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Topic

Transboundary Haze and Air Quality

Recurring smoke pollution from Indonesian land and peat fires that crosses borders to affect air quality in Malaysia, Singapore, and the region.

Current stories

leadershipConfirmed4 publishers

Singapore's Wong looks into which companies may be responsible for Indonesia's haze fires

Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said on Oct 15 his government is looking into which companies may be responsible for Indonesia's fires. He is also exploring joint action with other countries. Operators with Indonesian concessions have legal and diplomatic questions to weigh alongside the reputational one.

Perspective Coverage

5 publishers
Builder
Builder 5%
Operator
Operator 60%
Investor
Investor 35%

Reality

Evidence62
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+20
Incentives
Not scored
Confidence70
scienceOne report1 publisher

Peat fires produce most of Indonesia's haze from under a third of its wildfires

Peat burns in under a third of Indonesia's wildfires but yields most of the haze, according to Greenpeace research. Fire emissions reached 140.5 megatonnes by Oct. 6, the highest since 2019, Copernicus data show.

Publishers:phys.org

Reality

Evidence62
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+5
Incentives50
Confidence60
scienceConfirmed3 publishers

Haze shuts schools across Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya and four Malaysian states

Malaysia shut schools in Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya and four states on Oct 9 as haze drove air quality to unhealthy levels. How much warning families get next time depends on which of the education ministry's two pollutant-index triggers is crossed.

Perspective Coverage

4 publishers
Builder
Builder 13%
Operator
Operator 71%
Investor
Investor 16%

Reality

Evidence72
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap0
Incentives
Not scored
Confidence70
scienceOne report1 publisher

Indonesia's cross-border haze case rests on two health numbers without a baseline

An eruption and a cross-border haze episode hit Indonesia in the same week. The aviation disruption came with counts. The health figures quoted for Sarawak and Manila arrive as associations.

Publishers:phys.org

Reality

Evidence38
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+32
Incentives
Not scored
Confidence40
scienceOne report1 publisher

Malaysia closes 647 schools in Serian after its air index crossed 500

Sarawak's emergency turns on a single pollution index crossing a policy threshold, a number that describes the air at a sensor rather than the dose a district has breathed, and neither AFP dispatch carries a comparable reading for Singapore or Brunei.

Publishers:phys.org

Reality

Evidence62
Adoption78
Hype gap+14
Incentives57
Confidence66
scienceOne report1 publisher

Indonesian fires outran 2015's emissions for one measured week

CAMS is comparing this season to 2015 and 2019, both exceptional El Nino years. For anyone planning around regional haze, the more durable input is the drained peatland that turns a dry spell into weeks of smoke downwind.

Publishers:phys.org

Reality

Evidence72
Adoption68
Hype gap+10
Incentives32
Confidence60
scienceOne report1 publisher

Kalimantan's fires: El Nino is the multiplier, the drained peat is the base rate

NASA FIRMS counts show a sharp August spike across five provinces. A published study puts El Nino's megafire effect at roughly 2.7x, and severe fires still happen without it.

Publishers:phys.org

Reality

Evidence58
Adoption38
Hype gap+12
Incentives55
Confidence52
scienceOne report1 publisher

Indonesia scales cloud seeding against a fire season it cannot yet count

Jakarta has dozens of aircraft on standby to seed clouds over Borneo. Its own burned-area figure is roughly a third of what independent monitoring reports.

Publishers:phys.org

Reality

Evidence44
Adoption66
Hype gap+32
Incentives72
Confidence51