Smoke Scream
For over a week, the smell of smoke has rolled in after dark. During the day, the skies are clear and the air smells fine. But at night, when the temperature drops, the winds seem to shift and smoke blows in from Sumatera. This has given me and several of my friends sore throats and for the last three days, my lymph nodes have been throbbing. It sucks.Of course there is NOTHING in the newspaper about the haze (which many people are talking about). And given that the pollution index (PSI) is now only provided for the 24 hour average (as opposed to hourly readings) the daily peaks are masked.
Here's the stats since Jan 1 - below 50 is considered good. In the evenings the reading is probably up to around 70 (I became a fairly accurate gauge back when hoursly readings were on offer for comparison).
There's nothing obvious from that data which would suggest what we're experiencing these days. Looks like it was pretty hazy in mid Jan but that's when I was freezing my butt off in New York just before the major snowstorm.
The lack of info is mind boggling. When dengue stats were soaring here a few months ago, it was the same thing. How is it that not one news reporter figured it would make a story...?
This phenomenon is also untimely. Historically, farmers cleared with fire in September. The fires would then be put out by the monsoon in October. So either the corporations who own large tracks of land don't bother following traditional methods anymore or the messed up environment means that old hot spots never really died and this dry spell has caused them to flare up.
Either way we could use some rain. Singapore now seems to see-saw between wet weather that spawns dengue and dry weather that spawns haze. This is definitely a change... The seasons used to be more predictable.
I heard it even snowed in Dubai recently... This planet is going to hell in a handbasket... Which means the polar icecaps are melting and it's probably too late to do anything about it.
The lack of info is mind boggling. When dengue stats were soaring here a few months ago, it was the same thing. How is it that not one news reporter figured it would make a story...?
This phenomenon is also untimely. Historically, farmers cleared with fire in September. The fires would then be put out by the monsoon in October. So either the corporations who own large tracks of land don't bother following traditional methods anymore or the messed up environment means that old hot spots never really died and this dry spell has caused them to flare up.
Either way we could use some rain. Singapore now seems to see-saw between wet weather that spawns dengue and dry weather that spawns haze. This is definitely a change... The seasons used to be more predictable.
I heard it even snowed in Dubai recently... This planet is going to hell in a handbasket... Which means the polar icecaps are melting and it's probably too late to do anything about it.
Thursday, February 10, 2005
