Indonesia Wildfire Haze Sickens 50,000 as Super El Niño Threatens 11 Million Hectares
Updated
Updated · BBC.com · Sep 3
Indonesia Wildfire Haze Sickens 50,000 as Super El Niño Threatens 11 Million Hectares
3 articles · Updated · BBC.com · Sep 3
Summary
More than 50,000 respiratory infections were recorded in Indonesia in July and August as wildfire haze spread from Sumatra and Borneo into Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines.
Pollution in some areas reached over 15 times the WHO guideline, with Indonesia's forestry minister warning September is the critical phase because Super El Niño is intensifying drought and fire conditions.
At least 12,000 of the Indonesian cases involved children under five, while residents in Malaysia and the Philippines reported asthma, conjunctivitis, headaches and throat and eye irritation.
Experts say the crisis is not only weather-driven: drained peatlands, plantation expansion and alleged land clearing by fire have made recurring blazes harder to control and more damaging.
Researchers warn fires in Indonesian Borneo are burning through major tropical peatlands that can release vast stored carbon, and this year's burn area could reach 11 million hectares, near the scale of 1997-98.
What hidden economic forces are driving the relentless burning of Indonesia's carbon-rich peatlands despite decades of catastrophic toxic haze?
Could the underground smoldering of Southeast Asia's peat fires silently derail global climate targets while evading satellite detection?
Southeast Asia’s 2026 Wildfire and Haze Crisis: Over 200,000 Hectares Burned, Regional Health Emergency, and the Fight for Lasting Solutions
Overview
In 2026, a powerful Super El Niño and a positive Indian Ocean Dipole caused severe drought across Southeast Asia, drying Indonesia’s carbon-rich peatlands and triggering massive underground fires. These fires released huge amounts of toxic smoke and fine particles, creating hazardous haze that spread across Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, and the Philippines. Air quality plummeted, forcing school closures and causing tens of thousands of respiratory illnesses. The haze crisis exposed the limits of emergency responses like cloud-seeding, highlighted weak regional enforcement, and threatened Indonesia’s climate targets as peat fires released vast greenhouse gases, showing the urgent need for structural reforms.