Abstract:
A latest scientific study on the evolution of forest fires and climate environments in Southeast Asia points out that the most devastating and destructive fires in Indonesia are not the traditional forest wildfires that burn raging on the surface and produce soaring flames, but the hidden smoldering fires in peatlands that are deep underground and difficult to be directly detected by the naked eye. These fires that burn without flames deep underground for weeks or even months are not only extremely difficult to extinguish and monitor, they also release an alarming amount of greenhouse gases and highly toxic haze, posing a severe regional public health crisis and global climate load.
Peatlands are giant "carbon sponges" formed by the accumulation of organic plant residues that have not been completely decomposed for thousands of years in a high-humidity environment. They play a pivotal role in the global carbon cycle and ecological balance. Peatlands, which only account for a very small proportion of the earth's land surface, store more carbon than all forest vegetation in the world combined, and Indonesia is one of the countries with the most extensive tropical peat swamp forests in the world. In its natural original state, peatland is saturated with high groundwater levels all year round and has extremely strong natural flame retardant properties.
However, large-scale agricultural expansion in recent decades, the creation of oil palm plantations and the accompanying dense network of artificial drainage channels, have completely destroyed the natural hydrological balance of peatlands. The dramatic drop in water levels caused the carbon-rich organic matter originally buried deep in the ground to be exposed to the air and rapidly dehydrated, turning the entire land into an extremely flammable "underground powder keg." Whenever there is a severe drought caused by the El Niño phenomenon, or artificial fires are set to clear surface vegetation, fire will quickly spread downward along the dry roots and cracks, igniting the deep peat layer.
The research team pointed out that the most lethal characteristic of peat fires is their smoldering properties. Due to the limited oxygen supply underground, peat fires usually continue to advance underground in a smoldering manner without open flames and "low temperature and slow roasting", spreading horizontally and vertically several meters deep, forming an intricate underground fire network. This concealed burning mode not only makes it difficult to detect thermal anomalies accurately in the early stages of conventional satellite remote sensing monitoring, but also makes ground firefighting forces helpless - just extinguishing surface fires or implementing regular water sprays is often just a drop in the bucket. It is difficult for water flow to penetrate into the dense deep carbon layer. Ground fires can even quietly lurk for months after rainfall or deep in the soil, and then rekindle and break out after the surface layer dries.
What is even more serious is the chain of environmental damage it releases. Due to their prolonged state of incomplete combustion, peat smoldering fires release far more toxic smoke than traditional surface forest fires. Smoke contains extremely high concentrations of PM2.5 ultra-fine particles, carbon monoxide, methane, volatile organic compounds and other strong carcinogens. It drifts with the monsoon to form a serious cross-border haze that covers many countries in Southeast Asia, causing acute respiratory injuries to millions of surrounding residents and exacerbating the risk of premature death. At the same time, ancient carbon deposited over tens of thousands of years was converted into carbon dioxide and methane and emitted into the atmosphere. This not only pushed Indonesia to the forefront of global greenhouse gas emissions, but also formed a vicious ecological feedback loop in which "drought aggravates underground fires, underground fires accelerate global warming, and warming induces more extreme droughts."
In the report, scientific researchers and environmental management experts called on the international community and relevant Indonesian management agencies to fundamentally change their strategic thinking in responding to forest fires, and shift limited resources from simple end-of-line fire extinguishing and rescue to source hydrological restoration. Restoring the ecological water system of damaged peatlands, blocking artificial drainage channels to re-raise groundwater levels, and building a comprehensive three-dimensional early warning system by combining underground thermal imaging and soil moisture sensing networks are the only fundamental solutions to curb these invisible underground fires and protect the bottom line of tropical carbon pools.
Comments