In January, the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) announced that Indonesia experienced a rising number of hydrometeorological disasters from 2015 to 2020, six of the hottest years on record according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). In 2015, the country saw 1,664 hydro meteorological disasters. The figure then increased to more than double in 2019, with 3,810 disasters. It did drop to 3,023 last year, but that does not mean the threat of nature’s wrath is no longer there. The BNPB has made its message clear: We are going to see more extreme weather ahead. The rationale behind that grim warning is a scientific fact that we have so often casually ignored: that the planet is getting hotter because of our greed and deeds.
Climate variability and change increasingly threaten Indonesia’s coastal population and infrastructure, as well as the country’s ecologically and economically important tropical forests and coastal ecosystems. With its extensive coastline and millions of people living on low-lying land just above sea level, Indonesia is among the world’s most vulnerable countries to sea level rise. Indonesia is vulnerable to other weather-related disasters such as forest and land fires, landslides, storms, and drought that have destroyed infrastructure and degraded forest and coastal ecosystems, leading to loss of life, property, ecosystem services, and livelihoods. Much of Indonesia’s greenhouse gas emissions are from land-use change and forestry, followed by energy, agriculture, waste, and industrial processes.
Water covers two-thirds of the surface of the Earth, but Freshwater is 0.002% on Earth. What will your children drink?
1.4 million Children under age of five die every year as a result of lack of access to clean water
Contributors to poor air quality in Indonesia include the mining and oil and gas industries, automobile manufacturing, vehicle emissions, and forest fires.
In accordance with the World Health Organization’s guidelines, the air quality in Indonesia is considered moderately unsafe. The most recent data indicates the country’s annual mean concentration of 70% air pollution above the recommended maximum.
Indonesia ranks among the world’s top greenhouse gas emitting nations due to rapid deforestation.
Indonesian forests are disappearing rapidly, and the country has now replaced Brazil as the world’s NO. 1 defroster.