Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Haze

This is the burn-off season in Borneo and Sumatra. Slash and burn farmers as well as companies establishing new plantations are burning off large tracks of jungle to clear it for future planting. One of the results of this in the short term is appalling air pollution over most of South East Asia. In Sarawak it's so bad that they can't fly planes in or out and even in Singapore and Malaysia visibility is down to about three kilometers. Just imagine how much forest you have to burn to create a smoke cloud that covers a country hundreds of kilometers away!

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