Indonesia will not clear natural forests for two years under the U.N.-backed effort “Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation.” or REDD, in which rich countries pay to preserve forests in developing ones. Skepticism abounds that Indonesia will meet its goals, but it says it will.
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The worst drought in 50 years is ravaging much of Asia. China, which has built four dams along the Mekong River, faces ire from neighbors for causing the drought. Yet scientific evidence suggests low rainfall is the culprit. China is trying to counter the perception that the dams are to blame.
Rising seas and warmer, more acidic oceans threaten the Coral Triangle surrounding southeast Asia. If the coral around Indonesia, the Phiippines, and Malaysia is detroyed, coastal economies supporting 100 million people would also collapse, pressuring the cities of Australia and New Zealand. Effective global action on climate change and better management of coastal resources can mitigate the consequences of coral collapse. The WWF-commissioned study was given at the World Ocean Conference
A new report released by the Asian Development Bank highlights impacts climate change may have on Southeast Asia, one of the most vulnerable regions in the world due to the high number of impoverished people living near the coast. Projected impacts included rising sea levels that threaten to submerge small islands, salt water intrusion into aquifers used for drinking water, and diminished rice harvests. Although there are already signs of these changes starting occur in the region, which includes Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, and Vietnam, the authors of the report believe that there is still time for adaptation strategies to be implemented. The report urges governments to take greater action and not use the current economic crisis as an excuse for delay, “as climate change adaptation can serve as an effective fiscal stimulus.”
Scientists at Stockholm University in Sweden have determined that Asia’s brown cloud, the subjects of years of study, is about two-thirds due to the burning of wood, dung and other biomass for cooking and agriculture, and only about one-third to the burning of fossil fuels in cars, power plants, etc. This proportion is much greater than found in earlier studies using different methodologies. The implications of the research, to be published in the journal Science, are that controlling agricultural burning and improving cookstove technology may dissipate as much of the brown haze over South Asia as restricting cars of building cleaner power plants.