Burning forests are blackening the skies of South-East Asia

  • 📰 TheEconomist
  • ⏱ Reading Time:
  • 77 sec. here
  • 3 min. at publisher
  • 📊 Quality Score:
  • News: 34%
  • Publisher: 92%

United States Headlines News

United States Latest News,United States Headlines

The president of Indonesia is praying for rain

is not the world’s only smouldering rainforest, alas: fires are also raging in the jungles of Indonesia, blanketing much of South-East Asia in thick smoke. Some 3,300 square kilometres on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo have gone up in flames. The government has deployed more than 9,000 people and 52 aircraft to fight the fires. Indonesia and neighbouring Malaysia are also trying to quench the flames and clear the haze they produce by seeding clouds.

The haze is thought to have caused more than 200,000 respiratory infections and has prompted more than 1,500 schools in Malaysia alone to close. The smoke has been thick enough to disrupt air traffic. The president of Indonesia, Joko Widodo, says he is praying for rain.Indonesia’s environment and forestry ministry says most of the fires were lit deliberately.

The fires are particularly difficult to extinguish because many of them are in peat forests. These are swampy jungles where vegetation that falls to the ground does not completely decay because of the waterlogged soil. When peat becomes dry enough to burn, it can continue to combust underground long after the trees on the surface have been doused.

Since he was first elected in 2014, Mr Widodo, better known as Jokowi, has sought to stamp out the flames . In 2017 the forestry ministry launched a masterplan for protecting peatlands and preventing fires. The next year a national land-use map was released, making it easier for the authorities to establish land ownership and prosecute those responsible for fires.

Jokowi’s government has come down relatively hard on the culprits. After the fires of 2015, police arrested 660 people. So far the authorities have arrested 200 people and are investigating some 370 companies in connection with the current fires. By contrast, only 40 or so were arrested under Jokowi’s predecessor, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Fires are often started just outside palm-oil concessions to obscure responsibility.

 

Thank you for your comment. Your comment will be published after being reviewed.
Please try again later.

LIAR - LIAR - LIAR - LIAR - LIAR - LIAR -

Wonderful fires around the world, which destroy many nature lifes, but thats the price for overpopulation.

The Amazon is not smoldering but go on with your facts

Burning of any kind is harmful to the atmosphere but we have not forgotten the developed countries emitting CO2.

Amazon is the world's only smouldering rainforest by president's requests of 'Fire's Day'

why don't you watch the TheEmmys

Definitely. In Malaysia we are breathing 'poisonous smoke' courtesy of Indonesia forest fires and plantation burnings

God send down the rain in Indonesia. Amen.

When this issue is getting serious

Just make sure you pray to the right god. The consequences will be dire if you send your requests to the wrong imaginary being

daveyk317 👻👻👻🤪🤪🤪☠️☠️☠️

praying no longer helps here, they have failed to be sustainable in advance, instead of always building new plantations, they should have costa rica as an example, then the forest fires will disappear, so they have the same problem as brazil

Lord Jesus, you're the one that makes rain and commands it. Let there be rain in Indonesian. Amen

Fire god is hellbent to destroy greenery and source of oxygen.God is now indifferent to mankind.

We go on about the Amazon and rightly so . But the Indonesian government has allowed forest clearing to go on in places like Borneo and sumatra for years. Endangering wildlife and the eco-system . Avoid palmoil products Indonesia orangutan corruption borneofire

😢

Here we go again. The Economist in his daily attempt to harvest sympathy from the marchers of climate change

Vai EmmanuelMacron , pede intervenção na Indonésia ....

How about Indonesia EmmanuelMacron isn’t there important as Brazil’s Amazon?

Holy Cow! Bolsonaro burning the whole world: 1st Bolivian Amazon; 2nd Brazilian Amazon; 3rd Russian Siberia; 4th Angolian Savannah; 5th Congolese Savannah; and last 6th Southern-East Asian forests. Nero who? VETABOLSONARO

Which needs the action quickly. Protect the rainforest

I'd like to know why no one is talking about the fires in Africa....

Oh... finally some reasonable news on the theme!

How can we better prevent forest fires? This seems like an awful waste and irresponsibility …

harismz Cc jokowi setkabgoid

what is the free market solution for this

Where is EmmanuelMacron !

Stop eating animals

Fun fact: Malaysia and Singapore offered help to put out the fire but according to Dr. Agus Wibowo, Indonesia did not need foreign assistance yet to deal with the matter (that had suffocated its regional neighbours) and that it is capable (my ass) of handling it.

This is the annual jungle clearing time. It has happened every year for decades; some times bigger sometimes smaller fires and with thicker or thinner smog. It is not something unexpected, the world is just now more concerned due to enviro era and Brazil forest fires.

Do you think it is “Dwapara Yuga” so that Lord Krishna listens to ardent devotees doing prayer & penance to reward with rain. Ecological balance is the only way.

Aangestoken

Oh my president has been at a shameful period currently... from failure to effective dialogue for Papua crisis, loosening national anticorrupt act, until that annually forest disaster. Wanna leave Indonesia

In Western US - we understand praying for rain. We pray and pray, attend pow-wow after pow-wow, seed clouds after clouds. Yet rains come on the rhythms of winds and evaporation in a chaotic yet beautiful ballet. We humans are throwing trash on stage upsetting that performance.

Malaysia’s govt has repeatedly offered to help put out the fires & cloud seeding to make it rain, yet IndonesiaDaruratAsap remain stubborn 🥵🌏🔥🤦🏽‍♀️

Pray for Rain or cold weather not to fire

but there is no smog in the Singapore sky. how come?

Amen....help GOD....

We have summarized this news so that you can read it quickly. If you are interested in the news, you can read the full text here. Read more:

 /  🏆 6. in US

United States Latest News, United States Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.

In must-win South Carolina, Biden must seal the deal with black votersA marching band played and several hundred people roared for former U.S. Vice Pr... The Magic Eight Ball says “Don’t count on it” If other candidates win Iowa and NH voters in SC will drop Biden! Just like how they drop Hillary in 2008 for Obama Black People Please, Please Listen to the noise of Insanity.. Do not Vote for this Old Wrinkled White Mother Phucker.....Just don''t vote, it really makes no difference for you..
Source: Reuters - 🏆 2. / 97 Read more »

BTS Won't Be Exempt From Mandatory Military Service by the South Korean GovernmentWhat does this mean for the band?
Source: seventeen - 🏆 412. / 53 Read more »

BTS Denied Military Service Exemption in South Korea, Fans Push For Group ConscriptionBTS will not be exempted from compulsory military service at home in South Korea, but the ARMY is asking officials to let them serve together imagine how fuckn tired we are! 🤦 Whos the writer here first of all yall talking about this for what? can yall stop for real? This is a sensitive issue western or other countries this is not of your business! Let the boys decide! & we will just support that! STOP THIS NO SENSE Amada O pior é ver rts e fav do fandom nessa merda de notícia exagerada e falsa. Vtnc
Source: billboard - 🏆 112. / 63 Read more »

Factbox: World Cup - New Zealand v South AfricaFactbox on the Rugby World Cup Pool B fixture between New Zealand and South Afri... Fuck yeah NZ all the way
Source: Reuters - 🏆 2. / 97 Read more »