All talk, no action say Indonesians

       


Who is one to talk anyway?  And there has been much talk about the recent floods in Jakarta being caused by “global warming”.  No doubt that, in part, they are.  But Jakarta has had from its very beginnings a flood problem.  Jakarta was built on the low delta of the Ciliwung River (which, I am sure,  flooded from time to time in the natural course of events) which the Dutch would later divert into canals to protect their own exclusive neighborhoods from being inundated.  Of course this would reek havoc in the urban kampungs from that day to this.  The city is sinking into the swampy ground, the mangrove forests have been altered and removed, and fill dumped into the Java sea to make more land area available for development along the north Jakarta coast.  Still, the Indonesians have their point…

All talk, no action say Indonesians

Mark Forbes, Nusa Dua, The AgeDecember 7, 2007


INDONESIA has hit out at developed countries for presenting “empty propaganda” during climate change talks in Bali and stalling proposals to pay to protect the world’s forests.The head of the Indonesian delegation, Emil Salim, launched the attack on the same day Indonesia released a proposal to reduce its emissions from forestry, which account for about 8% of the world’s greenhouse emissions. ”When it comes to the negotiating table here in Bali, they only come with promises,” Mr Salim said. ….> read full article here 


Then again nothing is as strait forward as it may seem…  and while I do not want to stray too far from my theme of Jakarta, this article from the Telegraph is well worth the look.   After all everything is connected to everything else… 

BOG barons: Indonesia’s carbon catatrophe

 Fred Pearce,  Telegraph, December 8, 2007

The continued destruction of peatland forests will greatly accelerate climate change.

I am standing in the heart of the world’s second largest tropical peat swamp, the Kampar bog in central Sumatra, watching the swamp’s water drain away along a small canal.

Across the western side of the bog there are dozens more drains. The peat bog is bleeding to death before me.Until five years ago, Kampar was a true bog with water at the surface, and it was covered by a rich rainforest in which Sumatran tigers roamed. A huge dome of peat, up to 15 metres deep, had built up over the past 6,000 years as woody debris fell into the swamp. It contains several billion tonnes of carbon.Now this part of the Kampar bog has been clear-felled, and the canals have been installed to turn it into plantations. As water levels fall beneath the blackened and treeless wasteland, the peat is drying and decomposing, releasing more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere per square kilometre than do many cities. ….> read full article here