Devastating Forest Fires Called `Planetary Disaster'
10/1/97
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Headline: Devastating Forest Fires Called `Planetary Disaster'
Source: Hugh Mitchell, 147 Hillside Ave., Rochester, N.Y., USA 14610-2441
e-mail: hmitch@frontiernet.net
Date: 10/1/97
Indonesia Is Burning;
Devastating Forest Fires Called `Planetary Disaster'
by Hugh Mitchell, Rochester, N.Y., USA
Massive forest fires, the size of which the world has seldom seen, are
burning out of control in Indonesia (particularly in Borneo and Sumatra) as
a result of the rapacious exploitation of ancient rain forests by
multi-national timber corporations like Georgia Pacific and Mitsubishi.
In late September the New York Times described these fires as "One of the
most widespread man-made disasters the region has known." But the World
Wide Fund For Nature, based in London, describes the losses in far gloom
terms than the Times, calling them "a planetary disaster". The Sydney
Morning Herald in Australia also describe "an ecological disaster" and they
go on to elaborate by pointing out the fact that it is not only the forests
that are burning but the land itself, which they call "the lungs of Asia".
"Tens of thousands of hectares of rain forest peat, the most important
natural element in fighting greenhouse carbon gases, have been ignited and
are facing permanent destruction."
The effects in Indonesia are already being seen in economic losses,
crippled transport systems, collapsed tourist revenues, loss of human life,
health effects on millions of people, incalculable loss of rain forest
habitat, rare plant destruction, death of rare animals and climatic effects
far beyond national borders. Perhaps a better description of this event
would be `ecological holocaust'.
Considering Indonesia is on the other side of the globe, why should
Americans be concerned? There are a lot of reasons in addition to a
humanitarian concern for the suffering of fellow human beings and an
environmental concern for the destruction of animal species in South East
Asia. Consideration must be given to reports by climatologists of
significant contributions these fires are making to global warming by
adding greenhouse gases to an already over heated atmosphere. One
international environmental organization estimates that the fires may have
result in a 5% increase in global greenhouse gases. Considering we all
live on one small, ecologically interconnected planet, the effects on the
atmosphere of the planet have to be seriously considered. Some predict
changes in El Nino and other weather patterns may effect our North American
weather as soon as this winter.
Inter-related climatic effects prove that the world is one ecology,
intertwined and linked together on all levels closer than we think. Even
small changes in one part of the globe can effect other parts. But the
effects of forest fires and smog in Indonesia are not small. In fact they
of terrifying large proportions. Indonesia has admitted 96,000 hectare or
237,120 acres have been destroyed, but satellite data put the total figures
at a far larger and more truthful size. According to this data between
600,000 to 800,000 hectares or over 1.5 million acres have been destroyed.
Here are some of the facts which have already been experienced: 200,000
people in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore have been forced to seek
hospital treatment. As a result of smog 234 people died in an Airbus crash,
28 seamen died when two ships collided and sank.
As the forest and brush fires spread to 17 of the country's national parks the
effects on rare and extremely endangered wildlife are horrible. These
effects include the documented death of 30 female oragutans, an unknown
number of losses of "critically endangered" Sumatran rhinoceroses (100 to
200 were left the world) and the Sumatran tiger, near extinction. When
the monsoon rains finally come there is a risk of floods and severe erosion
which may silt over of coral reefs, thus killing the reefs which are the
birth place of fishes, so vital as a human food source. Other longer term
effects on the respiratory health of children can only be guessed.
The voracious greed of the logging divisions of multi-national
corporations like Mitsubishi has been a major contributor to the air
pollution crisis underway in Indonesia, but other parts of South East
(Indonesia Is Burning)
Asia such as Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines have equally suffered
from the indiscriminate ruin of rain forests. And when forest stocks in
this part of the world are depleted it is expected to put additional
pressure on the last great forest expanses in the world including the critical
ecosystems of the Amazon rain forest in Brazil, Africa rain forests, and
northern forests in Russia and Canada. True to form the behavior of newly
arrived timber corporations from Malaysia in the Amazon is described by
Brazilian authorities as "voracious".
These multi-national corporations are not under the control of any
international law and have taken full advantage of this fact. Citizens of
the world need to demand the creation of strong international, enforceable
laws governing the destruction of the lungs of the planet and the
atmosphere all of us breathe. Considering the rate of rain forest depletion
it is almost too late.
Contact: Hugh Mitchell, 147 Hillside Ave., Rochester, N.Y., USA 14610-2441
e-mail: hmitch@frontiernet.net