Global ecosystem in danger

Global ecosystem in danger

The raging fires in Indonesia demonstrate how Southeast Asian
nations have devoted huge resources to economic development at
the expense of lifestyle and environmental improvements.

The region's governments have long accepted that fire is the
cheapest way to clear land for cultivation. The two-week blaze
that now menaces the region is believed to have been started by
such a land-clearing fire.

In 1995, the Indonesian government prohibited field-burning to
counter the damage it was causing. However, the prohibition has
been routinely flouted by the people that matter: the timber
dealers and farm owners.

The tropical forests of Southeast Asia, like the Amazonian
jungles, have long been recognized as a crucial source of oxygen
that needs to be preserved. Destruction of these resources
imperils the global ecosystem.

The forest fires also add an extra hazard because they
contribute to the problems of global warming.

It is essential that nations join forces to prevent the
further destruction of natural resources that threatens the
global environment.

-- Yomiuri Shimbun, Tokyo