Forest fire haze causes Indonesians to see red
The skies over an Indonesian province have become so polluted by forest fires that they have begun to glow a post-apocalyptic red, with locals joking their country looks like Mars.
About 900,000 Indonesians have suffered respiratory problems caused by extensive fires.
A toxic haze has blanketed parts of Borneo and Sumatra in the past few months, local authorities said, and has triggered diplomatic tensions as it spreads to neighbours, including Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines.
In the Indonesian province of Jambi, on Sumatra’s east coast, the haze has taken on an eerie blood-red hue, as the sun’s rays are filtered by microparticles in the air, prompting unsettled residents taking to social media to express their concern.
According to the Straits Times, citing the Indonesia National Board for Disaster Management, the phenomenon is known as “Rayleigh Scattering” and is caused by the movement of haze away from hot spots.
“It happens when sunlight is dispersed by smoke, dust or airborne particles that filter shorter wavelengths and release longer wavelengths that are in the orange or red spectrum, making the area appear to be dim and red,” Marufin Sudibyo, an Indonesian astronomer, told the Malaysian newspaper Sinar Harian. The paper also reported similar scenes after the Krakatau volcano erupted in 1883 and Mount Pinatubo blew in 1991.
Haze occurs annually during the dry spell between July and October due to open burning in Indonesia and, to a lesser extent, parts of Malaysia.
Part of the problem is caused by big corporations and farmers, who use slash-and-burn techniques to clear land for palm oil, pulp and paper plantations.
This season’s haze has been the worst in years and Indonesia last week arrested nearly 200 people for the fires that have caused air quality to plummet, thousands of schools to close and some flights to be cancelled.
The pictures have circulated widely on social media, with some doubting that the air could really be such a hue.
Eka Wulandari, who took pictures of the extraordinary sky in Mekar Sari village in Jambi, told BBC Indonesia: “It’s true. [It’s a] real photo and video that I took with my phone.”
“This is not Mars,” Zuni Shofi Yatun Nisa wrote on Twitter. “Here we breathe with lungs, not with gills. We humans need clean air, not smoke.”
Several parts of southern Thailand, including Phuket, also reported air quality reaching “unhealthy” levels due to the drifting pollution from Indonesia.