With the beginning of the rainy season here in Indonesia, the rain is welcome for all of us, especially for those affected by the forest fires spreading in Sumatra and Kalimantan.
Every rain drop brought hope that the fire will be tamed. The difficulties of taming the fire especially in Borneo is also caused by the natural landscape of the forest. Mostly peat land, the fire would still burn under the ground long after the initial fire has been put out.
Writing about this topic has been hard because, as a mother, I am outraged by human greed that allowed this to happen in the first place, and it has been going on for years on end.
Part of me wants to shout – when will this stop? Until we have no more trees or until all our children died from inhaling toxic smokes?
Friends in Singapore and Malaysia are also affected by the fire. The haze reportedly traveled as far as to Thailand.
Lives lost…19 so far according to the last count. 500,000 suffered from respiratory tract infections.
Endangered animals, orangutans are on the brink of extinction.
This is an act of crime against humanity!
This fire has been raging since July!
4 months of breathing in toxic air… 4 months of buying oxygen to survive.
Deforestation caused by greedy hands who burn the forest down in hopes of turning them into palm oils have been so rampant in the past few years.
I am angered by the greed. I don’t care who started the fire, but this needs to stop! This needs to change. This can no longer be a yearly occurrence. Not in Indonesia, not in other countries.
Our innocent children are being put at risk. Indigenous people are losing their home.
Animals that are already on the endangered species list will soon only remain as photos for our children to see in books one day, if we keep going at this rate of earth destruction.
Can you imagine yourself living through this?
These images above are all from a friend who lives in Palangkaraya, Central Kalimantan. She had to evacuate all her children for cleaner air.
The world needs to push for a real plan to end this because once the forest in Indonesia is completely gone, the whole world will feel its effects.
How do you think, we, as mother’s can help?
Photo credit to the author’s friend.
Maureen
Founder of Single Moms Indonesia, community leader and builder. Deeply passionate about women empowerment.
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Due to climate changes, we had a hotter and drier summer than ever over here and more forest fires than usual. Just a couple of days breathing the smoke was awful, I can’t imagine what it is like where you are.
Climate changes really messed up our planet, isn’t it? I personally don’t have the experience because I live quite far from the affected area (but still living in the big polluted city like Jakarta, we are pretty much inhaling toxic fumes at all times) but Ruth and Susan in Singapore experienced them first handedly, also Alison in Malaysia.
Maureen,
I knew of the problems with smog, but I didn’t know it could be attributed to palm oil, and fires. Any smog we experience on the east coast of the USA is mostly due to car emissions, so I expected it to be the same. I didn’t know about the fires!
Can you get a group of people together to press your government on the issue? Everyone’s future is dependent on it!
Tell me more about buying oxygen. How often do you have to do that and when?
Interesting post!
The smog is from pollution in Jakarta, Jen which is bad. That’s why the clear blue sky is like a treat for us.
Sadly, burning the forest down has been practised for many years as the easier and quickest way to clear an area of which will be turned into palm oil. The local government have the rights to sell lands including forest area for this. Palm oil plantations here are really really bad.
Here are some more references Jen: http://www.wri.org/blog/2015/10/indonesia%E2%80%99s-fire-outbreaks-producing-more-daily-emissions-entire-us-economy
https://www.rainforest-rescue.org/topics/palm-oil
https://www.foe.co.uk/blog/indonesia-fire-worst-environmental-disaster-century
I personally don’t buy oxygen Jen, but people that lives near the affected area (Sumatra island and Borneo) are buying them just so they can breathe.
The good news is they fire had stopped burning – from what my friend who took the photos above said. The rain cleared the haze away which is great but this is an ongoing disaster that will repeat next year and seems to only get worse by the years.
There’s been a local petition circulating here to push the government to do something about it but it’s been so complicated. Thank you for letting me write this post.