Indonesia is burning. So why is the world looking away?

[paleotn]

Source: The Guardian - George Monbiot

I’ve often wondered how the media would respond when eco-apocalypse struck. I pictured the news programmes producing brief, sensational reports, while failing to explain why it was happening or how it might be stopped. Then they would ask their financial correspondents how the disaster affected share prices, before turning to the sport. As you can probably tell, I don’t have an ocean of faith in the industry for which I work. What I did not expect was that they would ignore it.

A great tract of Earth is on fire. It looks as you might imagine hell to be. The air has turned ochre: visibility in some cities has been reduced to 30 metres. Children are being prepared for evacuation in warships; already some have choked to death. Species are going up in smoke at an untold rate. It is almost certainly the greatest environmental disaster of the 21st century – so far.

Read more http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/oct/30/indonesia-fires-disaster-21st-century-world-media


We fiddle, while the world burns...

[phantom power]

1. Because the media is owned by Conservatives who don't care about the environment...

or poor brown people.

[polly7]

2. K&R. nt.

[Octafish]

3. Important news missing from my television screen.

Thank you, paleotn. When it comes to Indonesia, the tee vee always misses the story, like the time, half a million died in East Timor for Kissinger and Big Oil. Or the time before that, when LBJ reversed JFK's policies and the democrat got tossed for the right-wing general and a million "commies" got the ziggy.

https://consortiumnews.com/2013/11/25/jfks-embrace-of-third-world-nationalists/

Regarding Monbiot: The guy's an apologist for Nuke Inc.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/mar/21/pro-nuclear-japan-fukushima

[CrispyQ]

4. I didn't know about this.

The US media is a huge part of every major problem on the planet.

Thanks for posting.

[dembotoz]

5. k and r ...all i can do right now

[MoonRiver]

6. So f'n depressing.

I buy nothing with palm oil in it and have probably signed hundreds of petitions trying to protect orangutans from these bastards, but still the land burns.

[BlueJazz]

7. Part of it might?? be the fact that credit card fraud and banking in Indonesia is horrible and has..

...claimed many victims but still...That would be rather shitty of the news organizations to punish the whole country for a few offenders??

[hedda_foil]

8. The ground itself is on fire.and the CO2 emissions are larger than the U.S. economy puts out.

t’s not just the trees that are burning. It is the land itself. Much of the forest sits on great domes of peat. When the fires penetrate the earth, they smoulder for weeks, sometimes months, releasing clouds of methane, carbon monoxide, ozone and exotic gases such as ammonium cyanide. The plumes extend for hundreds of miles, causing diplomatic conflicts with neighbouring countries.