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posted by martyb on Sunday June 21 2020, @12:21AM   Printer-friendly

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

The Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii recorded an increase of 2.4 parts per million (ppm) of carbon dioxide (CO₂) to a total of 471.1 ppm in May 2020.

[...] In 2015, fires ravaged 2.6 million hectares due to slash-and-burn methods to clear areas that were dominated by peatlands. A dry season influenced by El Nino climate variability also contributed to the increasing spread of hotspots.

That year, NASA satellites detected more than 130,000 hotspots.

These fires in peat area released 802 million tons (Mt) of CO₂e (carbon dioxide equivalent) in 2015, making it one of the worst emission events in the country.

[...] The average annual emission from peat fires from 2000 to 2016 was 248Mt of CO₂e.

Approaching peak dry season in August, peatland will still be vulnerable to fires.

[...] The country has been struggling to control these fires, which are becoming an annual event.

[...] However, the coronavirus pandemic is challenging climate change commitments. Nations will be focusing on bouncing back economically.

With predicted cuts to economic growth resulting from this virus, concerns are growing that Indonesia will clear more forests and depend on cheap fossil fuel to buffer the financial impacts.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 21 2020, @08:25PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 21 2020, @08:25PM (#1010779)

    Yes, as I noted, it's probably the lesser of two evils to burn the CH4 and immediately convert it to CO2. Otherwise, CH4 is far more potent than CO2, but will eventually be converted to CO2 in the atmosphere anyway. The contributions from the Darvaza Gas Crater are almost certainly quite small on a global scale. However, the contribution is almost certainly much larger than the climate impact of a few burned buildings during the George Floyd protests, an utterly absurd "pants on fire" level bit of misinformation from the AC I replied to.