Seeing Through the Smoky Pall:
Observations from a Grim Indonesian Fire Season
Some growers in Indonesia use fire to clear forests to make way for fields and to burn away old crop debris. In 2015, many fires burned out of control because of unusually dry weather associated with El Niño.
(Photo by Martin Wooster.)
In many areas, drainage canals have lowered the water table enough to make peat swamp forests susceptible to fires. In the absence of human activity, Indonesia’s climate is wet enough that wildfires would not occur. Here, workers respond to fire near a drainage canal as smoke obscures trees in the background. (Photo by Martin Wooster.)
Crops and lush vegetation thrive around Mount Kerinci. Fire is mostly a manmade problem in this tropical environment.
(Photo by Buitenzorger, adapted under a Creative Commons license.)
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