Fires Wreak Havoc in Indonesia

For the Image of the day assignment I chose to look overseas in Asia for a source of inspiration. It was in the New York Times that I came across a news story based on an event that I was unaware was occurring. Indonesia has recently been struggling with forest fires in the country that tend to occur annually. However, the recent fires have been recorded as being much worse than the fires they are used to controlling. The lack of media attention on this event is mainly a result of the primary focus being on the fires in the Amazon. The government of Indonesia has made multiple statements asking citizens to refrain from initiating fires on their property to clear land in fear that the small fires may become another large forest fire. The most obvious reason for concern in this news story is that forest fires add more carbon to the atmosphere while simultaneously killing vegetation that would usually be drawing carbon out of the atmosphere to use for photosynthesis, both of which worsen the current climate crisis. The image I have selected is an areal photo of the aftermath of the forest fires that ravaged the area. I thought it was particularly interesting because it resembles an IR image where the vegetation appears red in color, however this image is in fact in true color. The image specifically shows the ash, burned debris from vegetation, uncovered soil and a small amount of remaining trees that have turned red in color due to a loss of water and nutrients.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/17/world/asia/indonesia-fires-photos.html