Asia's Burning, And The Whole World Suffers

By J. MADELEINE NASH

The forest fires raging on the island of Borneo have been giving Southeast Asians alarming flashbacks to the Great Haze of 1997. In some ways this year's blazes, stoked by the drought caused by El Nino, have been even worse, spreading into remote reaches of the virgin rain forest. Since January, hundreds of fires have claimed 700,000 acres of woodland, casting a pall of smoke over the Indonesian province of East Kalimantan and the Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak. While recent rains have quenched many of the fires, the situation remains volatile. Moreover, the whole world may feel the heat. The burning forests are adding tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, worsening the threat of global warming.

Alarmed by the magnitude of the problem, the United Nations convened an emergency meeting in Geneva last week to draw up plans for international intervention. "We must do everything in our power to prevent a repeat of last year's disaster," said Klaus Topfer, executive director of the U.N. Environment Program. "Urgent practical action is needed--now." Topfer hopes the U.S.and other nations can soon be persuaded to ante up a total of $10 million, enough to pay for equipping and training 1,000 fire fighters.

--By J. Madeleine Nash