Regional business loss estimated at $14 billion as palm oil, tourism suffers

Preliminary estimates peg the region's financial loss to around $14 billion from this year's haze crisis, including damages to the environment and health, said Herry Purnomo, a researcher at Indonesia's Center for International Forestry Research. Scientists have warned that this year's El Nino could produce one of the hottest weathers since records began in 1950. El Nino is the unusual warming of the Pacific Ocean that causes a shift of moist of winds away from their more typical patterns, resulting in lesser rains.