Sumatran Orangutans Dying

[Gigit]

Rare Sumatran orangutans dying as fires rage in Indonesian swamp forest | Environment | The Guardian

This should be headline news, not a paragraph in a newspaper. Sadly, my reaction was not one of shock but of inevitability. Anything that's being done to curb the use of palm oil will surely be too late

 

[Stefka]

This certainly should make a headline!

I usually go to BBC - Science and Environment News - there are conservation news every day and nothing about this at all??

And the article didn´t say if there is something being done, only that they filled a lawsuit against the government? Can there be something done? Or is it just too late now and

we are currently watching a global tragedy

?

 

[Zooish]

Hate to break it to you, but this isn't "news". The fires burning through the Sumatran forests have been going on for many years. Indonesia sadly lacks the political will to put a stop to this, despite strong protests and even offers of aid from neighbours like Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei. The fires are so widespread and immense that the smoke generated spreads across the entire region during the height of the dry season.

 

[Gigit]

Anyone interested in orangutans knows what's going on in Sumatra and Borneo, but the full extent, as you describe and as announced by the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme, may not be widely appreciated.

Making more of news like this (the prospect of orangutans in a particular area being wiped out by the end of the year) might inspire more people to 'do something'. But individual effort in the face of government intransigence seems too little, too late now