palm oil

Thousands of the fires raging through the forests of Indonesia were deliberately started to clear land for industrial use. The results have been deadly

Fires in a palm oil concession in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. Thousands of fires have been lit to clear land because it is 75% cheaper than other methods.

Photograph: Victor Barro/Walhi/Friends of the Earth Indonesia
Irhash Ahmady and Sam Cossar-Gilbert
Saturday 7 November 2015 11.04 GMT Last modified on Saturday 7 November 2015 11.07 GMT

An elementary school student in Riau, an epicenter of Indonesia's haze crisis, died of respiratory failure last week. Two other children, aged 15 and 2, passed away in Jambi.
The Health Ministry logged more than 10,000 cases of respiratory infection as of September 4.

At a housing complex in Riau, an epicenter of Indonesia’s haze crisis, Muklis shows a picture of his little daughter, seated before a piano and peering into the camera.

She passed away last week, as forest fires blanketed the region in noxious smog.

UPDATE: Emissions from Indonesian fires have continued to rise since this article was published and now are estimated to be roughly equal to Japan’s annual carbon dioxide emissions. See here.

Experts say that along with dramatic global coral bleaching, thousands of fires across Indonesia represents the next sign of an intensifying global El Niño event. And the consequences, in this case, could affect the entire globe’s atmosphere.

Indonesia's measure of pollution recorded air in Palangkarya at more than 10 times the level regarded as dangerous on Tuesday.
Schools in the Central Kalimantan capital were closed again on Tuesday.
Politicians in the provincial parliament sat in silence wearing face masks after smoke entered the building.

Further respiratory fatalities around Indonesia looked certain on Tuesday as toxic pollution from hinterland fires and underground hotspots again sent breathable air far beyond levels deemed dangerous to health.

#EvakuasiKami, or EvacuateUs, is the latest haze-related to topic to trend on Indonesian Twitter amid the country's haze crisis.

Pekanbaru has reopened shelters in the city in a desperate bid to provide some respite from the smoke.
Local officials are specifically calling on parents to bring infants and young children to three 24-hour centers in Riau province..

Indonesia's measure of pollution recorded air in Palangkarya at more than 10 times the level regarded as dangerous on Tuesday. Schools in the Central Kalimantan capital were closed again on Tuesday.
Politicians in the provincial parliament sat in silence wearing face masks after smoke entered the building.

Further respiratory fatalities around Indonesia looked certain on Tuesday as toxic pollution from hinterland fires and underground hotspots again sent breathable air far beyond levels deemed dangerous to health.

NBER WORKING PAPER SERIES

AIR QUALITY AND EARLY-LIFE MORTALITY: EVIDENCE FROM INDONESIA'S WILDFIRES
Seema Jayachandran
Working Paper 14011 http://www.nber.org/papers/w14011

NATIONAL BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH 1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
May 2008

In the greatest environmental disaster of the 21st Century (so far), Indonesia has been blotted out by smoke. And the media.

By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 30th October 2015