Free Oxygen
From Indonesia’s Forest Fires to an International Firefighting Festival, and Tonight’s Snacks
Forest fires in Indonesia send haze drifting across Southeast Asia, sometimes even reaching Australia.
That also proves that when there are no forest fires, oxygen from those forests must be drifting everywhere too.
So instead of blaming Indonesia only for the haze it sends our way, we should be thanking it for the oxygen it supplies on all the other days.
That was the remark of a clever Indonesian official.
Neither oxygen nor haze can be tariffed.
Natural resources cannot simply be treated as assets, nor can sovereignty explain everything. This is especially true of rainforests.
A country may have the right to exploit its natural resources, but that does not give it the right to destroy them on a massive scale.
When large-scale forest fires occur, the whole world has a responsibility to protect the forests, because everyone shares the consequences.
The difficulty lies not in reaching a consensus, but in having the authority to act. That is a political problem.
Indonesia is the largest country in Southeast Asia. If it doesn’t agree, what are you going to do?
And when it says it’s giving you oxygen for free, you can’t exactly refuse that either.
Besides, traditional slash-and-burn farming cannot be stopped overnight. Add large-scale commercial land clearing, and forest fires become even harder to control.
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Few insurers would dare touch a risk like that.
Even with an agreement between governments, international assistance could turn into an endless annual firefighting festival, while the environmental damage caused by economies of scale remains buried underground.
Would you really pay the price of extra virgin olive oil for your fried chicken?
At that rate, you might not even be able to afford prawn crackers.
Of course, eating less fried food would be healthier. But so few everyday food products are free of palm oil. Remove them all, and supermarket shelves would go completely bare.
It’s the food industry’s version of the plastics dilemma, and the dilemma of every single-use plastic user too.
Whenever economies of scale are involved, just find a few developing countries to shoulder the blame.
A little criticism won’t kill anyone. Having no money and no food is far worse.
Plenty of developing countries are still competing to attract rare-earth processing, oil palm plantations and data centres.
So what if they have to breathe a little polluted air?
The annual firefighting festival should be funded by developed countries. Every company involved could contribute something. Small contributions add up, and the festival stays nice and sustainable.
There could even be an annual firefighting award to encourage participation.
After all, who doesn’t want to spend an evening relaxing on the sofa, munching through a big bag of snacks while watching a show?
Nobody knows when the world will end, but tonight’s livestream is already scheduled.
Many grand things are brought about by nothing more than small everyday habits.
