Staggering human toll of southeast asia’s annual haze

22 September 2016

published by http://www.huffingtonpost.com

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SEA —   SINGAPORE —The Pollutant Standards Index hit almost 2,000 in Palangkaraya last September, as thick, choking smoke shrouded the capital of Central Kalimantan in Indonesia. Anything over 100 on the air pollution estimate is considered “unhealthy.” A number above 300 is “hazardous.”

Last year’s haze across Southeast Asia, an annual concern in this region, was particularly gruesome and a powerful El Niño weather pattern intensified the problem. Thousands fled their homes in Indonesia; schools were shuttered in Singapore and Malaysia; and diplomatic tensions escalated as the thick haze persisted for weeks, a result of forest fires raging mostly on the Indonesian island of Sumatra and in Kalimantan.

But the human impact of the haze was far more devastating than these issues, according to a new study from Harvard and Columbia universities. Researchers found that last year’s haze crisis may have caused more than 100,000 premature deaths in the region — more than 90,000 in Indonesia, 6,500 in Malaysia and over 2,000 in Singapore.

The researchers, experts in public health, climate change and atmospheric chemistry modeling, focused only on adult mortality for the study. Yet the estimate is far higher than the official death toll. Indonesian authorities had said that the haze had caused just 19 deaths in 2015.

Indonesia and its neighbors have suffered under a haze blanket during the dry season for years. The 2006 haze, which was also particularly bad, may have caused more than 37,600 deaths in the region, according to the same Harvard and Columbia study, which was published in the journal Environmental Research Letters on Monday.

The region’s haze is caused mostly by the illegal but widespread burning of forests to clear them for agriculture, such as palm oil plantations. The burning spews enormous quantities of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, along with a cocktail of toxic substances like formaldehyde and cyanide and particulate matter, which can get lodged deep into human lungs and enter the bloodstream.

It can be “extremely hazardous for your health,” said a London-based researcher who took measurements of the haze in Kalimantan last year. It’s been linked to a slew of health effects, from eye and nose irritation and asthma aggravation, to diseases of the lungs and heart.

The haze has recently returned to Southeast Asia. Singapore’s air quality deteriorated into the unhealthy range in August. Worsening haze conditions in parts of Indonesia prompted the closure of some schools this week.

“More than 100,000 are estimated to have died prematurely last year. Now fires are back again. If nothing changes, this killer haze will carry on taking a terrible toll, year after year. Industry and government must take real action to stop forest clearing and peatland drainage for plantations,” said Greenpeace Indonesia’s forest campaigner Yuyun Indradi this week. “Now that we know the scale of the death toll, failure to act immediately to stem the loss of life would be a crime.”

Indonesia admitted last October that at least 43 million people were exposed to haze across the country and that half a million had suffered acute respiratory infections as a result of the smoke.

Yet, when giving the official death toll from the haze, the country only cited 19 people ― and that included the deaths of firefighters.

The Indonesian government, along with those of Singapore and Malaysia, reacted strongly this week to the claims of the new study, insisting the death toll estimate was far off the mark.

Indonesia, which has repeatedly promised to crack down on land burning but has been accused of half-hearted law enforcement, said the figure was much too high.

“I’m not sure these figures describe the real situation. If it’s only a statistical count, I don’t think it is appropriate to conclude such a huge death toll,” Mohamad Subuh, a director-general at the health ministry, told Singapore’s The Straits Times.

Malaysia’s health ministry’s deputy director-general said there were “no deaths last year directly related to the haze,” while Singapore’s Ministry of Health said the study “is not reflective of the actual situation.”

However, at least one of the study’s authors, Jonathan Buonocore, has said the death toll estimate is actually “conservative,” the environmental news website Mongabay.com notes. This is because it only accounted for adults and only those who died within one year of exposure to the haze. Babies and children, medical experts say, are especially vulnerable to the health impacts of haze.

Some experts this week have called for more research into haze’s health effects since the study findings were revealed.

Rajasekhar Balasubramanian, an environmental engineer from the National University of Singapore, told The Associated Press that the “preliminary study” had faced a “very challenging” task of parsing through a lot of complex data.

Still, he said that “even with caveats,” the study should serve as a “wake-up call” for action.

“Air pollution, especially that caused by atmospheric fine particles, has grave implications for human health,” he said.

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 Special report: making malaysia better: soot, sweat and tears

16 September 2016

published by http://www.theedgemarkets.com

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Malaysia —   IN September last year, Southeast Asia was struck by arguably the worst haze of the decade. The episode, which saw schools closed, annual marathons cancelled and long lines at neighbourhood clinics, had the public shrouded in panic. Face mask sales soared as the nation experienced frustration and rising cases of asthma.

The haze is a phenomenon we are regrettably familiar with. Skies become a blanket of smog while we painstakingly squint to catch sight of signboards and pedestrians.

With their palms held over their noses and mouths, people scurry to purchase face masks while web searches on the Air Pollution Index go through the roof. The scene is a forlorn one, like a dystopian movie set made for a Stephen King adaptation.

According to an annual report by the Asean Peatland Forests Project (APFP) and Global Environment Centre (GEC), more than 500,000 people in Southeast Asia were affected by respiratory illnesses last year as a result of 1.6 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere in just two months. The staggering figure surpasses Japan’s annual emission from all industrial sources.

There is a lot we do not know about the haze — the root of the problem and why we do not seem to learn from past mistakes. As a result, Malaysia remains stuck in a blame game.

“We recognise that the haze is the most serious environmental problem we have in this region and the root cause is the degradation of peat swamp forests and uncontrolled burning,” says Faizal Parish, director of GEC, a non-governmental, non-profit organisation that works on environmental issues at a global level.

Formed in 1998 after the catastrophic haze, Parish has spent 18 years with the organisation trying to bring together multiple stakeholders to address global environmental issues, particularly the haze in Southeast Asia.

“I remember my son was very young at the time and that year, with the haze, he hardly put on weight. He was sick all the time. He had asthma. And that is really seeing first-hand the real impact on people,” he says.

Speaking to Parish, we learn that Indonesia — as we often think as the culprit of the haze — is not the only country with peat swamp forests that are susceptible to fire. Malaysia has an estimated 2,588,900ha of peatlands — the second largest area in Southeast Asia after Indonesia. That means peat fires happen in our backyard too.

“In 1983, Kuala Lumpur was shrouded in smoke and the haze came from Johor. There was this vast land clearing, but everyone seemed to blame someone else, saying that it had ‘nothing to do with us’,” Parish recalls.

Peat or profit?

Peat, which is the first step in the formation of coal, is carbon-rich soil created from partially decomposed vegetation accumulated over several millennia. Peatlands are typically saturated with water and are virtually impossible to set alight. However, when they are cleared and drained to make way for cash crops and development, they become arid and vulnerable to fire.

Last year, two million hectares of peatlands in Southeast Asia were burnt and destroyed, according to data from GEC. Between 2000 and 2010, Malaysia lost 557,000ha or 45.3% of its peatlands.

“Peat is the only terrestrial system able to make fossil fuels. But we are interrupting the process by burning them. Coal takes 300 million years to form. I guess you could wait around,” says Parish.

He adds that burning peat also causes devastating harm to natural habitats. Mushrooms, flowers and huge pitcher plants uniquely adapted to the environment disappear into the ashes.

Peat swamp forests serve as an ideal habitat for animals such as the orangutan. But just outside this refuge lies a different scenery: regimented rows of spiky oil palm trees spread out for miles on end.

From an orangutan’s point of view, this vista presents an uninhabitable landscape. But from an industry standpoint, it is the prospect of burgeoning revenue.

According to the US Department of Agriculture and the World Bank, the global market for palm oil and palm kernel was estimated at about US$47 billion in 2014. Data from the Malaysian Palm Oil Council shows that palm oil revenue amounted to RM60.17 billion last year.

Today, more and more peat swamp forests are being drained and cleared for development and highways, says Parish. “The corporate sector, particularly those in property development, need to wake up and stop grabbing land with their eyes closed just because they think it is cheap.”

Sowing seeds through partnerships

It might seem daunting to deal with such issues, but many hands make light work. Parish has teamed up with BOH Plantations Sdn Bhd CEO Carolyn Russell to create awareness among the communities who live near fire-risk areas along the Kuala Langat North Forest Reserve (KLNFR).

Russell has seen first-hand the effects of ruinous peat swamp forests. This comes as no surprise as the KLNFR, which originally had about 1,000ha of peat swamp, is located next to BOH’s Bukit Cheeding tea garden.

According to her, the forest reserve lost 300ha of peatlands in 2012 and 2014 — almost a third of the forest. “Despite preventive and conservation efforts by the local authorities, we have seen significant loss of the KLNFR peatlands. Being a ‘neighbour’, we want to protect the forest reserve’s pivotal role in our ecosystem,” says Russell.

Passionate about educating the public on the importance of peat swamp forests and their connection to the haze, Parish is working with Russell to disseminate useful information to people who reside near the KLNFR. The partnership’s recent endeavour featured an Eco Trail, which was held at the Bukit Cheeding tea garden. Some 600 participants had the opportunity to experience a natural peat swamp forest and understand the threats it faces.

“For many, it was an eye-opener. They began to realise the uniqueness of the peatland forest, to appreciate the rare flora and to know that everyone must assume personal responsibility to protect it,” says Russell.

The event managed to raise RM28,000, which will be used to further develop effective and sustainable methods to keep high-risk areas in check and to educate locals on the dos and don’ts of managing peat swamp forests. “It is not an easy task,” says Parish. But he believes that in the long run, their efforts will pay off.

The first step begins by mapping out fire-risk areas in the vicinity and training local volunteers to conduct daily fire checks and reports. This effort is supported by a close connection with district councils, the forestry department and landowners.

Fire-fighting equipment was donated to the Bukit Cheeding village to empower residents in putting out fires. Workshops for indigenous communities and landowners were conducted to help facilitate a discourse on peat swamp forests among the various stakeholders.

The second step focuses on education. The Forest Ranger Programme is a framework developed to engage elders within the Orang Asli community to teach in schools the importance of peatland conservation.

“We are looking at how the programme can work with, strengthen and support the traditional values of the Orang Asli — the stewards of forests — and help them in their desire to keep the forests of the future,” says Parish.

Billboards are used to remind road users about the vulnerability of peatland forests. It is hoped that an image of how a simple misstep could lead to catastrophic danger would encourage more people to take precautions.

“We can inadvertently cause forest fires with a simple act of throwing a cigarette out of the car window. Now is the time for the public to step up and play a role in preventing accidental fires,” says Russell.

For better or worse?

Our rivers and drains clog up, we copiously cough amid open fires, flash floods plague our cities, causing jams to last for hours, and another mixed-use development springs up in an already dense neighbourhood. Parish says almost disconcertingly, “We see all these happening and yet, ‘it is never my fault, it is someone else’s fault’.”

Peat without the haze, just as a cause without its effect, becomes a very abstract thing. But when we relate a cause to a direct impact, says Parish, a story can be formed — one that he envisions will empower change in individuals.

Peat constitutes 8% of land area in Malaysia. Parish and Russell point out that it is a significant number and hope that the private sector and individuals recognise that they have an important role to play in preserving it.

“Peat [and the environment in which we live] can either be a goldmine or a time bomb. And we have less gold and more bombs. We have to realise that,” says Parish.

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Quokkas in wa bushfire zone given lifeline

20 September 2016

published by http://www.news.com.au

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Australia —   Quokkas in WA’s bushfire-ravaged South West region have received a lifeline to support their conservation and research.

The Margaret River Chocolate Company has donated $8250, which enables WWF to purchase 30 radio collars.

It is believed up to 90 per cent of the quokka population in the Northcliffe area perished in the 2015 bushfire, with only 39 accounted for from an original 500.

The collars will be used to track the locations of 30 of the surviving quokkas to provide vital information on their movements.

WWF Australia chief executive Dermot O’Gorman said the donation was a kickstarter for their quokka conservation work in the region.

“This will help us to keep tabs on our quokkas and pinpoint the movements of predators that will try and move back into the territory as the bush regenerates,” he said.

Margaret River Chocolate Company spokesman Martin Black said as the roots of their business was in WA’s South West, they felt a special affinity to the quokkas.

“We were very much aware of the devastation caused by the Northcliffe fires, but were not fully aware of just how big the impact had been on the quokka population,” he said.

“When the report was released last week outlining the scale of numbers wiped out we started thinking about what we could do to help.”

WWF is now calling for donations to fund 30 sensor cameras to monitor the marsupials.

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 Sierra Leone News: Bush fires polluting West Africa

01 September 2016

published by http://awoko.org

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Sierra Leone —  West Africa is changing rapidly. An explosively growing population, massive urbanization, and unregulated deforestation modify the composition of the atmosphere, thus affecting weather and climate.
The European Union funded research project has said that the air over the coastal region of West Africa is a unique mixture of various trace gases, liquids, and particles.
The sources of these particles Professor Peter Knippertz says are monsoon winds with sea salt from the South, Sahara winds with dust from the North, charcoal fires and burning rubbish in cities as well as power plants, ship traffic, oil rigs, and outdated engines.
The report mentioned Sierra Leone as one country that the charcoal burning is affecting the weather and climate and it is disrupting the weather pattern always. Also clearing the bushes for farm cultivation is another fire that the report says is causing problems for Sierra Leone.
“At the same time, multi-layered cloud covers frequently form in the atmosphere and strongly influence local weather and climate.” The composition of the particles in the air and what impact they have on the formation and breakup of clouds has not yet been studied in detail. This information is not included in the weather and climate models presently used.
The EU-funded project DACCIWA (Dynamics-aerosol-chemistry-cloud Interactions in West Africa) investigates the relationship between weather, climate, and air pollution. For the first time, a coordinated measurement campaign was launched recently to study the entire chain of impacts of natural and anthropogenic emissions on the West African atmosphere.
In June and July, three research aircraft, the Falcon of the German Aerospace Center (DLR), the Twin Otter propeller plane “Ice Cold Katy” of the British Antarctic Survey, and the ATR of the Service des Avions Français Instrumentés pour la Recherche en Environnement (SAFIRE) of the French research institution CNRS, Météo France, and CNES, flew targeted missions over West Africa.
The different aircraft were used in different ways based on their strengths, but all three had a comparable instrumentation generating a rich set of reference data.
Air pollution does not stay where it is produced, but extends inland by up to 300 km. For this reason, the aircraft followed the plumes of the big coastal cities of Accra, Sierra Leone, Abidjan, Lomé, and Cotonou on their way from the coast towards the inland forests, savannahs, and the Sahara.
The particles from these fires lead to a considerable haziness in the atmosphere. Less sunshine reaches the ground, thereby changing the daily patterns of temperature, wind, and clouds. “For the first time, the measurements show an enormous complexity in the different cloud layers, the causes of which are still unclear.” Moreover, the air particles modify the formation of clouds and raindrops in the clouds.
Until 2018, the researchers will continue to study the impacts of atmospheric composition on cloud formation and air quality in West Africa, to evaluate the data measured, and to develop a new generation of climate and weather models. Work is also aimed at making more precise prognoses for West Africa, as strong impacts of climate change, such as water scarcity, heat waves or floods, are to be expected. Better prognoses will also be of benefit to other regions. “We know, for instance, that West African monsoon interacts with the Indian monsoon and it is an important factor influencing Atlantic hurricanes,” Knippertz says.

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Incendio consume biósfera de dzilam en yucatán

23 September 2016

published by http://www.news.com.au

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Mexico —  Elementos del Ejército y de la Marina con el apoyo de la Conafor intentan controlar el siniestro que se ubica al oriente del estado, en donde hasta el momento han sido devoradas unas 150 hectáreas de vegetación endémica y manglares

Elementos de la zona militar y de la Comisión Nacional Forestal (Conafor), intentan controlar un incendio forestal en la Biósfera de Dzilam de Bravo, ubicada al oriente del estado de Yucatán, en donde de acuerdo al reporte inicial han sido devoradas unas 150 hectáreas de vegetación endémica y manglares.

Las labores para controlar el siniestro se han complicado, debido a que la única manera de ingresar a la zona es a través de la costa, por lo que elementos de la Marina Armada de México intervinieron en estas acciones con embarcaciones y apoyo aéreo.

La Secretaría de la Defensa Nacional (Sedena) también ha enviado soldados del 11º Batallón de Infantería y del 7º Batallón de Ingenieros de Combate, para colaborar en los trabajos para apagar el fuego.

Se requirió del apoyo de una aeronave de las Fuerzas Armadas para sobrevolar la zona de afectación y tratar de apagar las llamas, y no se descarta que también se utilice un helicóptero de la Secretaría de Seguridad Pública (SSP).

English version of the news. Note: the news has been translated by Google translator.

Fire consumes biosphere dzilam in yucatán

Elements of the Army and Navy with the support of the Conafor attempt to control the incident that is located east of the state, where so far have been devoured 150 hectares of native vegetation and mangroves

Elements of the military zone and the National Forestry Commission (CONAFOR), attempt to control a forest fire in Biosphere Dzilam de Bravo, located east of the Yucatan state, where according to the initial report have been devoured 150 hectares of endemic vegetation and mangroves.

The work to control the incident have been complicated, because the only way to enter the area is through the coast, so elements of the Navy of Mexico intervened in these actions with boats and air support.

The Secretariat of National Defense (SEDENA) has also sent soldiers of the 11th Infantry Battalion and the 7th Battalion Combat Engineers to collaborate in the work to extinguish the fire.

It required the support of an aircraft of the Armed Forces to fly over the affected area and try to extinguish the flames, and it is possible that a helicopter of the Ministry of Public Security (SSP) is also used.

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