp or water logged which keeps it from ever burning even in the driest of years. Unlike temperate forests in the northern hemisphere which require periodic fires as part of the ecology to sustain those forest, burning peat kills rain forest trees by burning out their roots. Equatorial rain forest trees and animals also depens largely on the peat for nutrition, without the peat in these rain forests its soil is just too bare to support trees and seedlings.
The haze this year is terrible because of El Nino. More forests are getting killed by the fires this year than on the average year. However as a haze season suggest this unnatural 'natural disaster' has been happening every year for the past 3 decades. So apart from the pressures that Equatorial rain forest face from agricultural land clearing, mining concessions and timber extractations we have this burning to further reduce the size of virgin rain forests. These are forests that have taken many millennia to form and mature. A single giant equatorial rain forest tree can take a century to grow to its majestic proportions–when we lose them we cannot expect to regrow them for a few generations.
To compound this bad news the burning peat adds billions of tons of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. It has been estimated that every haze season adds greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere equivalent to Germany's production in a year. This year we can expect even more than that. While some argue that the greenhouse gasses from the burning forests will be reabsorbed by the new growth its important to remember that peat is a type of fossil fuel. It takes decades, even centuries to form so most of the greenhouse gases emitted from burning peat will add directly to global warming. Add to that we are losing more of Earth's lungs every year in all the continental equatorial rain forests which makes the burning peat in South East Asia a serious global problem.
The equatorial rain forests across the globe are very important to all of us. If we take the South East Asian haze problem as a regional issue and not a global one we are ignoring the fact that Earth's lungs are on fire–this cannot be good for any of us no matter where we live. Less oxygen and less unpolluted fresh water is not a problem we should take for granted. Its time the world takes note of the volume of equatorial rain forest we still have and pressure countries and industries to protect them for the sake of mankind. Its also time we completely halt the economy around virgin timber from any forest and its time the world regulated the oil palm industry which is the main culprit behind the haze.
No doubt the following year is going to be a tough one for South East Asia. One one side South China, Japan and the Philippines have been battered by ferocious winds and floods. On this side of the region, its getting bone dry. This is going to effect rice production in the world's rice basket so rice is going to be more expensive and we cannot tabulate yet the effect of all the greenhouse gasses being released into the atmosphere. We are probably going to feel its effects as the era of global warming rolls on.
The South East Asian haze is probably one of the most ignored ecological disaster that is being perpetrated by man. Forest fires are not at all the norm for equatorial rain forests which are so important to mankind and all life on earth as its function as the lungs of the planet. The intensity of photosynthesis that occurs year round in equatorial rain forests not only recycles carbon dioxide into oxygen, it also sinks tons of carbon into plant tissue. Much of the carbon becomes trapped in the food chain and a big portion of it gets sunk in the ground as forest peat. The peat is supposed to be constantly damp or water logged which keeps it from ever burning even in the driest of years. Unlike temperate forests in the northern hemisphere which require periodic fires as part of the ecology to sustain those forest, burning peat kills rain forest trees by burning out their roots. Equatorial rain forest trees and animals also depens largely on the peat for nutrition, without the peat in these rain forests its soil is just too bare to support trees and seedlings.
The haze this year is terrible because of El Nino. More forests are getting killed by the fires this year than on the average year. However as a haze season suggest this unnatural 'natural disaster' has been happening every year for the past 3 decades. So apart from the pressures that Equatorial rain forest face from agricultural land clearing, mining concessions and timber extractations we have this burning to further reduce the size of virgin rain forests. These are forests that have taken many millennia to form and mature. A single giant equatorial rain forest tree can take a century to grow to its majestic proportions–when we lose them we cannot expect to regrow them for a few generations.
To compound this bad news the burning peat adds billions of tons of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. It has been estimated that every haze season adds greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere equivalent to Germany's production in a year. This year we can expect even more than that. While some argue that the greenhouse gasses from the burning forests will be reabsorbed by the new growth its important to remember that peat is a type of fossil fuel. It takes decades, even centuries to form so most of the greenhouse gases emitted from burning peat will add directly to global warming. Add to that we are losing more of Earth's lungs every year in all the continental equatorial rain forests which makes the burning peat in South East Asia a serious global problem.
The equatorial rain forests across the globe are very important to all of us. If we take the South East Asian haze problem as a regional issue and not a global one we are ignoring the fact that Earth's lungs are on fire–this cannot be good for any of us no matter where we live. Less oxygen and less unpolluted fresh water is not a problem we should take for granted. Its time the world takes note of the volume of equatorial rain forest we still have and pressure countries and industries to protect them for the sake of mankind. Its also time we completely halt the economy around virgin timber from any forest and its time the world regulated the oil palm industry which is the main culprit behind the haze.
No doubt the following year is going to be a tough one for South East Asia. One one side South China, Japan and the Philippines have been battered by ferocious winds and floods. On this side of the region, its getting bone dry. This is going to effect rice production in the world's rice basket so rice is going to be more expensive and we cannot tabulate yet the effect of all the greenhouse gasses being released into the atmosphere. We are probably going to feel its effects as the era of global warming rolls on.
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