Borneo is an ecological catastrophe, a nightmare, a horror movie, a mirror to watch us, an example of what should not be done anywhere in the world. Borneo's recent history is the largest and most dramatic case of climate change produced by human hands. There is no doubt about the responsibility of homo sapiens in this disaster. In just half a century, some humans destroyed what nature took millions of years to build. With their action they not only changed the landscape and annulled huge ecosystems, but they also broke the natural cycle and activated local climate change that has had repercussions beyond their borders. Its effects may have reached far Australia and Chile, where the largest forest fires in its history have occurred.
The El Niño phenomenon, as we know, is a warming of the surface of the waters of the Pacific Ocean that affects especially Southeast Asia, Australia and South America. It occurs from time to time, without a pattern being established. Upon arrival it causes climatic imbalances, which in some parts is manifested by unusual downpours and prolonged rains, and in others by long droughts. In both cases it can have devastating effects.
In contrast, in Borneo, the third largest island in the world located in Southeast Asia, the arrival of the Child had a positive effect. According to Dr. Lisa Curran, a renowned scientist who spent twenty years studying its climate and an expert in the island's natural history, the flowering of dipterocarp forests gives it a special dynamic related to this phenomenon. Curran points out that «between 80-93% of species synchronize their flowering with drought, which normally occurs every four years. During a "dipterocarp year" in Kalimantan, the entire forest is full of color, when countless trees - each with about four million flowers - bloom over a period of six weeks (…) ».
This massive flowering and subsequent fruit sprouting "which has been shown to be synchronized in an area of 150 million hectares and involving 1870 species" represented a great advantage for seed predators during the particular season, especially for the wild boar, a great consumer of them. The increase in the number of wild boars created such an abundance during these periods that the population of Borneo considered the El Niño phenomenon as a blessing, since its inhabitants collected huge quantities of seeds for export and supplied themselves with abundant meat of this species. "This relationship has existed since humans inhabited Borneo, and is rooted from tribes deep in the forest to merchants on the coast," Curran adds.
But the situation changed dramatically and El Niño already has the same negative effects as in other regions, after the intense deforestation of forests that occurred in the 1980-1990 decades, a period during which Borneo became the world's largest exporter of wood. The brutal destruction of the primordial rainforest so impacted the cycle described that "seed production dropped from 175 pounds per acre in 1991 to 16.5 pounds per acre in 1998, even though it was one of the El Niño years strongest on record. Logging appears to have reduced the density and biomass of mature trees below the critical threshold that limits mass flowering. "
This fall in the production of seeds is equivalent to a decrease of more than 90%, a dramatic figure, which occurred in just one seventh year, as a consequence of the irrational attitude of some human beings. Homo sapiens sapiens, through uncontrolled felling of trees, made one of the largest rain forests in the world, one of the most important rain reservoirs on the planet, where just half a century ago the humidity and mud made a forest fire unimaginable, in a arid, dry and hostile place not suitable for animals or vegetables in most of its territory. Although it is not believed, that beautiful forest of wetlands and biodiversity, among the most prolix and interesting on Earth, every year becomes a pasture for llamas. Frequent forest fires are mostly intentional,in order to clear land for planting oil palm, but not infrequently the fires get out of control, and even from the borders of the huge island, further decimating its varied and beaten fauna and flora, in addition to launching thousands of tons of CO2 into the atmosphere. Borneo is a very serious case of human unconsciousness towards the environment, which should not be overlooked.
The other worrying news is that, according to information that is being managed, the truce of deforestation in the Amazon jungle, after ten years, has been broken in 2015 and the deforestation has restarted and is increasing, as well as its dangerous consequences as already happened in Borneo. Everything indicates that humanity is not capable of applying the method of trial and error in this matter. Until now we have not learned to draw conclusions from mistakes or simply ignore the issue.
If the Amazon were to be deforested in the same proportion as Borneo, Climate Change would not be local, or regional, as in Southeast Asia, since the territory of the South American jungle is six million km2, eight times greater than that of the island. In this case, a universal catastrophe would be witnessed, with unpredictable effects for the entire planet and for the immense number of species that our fertile Mother Earth has raised and welcomed in his bosom with so much patience and kindness for millions of years.
It is the duty of all of us who live in this vertiginous 21st century to stop for a few moments and reflect on the things that are happening in the house we live in. As Leo di Caprio says, there is no plan “B” on this topic. Each of us has our own problems, activities and entertainments, but still we can find a space to put our grain of sand. Its size does not matter. The mere act of searching, reading and sharing information on what is happening in climate matters would be a step forward. If you can write about it, even better.
Sources:
- Lisa Curran. (sf). In Wikipedia. Retrieved on March 15, 2017. from https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_CurranMongabay. Borneo. Recovered from
