Wildfire emissions of carbon have been the world’s highest this week, in Indonesia, as fires have been burning in parts of Borneo and Sumatra.
According to Fire Emissions Watch, a service that relies on data from the European Union’s Copernicus climate monitoring system, between September 1 and September 7, the fire emissions were 19.7 million metric tons, which is more than a third of the global total, and surpassed Russia.
Fires are mainly found in Kalimantan (on the Indonesian side of Borneo) and in eastern Sumatra. Emission intensity was more than 1,500kg per sq km, which is 10 times higher than Russia’s, and emissions were 273 per cent higher than the seasonal average.
The increase has been attributed to the extremely hot and dry weather of a strong El Niño. Mark Parrington, Copernicus scientist, stated that the weather is causing fires to be more intense.
On Wednesday, the air quality index (AQI) at Pontianak, West Kalimantan stood at 394, which is classified as hazardous by the air quality data company IQAir. The environment ministry of Indonesia expressed worry about the readings, but pointed out that the data from Copernicus on emissions does not necessarily correspond to air quality at a specific location.
The country’s monitoring system, Sipongi, has found that the number of hotspot in Indonesia reached 13,443 from August 1 to September 8, 2016, while in 2015, the number of hotspot was 9,454. Researchers say that emissions might keep increasing throughout the fire season.
Source: Reuters
