Weather May Fix Asia Haze as Indonesia Makes Scant Progress
- Forecasts for wetter weather as haze season draws near
- Fire patrol teams seen as not enough to deter fire setting
Firefighters were trying to extinguish the peat fires in Meranti Island, Indonesia.
Photographer: Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
Indonesian officials don’t expect a repeat of the forest fires that cloaked Southeast Asia in a thick haze last year, though that may be due more to favorable weather than progress in addressing the underlying causes of the blazes.
Satellite imagery showed 730 hotspots in the year to May, down from more than 2,900 in the first six months of last year, government data show. Last year’s fires raged out of control for months and unleashed smoke that closed airports and schools, for a time making Indonesia the world’s worst greenhouse gas polluter.