Comment by jussij | Hacker News Reader

Comment by jussij | Hacker News Reader

I'm not sure what the author expects the rest of the world to do. Indonesia is a sovereign state that also claims to have a full fledged democracy and the rule of law. Surely they have all the tools to fix this problem.

The outside world has complained to Indonesia about these illegal fires for decades and each time Indonesia has said it would take care of it, giving assurance they will never happen again.

But as history has shown us, those assurances are worthless as those fires keep happening. And they keep happening, not not because the world does not care, but rather, the sovereign state of Indonesia is corrupt to the core.

Now, hopefully this time will be the last, only because this time around has been the worst ever and the Indonesia population is now being directly effected with multiple deaths and widespread suffering. The have a vote, they should use it.

But I doubt much will change, as those corrupt politicians will still be there this time next year.

Why don't the people of democratic Indonesia choose a president, a government that cares about pollution, cares about the lives?

The author may expect with more intense coverage from the renowned international media community, the government of Indonesia will pay more attention to the problem, and perhaps the government will take effective measures to tackle this problem.

Due to the coverage on air pollution of China from domestic and foreign media, especially on PM 2.5, the majority of Chinese people slowly become aware with the health risks posed by the air pollution. This put pressure on the Chinese government, and since then the government has promised to clean the air, and they really are taking steps to reduce pollution.

Indonesia is extremely corrupt, and as he points out the president has very little power.

It's well worth watching the film "the act of killing", though also incredibly depressing.

The best we could hope for is international pressure from other countries, especially it's neighbours.

Most important is that consumers try and avoid products that use palm oil unless ethically sourced (sorry, but no Nutella, Ferrero Rosche etc).

> The best we could hope for is international pressure from other countries, especially it's neighbours.

Southern-Asia isn't known for incorruptible democratic government either. They don't really pose any interest involving Indonesia's affairs.

As you correctly point out, incorruptible Southern-Asia governments seem to be the exception and not the norm.

Unfortunately, it also seems to be a government contagion that seems to be spreading.

I completely agree. Are they advocating that some western liberal democracy take over and run the place? That didn't work to well in the 18th century, and it doesn't work to well now. We don't have a "world government" and some unified thinking about "what is best", and as a result there are always places in the world where the people who are in a position to do something, are doing something despicable.

The author makes some suggestions.

> Our leverage is weak, but there are some things we can do. Some companies using palm oil have made visible efforts to reform their supply chains; but others seem to move more slowly and opaquely. Starbucks, PepsiCo and Kraft Heinz are examples. Don’t buy their products until you see results.

So you could contact those companies and let them know you will be boycotting them until they publicly announce steps to remove environmentally irresponsible suppliers from their supply chain.

Are small countries that allow lots of pillaging of natural resources political entities? Or are they more of a political face to the underlying corporate interests that need those resources? It might be more productive in that case to treat them as corporations and hit them in their wallets by hitting companies up the supply chain from them to get them to change behavior.

I'm just not sure how taking money away from companies and then telling them to do something more expensive is a solution.

Japan has a lesser but similar problem with hay fever.

It is costing a lot in healthcare, but those Cryptomeria japonica(杉) remains standing.

I cannot quite figure out why.

I think the author wants the developed nations to send in their fire fighting aid.

The first problem is these fires cover vast swaths of remote land, with no easy access for fire fighting.

Secondly, these are not your normal fire, but instead they are peat fires, meaning the fire is burning meters underground.

And because they are peat fires, they can only be extinguished using massive amounts of water, sufficient water to saturate the area at least a meter down.

And that raises the final problem. Such large volumes of water are just not available.

So these fires will keep burning until the arrival of the monsoon, when nature will finally deliver enough water put out the burning land.

They are.

"Singapore and Malaysia have sent aircraft to Palembang in South Sumatra to help Indonesia fight forest fires. (snip) Australia announced on Saturday that it was sending a Hercules air tanker and a rural firefighting team."

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-10-11/singapore-...

Tragic. All of what you wrote is true for Europe too, just replace fire by flood (various kinds).

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