| From my 7th floor balcony in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta, the sky shifts from a high-humidity haze to a blue-gray smog. The pollution (and fantastic sunsets) is created by smoke emanating from burning trash, traffic and forest fires.
|
| Eight thousand square miles of tropical forest, equivalent to the size of Massachusetts, is cut down each year in Indonesia. The ‘recovered land’ is turned into prosperous plantations of oil palm. Palm oil is used primarily to prepare and preserve foods such as instant noodles (and KitKat bars and Pringle chips….) so they can be kept “fresh” in their plastic wrappings. |
| Indonesia is the largest producer of Palm Oil and instant noodles and the biggest tree chopper and forest burner in the world. The depletion of the tropical jungle removes the planet’s primary means of absorbing CO2 emissions. Therefore, Indonesia is now the third greatest contributor to global warming – after the US and China.
* In collaboration with eminent Indonesian choreographer Sardono Kusumo and performer Yola Yulfianti, with special thanks to Greenpeace for Indonesian forest fire footage
|
|
|
