I would like to see a list of the international companies that are involved in this dangerously uncontrolled exploitation, what are their products and who are the retailers they sell through...that would be very helpful for consumers to make intelligent purchases.
17
Just like any law- unless enforced becomes meaningless. That's at least one reason why border enforcement in this country is such a problem- if the laws are broken then they need to be addressed. Nothing is going to happen in the brush fire or immigration control when authorities are hamstrung in their ability to enforce the standing laws.
3
Vegans' lives depend on "Palm Kernel" Oil ..
Panera Bread uses this!
Ha Ha.. Liberals are destroying rain forests!
1
When will it be catastrophic.enough. to begin to act on Climate Change?
GND BERNIE 2020 ASAP
1
Gee, poor humans. Set fires, have trouble breathing through the smoke. What about the poor orangutans and other innocent lives lost to these fires and the existence of entire species threatened -- whether directly or as a result of this destruction of their habitat?
5
class action lawsuit is waiting.
1
You might want to also cover the massive protests in Jakarta yesterday.
The govt is trying to bring in strict morality laws, outlawing, amongst other things, premarital sex.
Massive protests. And police brutality.
2
Reading about the burning of a beautiful jungle and its endangered animals makes me ill. Tourism would sustain these natural places and the people who live near them much longer than palm oil, which goes into junk food which helps make people obese. And, Indonesian citizens would be able to breath! Unless or until a country's rulers care about their country, our world will continue to burn needlessly.
5
Well, you reap what you sow or in this case burn. Palm kernel oil -- because of its longevity is used all over the world not just in the US in baked goods but in Africa, where it used as a cooking oil... And Africa has a very high birth rate- 44 per thousand in many countries.
So much that goes on has to do with overpopulation...all these hungry people.
I refuse to buy food in which palm kernel oil is an ingredient... but much food produced in Asia (reading labels today) contains the stuff. Big market.
3
This is how William Gibson's "Jackpot" begins. Birds disappear. Wildfires rage uncontrollably. Glaciers melt. Etc. It won't be the Fire Next Time. It will be a long, slow descent into chaos.
This sad problem has been going on in Indonesia for decades. I have traveled to KL on business during times when the air was so thick with smoke you couldn't breathe.
The ultimate problem is corruption. The guilty parties often are tied to government through bribery.
The solution is not rain, as one comment below states. The solution is a combination of things: meaningful government commitment and follow-through; long prison sentences or even execution of those involved; steep fines on complicit foreign corporations; immediate retraction of export licenses for 10 years or more; large scale public education; public support for palm oil protest groups such as Rainforest Action Network (RAN.org); lobbying western companies to stop use of palm oil and public shaming of those who don't stop. This would be a good start.
6
Living in Singapore we are all reminded of this every year. Some years are worse like this year or 2015, some are better. But every year forests and swamps are ignited to burn for profits of the palm oil industry and undoubtedly the coffers of corrupt government officials. Throughout the region, for months at end. And then we suffocate for days and weeks at end in a haze that is equal to sticking your head in a burning chimney. Even though this haze comes away as far as 750 km from the island of Borneo.
Without a global voice and global pressure, this will not stop. Indonesia does not care. And no matter what european countries are doing to reduce their footprint, they cannot compensate this excess and unnecessary pollution. It has to stop. The world has to chime in. Governments should exert pressure on the perpetrating countries. And consumers should demand clean and environmental friendly products from their producers. Only then this may stop. Else the whole climate debate at the UN is pointless.
7
Whether it's Indonesia or the Amazon, developing countries will not sacrifice now for our tomorrow. The developed world got that way by doing what we now criticize the underdeveloped world for. We will have to pay. Without some wealth transfer mechanism - proceeds from a global carbon tax? - we will not make much progress.
11
@van schayk
The developed world was developed without the knowledge that the industrial revolution would lead to our climate emergency. Granted our continuing excess is inexcusable, but that does not mean that the developing world, with full knowledge of the impact of what they are doing, gets a free pass. Instead of spreading electricity in Africa with decentralized coal plants that will have huge losses with transmission and pollute the air with more than carbon, plus requiring purchase of coal to feed the plants, we should be spreading it with cheap local solar power.
1
This shows the world's real attitude about climate change.
And now the Dutch want to reduce vehicular speed limits to reduce carbon emissions.
Good luck with that and the other attempts to reign in India, China, Russia, Brazil, ETC.
"It should come as no surprise the Climate Transparency report found that the G20 nations in the Paris agreement found that not one country came remotely close to meeting the standards set forth by the agreement."
9
I lived in Jakarta over a decade - now a couple of decades back. And, I remember these fires, smoke, breathing difficulties.
And I have been to many parts of Indonesia where jungles are so thick, it's canopy - more like a roof.
These canopies can swallow an airplane - never to be found again as canopies close in so fast.
This is an annual phenomenon because jungles grow back so fast.
If a land is to be cultivated - the only way to clear these jungles is to burn.
No Caterpillar can clear the brush which may impede agriculture.
I don't know what the solution is as long as palm oil, paper industry are crucial to Indonesian economy.
It's ok for others to say take licenses away - but then the next one will have the same issues.
It's ok for Singapore to complain - but many of its rich citizens own a piece of this lucrative trade - and Malaysians have their own lucrative palm oil industry.
The only relief is rain and favourable winds.
4
@Neil The solution is to never buy anything with palm oil in it, and as much as possible avoid other products grown in this area. You can find lists online of the various names palm oil hides under in ingredient lists. Tell your friends also.
If we had a decent US government, it would put the thumbscrews on these countries to prevent this.
I notice also the nytimes has stopped reporting on the amazon fires. It is failing in its responsibilities.
2
I lived in Jakarta over a decade - now a couple of decades back. And, I remember these fires, smoke, breathing difficulties.
And I have been to many parts of Indonesia where jungles are so thick, it's canopy - more like a roof.
These canopies can swallow an airplane - never to be found again as canopies close in so fast.
This is an annual phenomenon because jungles grow back so fast.
If a land is to be cultivated - the only way to clear these jungles is to burn.
No Caterpillar can clear the brush which may impede agriculture.
I don't know what the solution is as long as palm oil, paper industry are crucial to Indonesian economy.
It's ok for others to say take licenses away - but then the next one will have the same issues.
It's ok for Singapore to complain - but many of its rich citizens own a piece of this lucrative trade - and Malaysians have their own lucrative palm oil industry.
The only relief is rain and favourable winds.
1
I lived in Jakarta over a decade - now a couple of decades back. And, I remember these fires, smoke, breathing difficulties.
And I have been to many parts of Indonesia where jungles are so thick, it's canopy - more like a roof.
These canopies can swallow an airplane - never to be found again as canopies close in so fast.
This is an annual phenomenon because jungles grow back so fast.
If a land is to be cultivated - the only way to clear these jungles is to burn.
No Caterpillar can clear the brush which may impede agriculture.
I don't know what the solution is as long as palm oil, paper industry are crucial to Indonesian economy.
It's ok for others to say take licenses away - but then the next one will have the same issues.
It's ok for Singapore to complain - but many of its rich citizens own a piece of this lucrative trade - and Malaysians have their own lucrative palm oil industry.
The only relief is rain and favourable winds.
Has anyone heard of a boycott of US food manufacturers using palm oil? Saturated fat is not good for your arteries anyway.
Time to act!
21
Paradise CA and myriad areas of scourged earth. Humans quite literally burn their bridges. Immolation of self and all other living things. For shame --- a fragile fleeting hope remains. The remedies are transparent, the base responses predictable.
8
I didn´t see France, or Germany or whoever else complaining about this raging fires in Indonesia... They don´t care about those people, that country, also, beyond criticizing Brazil?
6
@Maciel, Irani
Brazil is a much larger country by size of land mass. Thus the fires in the Amazon are much fiercer and bigger. Indonesia as a country is made up of a group of islands much smaller than Brazil in land mass. Pointing figners at Europeans for not criticizing Indonesia is just an attempt to say, "somebody does it too" an excuse from responsibility in the significance of environmental damage. What shame! Meantime, we all as citizens need to live a simpler life, drive less, use less energy, eat less meat and less waste, recycle and use solar power!
3
The plain truth is that there too many people on this planet.
34
@Swannie Unfortunately this is the real thing, I must agree with you... No blaming anybody, but understanding that the mankind is about to break down...
3
"What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty! In form and moving how express and admirable! In action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god! The beauty of the world. The paragon of animals."
NOT.
24
@Ann O. Dyne
Shakespeare left out "arrogant".
5
I would like to an international embargo on palm oil.
50
@sandra With more publicity of the multinational corporations that own the plantations and are behind this devastation. I flew over Borneo and the deforestation resulting in endless miles of African oil palms is horrific. These palms do not produce oil efficiently. They just take little care to grow.
Make it mandatory that all products containing palm oil display this prominently on their labels.
9
Please, do not describe these as "wildfires": that implies natural causes or at least ones without human intent. These are intentional fires and multinational corporations are culpable in their supplying the demand that is the starter fuel.
63
@Brian Robertson The obsession for profit must be put under scrutiny, not only there, in Indonesia, but also in many other places that mankind is trying to destroy. really sad, that obsession - seems that some powerful men just don´t care about mankind and the Earth. Sad.
11
A tragedy all round and unbelievably irresponsible. Companies that use Indonesian palm oil in their products should be named and shamed.
43
I am actually traveling to Indonesia in November - air travel, cruise ship, albeit with an English hiking group embedded in the environmentally incorrect cruise ship. I do feel guilty and find myself thinking about no longer traveling overseas. The planet is existentially imperiled to a degree that is terrifying. Perhaps, travel in my own country will be the way to go. But is flying to Oregon to see my son any better?
11
@renee
I applaud you for having the self-awareness to recognize your contribution to CO2 emissions. Few of us in the developed world can claim to be as virtuous as Greta T. But just recognizing the problem is an important first step, and I expect you will be surprised at how easy it is to start doing little things to save energy and drive/fly less. So don't be too hard on yourself -- you're becoming part of the solution!
8
@John Please, let me point that CO2 is one of the main food supply for vegetables (trees, or whatever else that grow vegetal...) Calm down with the jugdgement. And besides, the young Greta is NOT talking by herself. Go after all the motivations behind her... please... After all, power from wind and sunlight sources are already taking over... Believe me...
1
@Maciel, Irani ... That's some Trumpian logic, if I ever heard any. This beautiful planet did not evolve with vehicle, factory, and slash-and-burn fire emissions pumped endlessly into the atmosphere. The plants did not evolve to need these quantities of CO2, and I am sure that you know this ... dead, charred plants cannot use any CO2 ... they are only releasing it to add to the overburden, in case you hadn't been able to think it through that far.
4
It's amazing that palm plantations are non-flammable while native forest burns like dry grass. Human beings are a scourge.
31
Look carefully at ingredients, don't purchase items made with palm oil! These fires are a tragedy! Homes and lives of so many innocent animals ruined.
61
@Labslove All those ladies will need to let their creams go... this is not the solution. But the obsession for profit must be put under scrutiny.
2
@Maciel, Irani
It's also all those vegan animal rights activists blindly? using palm oil products as substitutes for dairy products.
1
@Della
I'm a longtime vegan who has never heard of palm oil as a substitute for dairy (what, they're putting it in almond milk now?!). You have no idea what you are talking about, obviously. Palm oil is used in processed foods and fast food, which non-vegans eat (and many vegans avoid). And considering that non-vegans make up 99% of the population, you can't logically blame vegans for the palm oil problem, now can you? I personally avoid palm oil at all costs. Maybe you should stop making blanket statements about people and issues that you have no knowledge of.
8