Remember those weeks before SCUAA? Busy, very busy. VSU faculty were beating their heads around how they would manage the entire week of activities. Construction of facilities was being sped up, and students were loaded with requirements and exams- on top of an eviction schedule from their dormitories. But if you'd had the slightest break to look up at the sky, you would notice that it wasn't as scenic as it used to be. It was all over the news as well, if you had the chance to watch TV at all. Haze from Indonesian forest fires have made their way to the Philippines. But sure, “Ngano man diay'g pareha ka hanap ang langit sa ako grado? Papasaron nako ni sir ana?” Yeah….well, it turns out, the loss in clarity of the sky is not the worst of it.
What exactly is 'haze'?
Haze is the darkening of the lower atmosphere, caused by fine particles that remain floating in the air. When water hits the boiling point, it evaporates in the form of steam which later forms a raincloud. But when plants are burned, ash particles are carried up to the atmosphere along with CO2 – this is the type of haze plaguing Indonesia and the rest of Southeast Asia. That brown smoke you see when you burn dead leaves during cleaning time? Imagine hectares of that, steadily burning and spreading out to forests and fields.
What's going on?
Six provinces in Indonesia declared a state of emergency due to the severe haze problem. Dubbed as the '2015 Southeast Asian Haze', this air pollution crisis spread to Hongkong, Brunei, Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia, Cambodia and the Philippines.
An estimated 28 million people in Indonesia were affected; 40,000 were diagnosed with severe respiratory problems; and thousands of residents from the city of Pekanbaru were forced to evacuate to their neighbouring cities. In October last year, 19 were confirmed dead, while a number of schools in Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia were closed due to the haze. Four million students in Malaysia alone were kept out of school. In addition, both the Kuala Lumpur Marathon and the 2015 FINA Swimming World Cup were cancelled.
Factors affecting the haze crisis
Peatlands
Indonesia's land area is covered in
peat. Peat is an accumulation of
decomposed plant material in a water saturated environment with the absence of oxygen. Peat is greatly beneficial to the environment when left alone. Peatlands effectively capture carbon in the air, thus reducing pollution. But when burned, they release what carbon they have stored. As a result, last year's Indonesian fires were expected to have produced the same level of carbon emissions as the United Kingdom did for the year 2014.
El Niño
The prolonged dry spell facilitates
the quick burning down of peat.
Because of severe heat and zero rainfall, moisture becomes scarce.
Deliberate burning
Forest fires in Indonesia don't
normally last that long. But while
natural factors exist, many believed that these peatlands and forests have deliberately been burned. In the Philippines, it is known as kaingin- a cost efficient, yet environmentally hazardous practice of burning down areas to clear them out for agricultural use. Indigent farmers may have been led to pursue this practice due to the money that it saves them, but environmental rights activists and citizens of Indonesia point out the strong possibility that Paper and Palm Oil companies are behind this deliberate burning.
But why?
You cannot just burn an entire forest so you can turn it into a paper-pulp plantation. It has to happen “naturally” or “accidentally”. You see where I'm getting at?
Most of our commercially available palm oil comes from African Oil Palm (Elaeis guineensis) plantations. Palm oil is a chief ingredient in many of our snack items. It is also used for medicine and cosmetics. African Oil Palms take thirty months after planting before they can produce fruit. They peak in fruit production at around seven years, but fruiting declines when an oil palm hits 18 years. So after this cycle, they have to be replaced. Equipment and manpower are the biggest and costliest considerations when clearing oil palm plantations for replanting. So what do companies do to save money? They burn the plantations down and wait for it to blow over. Budget friendly, right? But wrong on so many levels. Smoke that comes from burning these large plantations have direct effect on the health of the people in the surrounding communities. But it did not just stop there. Thanks to the inconsiderate disregard. All the regions of Southeast Asia have been subjected to this health hazard. Add that up to our increase in carbon emissions and the potential worsening of global warming. But wait, there's more. Wildfire is not something you can control or contain easily. Fires from peatlands and palm oil plantations spread to forests and jungles in Indonesia, killing and displacingthe inhabiting animals. Specifically the orangutans that are native to Indonesia. Thanks to the flames, the previously tree-dwelling primates are now fenced in for protection when their homes were burning to the ground. This practice was already outlawed by the 'ASEAN agreement on transboundary haze pollution'. But since Indonesia just recently signed it, they're having trouble controlling these private companies.
What has been done?
In an Interview with BBC, President Joko Widodo stated that Indonesia has “gone to great lengths” to combat the worsening effects of the prolonged annual haze. Eight thousand police officers, four water bombing planes and three thousand seven hundred soldiers have already been dispatched, Widodo states. This is along with the continued drive to enforce laws against forest-burning and building water reservoirs in the forests and canals to get water in. "You will see results soon and in three years we will have solved this”, said Widodo.
The hazy truth is that these companies that are killing off our natural 0environment are probably the same companies that provide the paper that this article is printed on. Perhaps, the same companies that burned off the Indonesian forests, are the same companies that provide the palm oil for the chips you are munching as you read this. (Check the back of the package label.) We do not condone these actions. But neither can we live without paper or food. You see, this is why these companies thrive despite their inconsiderate disregard and greed. We have become dependent on them. But, come on. If science has allowed us to produce flood tolerant rice varieties and crops that are immune to herbicides, surely it can help us find safer and environmental friendlier alternatives.
Threats closer to home
There is a long suppressed plan to begin mining in mount Pangasugan. It is being badly disguised and sugarcoated as “responsible mining”. It is strikingly similar to this crisis that Indonesia is now facing. Just as people need paper and food, people also need money. And mining can give you a lot of that.
These are private companies, with no regard for nature in their pursuit of pure financial gain. If we give them a place in our community, it's not going to be long before elbows are bent and loopholes are exploited. Trees will be cut, rivers will be polluted. Must we wait for a cloud to cover us in zero-visibility before we decide to open our eyes? Health, lives, the future generations- these are the things at stake. And for our Very Scenic University, which we take pride in calling a 'dark green school', unless we take a stand while it's not yet too late, our future will be just as hazy.