Forest cutting and global warming in the Indonesian district Berau led to an increase in temperature for almost entire degrees Celsius for 16 years, which, in turn, increased mortality in the region for eight percent. Specialists of the Environmental Organization Nature Conservancy, who published an article in the Lancet Planetary Health magazine came to this conclusion. Briefly about scientific work is described in a press release on PHYS.ORG.
Researchers analyzed satellite shots to determine how many forest cover was lost in Berau (East Kalimantan Province) from 2002 to 2018. Then they calculated the associated change in the average daily temperatures and found that over 16 years in the region there was warming almost a whole degree Celsius, while on the rest of the country the temperature remained relatively stable.
Forest cutting on an area of 4375 square kilometers in the district is associated with an increase in the daily maximum temperatures on an additional 0.95 degree Celsius in the period from 2002 to 2018, not counting the temperature caused by global warming. As a result, the safe outdoor time has decreased by 20 minutes a day. Climatic models predict that with the scenario of global warming by three degrees compared to the pre-industrial level (or two degrees compared to the level of 2018), mortality may increase by about 260 per year.
Indonesia ranks third in the area of the rainforest in the world, and, although the deforestation of the forests slowed down from 2015, such factors such as agriculture, logging and mining contributes to further deforestation. According to Global Forest Watch, in 2001, the country had 93.8 million hectares of virgin forests, which is comparable to Egypt’s Square. By 2020, this area decreased by about 10 percent.