Over the past few weeks, a major environmental crisis has been unfolding in the Pacific nation of Indonesia with little notice from the rest of the world. Peat fires have been burning across the islands of Sumatra and Borneo, putting massive amounts of smoke and haze into the air. This haze is plaguing nearby countries such as Singapore, which has accused Indonesia of not doing enough to control the fires, while Malaysia is evacuating its citizens from Indonesia.
The crisis is yet another outgrowth of the growing problem of climate change, as an exacerbated El Nino weather pattern has dried the rains that usually staunch peat fires. However, the fires are also the result of the Western taste for candy.
My Gut Reaction: Great, another thing to feel guilty about when I eat M&Ms.
Analysis below the fold...
As a recent article on The New York Times's Dot Earth blog has argued, wild fires in general are a global problem, with serious impacts on the environment and human health:
Global vegetation fire emissions typically constitute a third of total releases of carbon dioxide, the main heat-trapping emission, annually (1). For example, fires burning in Indonesia alone during the potent El Niño event in 1997 and 1998 produced the equivalent of up to 40 percent of the global gross carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels for that year (2).
This dry season is shaping up to be on track, or worse.
Additionally, every year an average of 608 million hectares burn (over 1.5 billion acres) (3) while an estimated annual average of 339,000 people die prematurely from ailments linked to vegetation fire smoke, with 110,000 of those deaths occurring in Southeast Asia. During previous El Niño years like this one, that global average spiked to some 530,000 deaths.
How bad is the contribution to climate change from these fires? Well, in the
Scientific American article linked in the introductory section, it is noted that research at VU University in Amsterdam have found that the Indonesian wildfires put out more carbon dioxide per day than the United States, on at least 26 days in the past month.
All of this is so we can have candy.
As the above linked article in The Guardian argues, roughly half the fires originated from palm oil plantations, which produce the palm oil used in Western sweets. These plantations have blighted the Indonesian landscape, clearing away forests and opening up peat swamps. Worst of all, these plantations use canals for irrigation which drain the water table, enabling fires to burn. Pulp plantations run by companies like Asia Pulp and Paper have contributed to the other fires.
The companies behind the plantations have tried to foist the blame on small Indonesian farmers trying to clear the land through burning. This argument ignores the fact that the peat fires could not occur at their current scale without the plantations' impact on the landscape. Furthermore, the removal of rural communities to make room for plantations have forced many into clearing away forests for new farms.
I can't tell anyone to give up candy; I have a major sweet tooth myself. However, we should all be cognizant of the environmental impacts of what we eat.