Southeast Asian smoke warns of never-ending
By Fay Johnston , University of Tasmania and David Bowman , University of Tasmania Look at satellite images from Southeast Asia this week and you will see large areas of Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore blanketed by dense plumes of smoke. These smoke plumes have severely degraded ground-level air quality . Extreme air pollution has caused Malaysia to declare a state of emergency and Singapore to embark upon strained dialogue with Indonesia about its responsibilities. Forest destruction, carbon and biodiversity The fires are set purposely to convert rainforest into land that can be used for agriculture and plantations, mostly for palm oil production. Maps show that many fires escape control into surrounding forests and plantations. Research from United Nations University shows that collectively, these fires are destroying a global hot spot of tropical biodiversity. The fires also ignite peatlands , releasing enormous stores of carbon into the atmosphere. For exam
