Wildfires in Indonesia may alter climate

Wildfires that raged in Indonesia in 1997 charred millions of acres and spread a thick haze in the Southern Hemisphere, threatening the health of millions of people and dealing a severe blow to the region's economy.

Now, ecologists have discovered another alarming effect: The fires may have spewed enough carbon to significantly affect the climate.

In 1997, extreme El Nino conditions triggered a drought in southeast Asia and elsewhere. Examining satellite images and using field measurements on the island of Borneo, peatland ecologist Susan Page at the University of Leicester in England figured that about 3,000 square miles of unusually dry swamp forest and peat bogs burned.

As much as 2.6 billion tons of carbon were released into the atmosphere from that area during the fires, she said.

That's an amount equal to 40 percent of the total amount of carbon released annually in the combustion of fossil fuels worldwide. Scientists believe that rising levels of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere play a key role in global warming.

With the wildfires' help, she said, 1997-98 marked the world's largest increase in carbon emissions. She said the carbon volume "came as a bit of a surprise."

The result, she said, may push scientists and government leaders to pay closer attention to the global environmental effects of wildfires.

She said peatlands in tropical areas are likely to be a major source of carbon emissions for years to come unless they are protected from fire and damaging human activities, like logging.