How Indonesian Fires Are Affecting Global Climate

The fires are expected to triple Indonesia’s annual greenhouse gas emissions, and increase global emissions for 2015 by 3 per cent. While nobody knows the extent of loss of species and biodiversity, as much as 2 million hectares of land (about the size of Mizoram) have burned, according to David Gaveau, a scientist at the Center for International Forestry Research in Indonesia.  “The ecological cost is incommensurable,” Gaveau said in an e-mail interview with IndiaSpend. “These fires are the symptom of a land-transformation process: once lush biodiversity-rich forests transforming into unproductive degraded land with poor biodiversity over time. Of course, 90% of fires are started by people.”