Category: Science & technology

So, some Indonesian official has suggested that Malaysia should pay for the oxygen that Indonesia “export” to Malaysia. It’s one of the same nonsensical remarks Indonesia gave last year instead of actually working with others to fight the fire that causes the haze. Well, I want to offer some scientific fact to that Indonesian official.

Mature forest is oxygen neutral. The Indonesian rainforest as well as Malaysia’s consume oxygen through respiration as much as it produces oxygen through photosysthesis. That basically means mature forest produces zero net oxygen.

Only growing forest produces positive net oxygen; in general, Southeast Asia has mature forest.

Given the net zero, if Indonesia exports oxygen, then Indonesia has to import oxygen in order to balance out its “account”. Therefore, if Indonesia wants to internalize the public good (oxygen) and demands Malaysia pays for the oxygen we allegedly get from Indonesian rainforest, the Indonesia must pay for oxygen they get from Malaysian rainforest.

For further reading on zero net oxygen, please read an article at Wikipedia. In particular, Wikipedia cited Wallace S. Broecker of Columbia. Also, for some math, see oxygen cycle at Wikipedia.

So dear sir, you may want to learn a bit of undergraduate biology (frankly, it’s just general knowledge) before making any statement with too much cheekiness.

El Niño according to Wikipedia is a sustained temperature anomalies of magnitude greater than 0.5°C across the central Pacific (tag). By that definition, it’s back.

I’m not a meteorologist but I’ve gone through El Niño and I hate it. Hence, its development is of personal concern and I’m preparing for it by adjusting my lifestyle accordingly. I suggest you do the same. Be adaptable or be a dinosaur!

According to Wikipedia further, the first signs of El Niño are:

1. Rise in air pressure over the Indian Ocean, Indonesia, and Australia
2. Fall in air pressure over Tahiti and the rest of the central and eastern Pacific Ocean
3. Trade winds in the south Pacific weaken or head east
4. Warm air rises near Peru, causing rain in the deserts there
5. Warm water spreads from the west Pacific and the Indian Ocean to the east Pacific. It takes the rain with it, causing rainfall in normally dry areas and extensive drought in eastern areas

Mike at RealClimate is kind enough to direct me to an animated diagram by Climate Diagnostics Center of the US National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration that illustrates point 4 and 5:

The diagram ranges from August 2005 till early September this year. In the diagram, you could see how the warmer colors are spreading from Latin America to Southeast Asia. It sucks, isn’t it?

I wonder how next year’s haze’s going to be like.

According to the CDC, NOAA, the diagram is a public domain. So, feel free to spread it.

Editors at Wikipedia has labelled the article “El Niño-Southern Oscillation” as current news. Surprised, I checked up the news and it seems Wikipedia is right. The little boy is back:

NEW YORK — El Niño, a warming of equatorial waters in the Pacific Ocean that wreaks havoc with world weather conditions, has formed and will last into 2007, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported Wednesday.

I remember the last time it struck, life wasn’t too comfortable:

In Asia and South America, the last severe El Niño killed hundreds of people and caused billions of dollars in damage as crops shriveled across the Asia-Pacific basin.

With Ramadan around the corner, this will get ugly. But in the same article:

This El Niño has caused drier-than-average conditions across Indonesia, Malaysia and most of the Philippines.

Really? If it’s not, I haven’t felt it. For all I know, it’s been raining for almost everyday for the past few weeks now.