Hello ambassador friends!! Do you still remember my first report in September about smog in my city? Here I am going to give some update about it but before that I would like to give a review for what had happened during two months.

In August 2014, the smog had started to spread around the city or even some provinces in Sumatera Island and Borneo. This was not the first time! It had happened since 1997 and got worse in last 5 years. The main causes could be categorized as natural cause and unnatural cause. The former are natural burning swap forests due to drought and the latter are human involvement due to several reasons.

Actually, it is a common thing to see swap forest burning in dry season when dry season comes. It is because burning is part of natural life cycle. The new life will grow after the event. The natural burning will not endanger human?s life since it happens in small amount and can be controlled by nature.

Then how about the burning which happen due to human involvement? This is most dangerous cause. This thing really brings a huge impact on human?s life. The burning will happen in massive amount. It will be uncontrolled by nature. Especially in drought, when the weather is hot and the rain will seldom come. Many problems will appear because of this. We can say this event is from human to human .

Lets jump to what happened during September and October 2014. Palembang had been covered by smog. It disturbed citizen activities and changed the life style. In my September report, I?ve described how problematic the condition was. There was no fresh air to breath, teary eyes and so on. And October had been the climax and the farewell party.

Many accidents happened in October 2014 due to limited visibility. As it is important point in driving, the drivers felt driving was very difficult and they needed to concentrate more than usual. A TV news program reported there was an accident in river involved two boats in Pontianak, Borneo Island. Then a truck hit another truck in highway near my campus. So during that month, the drivers switched the vehicle lamp on all day.

In several airports, many flights were delayed in the name of safety. The passengers were upset as they had to wait in airport for many hours and there was nothing to do but they understood the situation and hoped the smog would disappear quickly. The airports which got this problem were located in South Sumatera Province, North Sumatera Province, Jambi Province, Riau Province and some in Borneo Island.

The citizen daily activities were disturbed. Some was postponed. For instance, some schools in Pontianak Borneo Island were closed due to high concentrate of smog in the air and it was really dangerous for children. So it was better to stay at home. For adult who could not leave their daily routines, they always wore masker wherever they go.

After the climax, it should be an ending. The initial part of ending happened on 17, 18, 19 October 2014. The first sign of ending appeared on 17 October. The high concentrate of smog was no longer in the air however the thin layer was still there. It was easier to breath and the air was not really painful for the eyes.  On 18 October, the first rain felt. It was heavy but short rain. It makes some people happy because they thought that the end of smog season had come. Then the next day, the color of the sky turned to not really light blue, but quite blue.

The things on those three days are caused by the intensive of the effort to extinguish the hotspots. It is known from a local newspaper that the government is not capable to litigate these issues due to lack of evidence. The government can only socialize for not burning the forest and make some artificial rain. In the beginning of November, even though the sky had been clear enough, the newspaper reported there were still some remaining hotspots. It triggered the government to conduct spreading salt in the cloud more to trigger more rain.  At the end of November, the government no longer to do that, due to the rain season has come.

I appreciate the government action to reduce the smog and I condemn the doers of burning (I think at that time, I almost went to hospital due to respiratory infection). But I guess, the next year, the government will forget what happened in the middle of 2014 like years before.  The government only does cure actions. They never seriously do preventive actions such us education and socialization to society or issued radical regulations (I believe for this problem, we should be a little bit cruel). People in city must be understood the danger of burning the forest but how about the people who live outside the city? They may not be understood due to lack education compared to people in city. Those people should be educated because they live around the forest and take benefit from it directly.

Anyway, It must be an effect of climate change. The theory which said the rainy season comes on September no longer relevant. Indonesia people and I who ever go to school, know exactly the rainy season comes on September and end on April every year while the time for drought is May until August. Those are written on the book. But for more than 10 years, the schedule is completely different. Some years ago (I forget when it is exactly), there was only rainy season. Whole year!. It caused some big cities including my place flooded almost everywhere. And there is the time for the drought to occupy longer like this year. The first natural rain was supposed to come on September, but it came in the end of November.

By seeing this fact, I wish, we are as young generation can create some betterment in the future. I have realized the climate change is real and I feel that. I wish, I never forget it and I have power to solve that. I wish the ambassador friends and other friends from around the world have the same vision to cure the climate change and to create the betterment for environment. Thanks in advance for reading.

Warm Regards.