Indonesian fires emit more greenhouse gas than entire US economy, says report
Fires from land-clearing activities in Indonesia in the past two months have produced more greenhouse gasses than the average daily emission from the entire United States economy, said a report by global research organisation World Resources Institute. It cited a study on the Global Fire Emissions Database, which found that of the 44 days tracked from the beginning of September to the middle of this month, the daily emission from Indonesia’s fires exceeded that of the entire US economy in 26 days. The average daily emission from the entire US economy is approximately 15.95 metric tonnes (Mt) of carbon dioxide (CO2) per day. The US economy is 20 times larger than Indonesia's, the report noted. A massive spike in emission occurred on October 14, when 4,719 fires were observed, the report said. Cumulatively, since the beginning of 2015, there have been 96,937 fires in Indonesia, producing roughly 1,043 Mt of CO2, according to the study by Dutch expert Guido van der Werf. The report said more than half of these fires occurred on peatland concentrated in south Sumatra, south and central Kalimantan, as well as Papua. It added the burning of tropical peatlands was hugely significant for greenhouse gas emission, as this type of soil stores high quantities of carbon on earth, accumulated over thousands of years. Not only does burning peat soil release CO2, but also methane, a greenhouse gas 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide. In the case of peat soil, the methane released is ten times more than fires on other types of land, the report noted. "Taken together, the impact of peat fires on global warming may be more than 200 times greater than fires on other lands," it said. Smoke from land-clearing in Sumatra and Kalimantan has enveloped many parts of Singapore and Malaysia, and have forced the closure of schools and airports. Indonesian researchers recently said the smoke was expected to last until January 2016 as the scale of land-clearing was larger than before, coupled with dry weather. – October 21, 2015.
