With reference to a multi-hazardous environment that you have studied, assess the
view that the underlying causes leading to hazards is human activities, rather than
physical factors.
Despite Indonesia’s physical setting, which is on a number of tectonic plate
boundaries including along the pacific ring of fire, making it vulnerable to earthquakes
and volcanoes, and it’s climate, with high temperatures and high rainfall, making it
vulnerable to both flooding and wildfires, to an extent, I believe that human activities
are the underlying cause leading to the majority of severe hazards in Indonesia, both
due to interaction as outlined in the Deggs model of human and physical factors, and
directly due to human cause, as in the case of wildfires and floods.
Wildfires across the Indonesian peatland rainforests in 2015, resulted in the burning of
2.6 million hectares of rainforest and peatland, and resulted in the emissions on 600
million tonnes of GHG, and other harmful toxins, which resulted in an estimated
100,000 premature deaths, 500,000 respiratory illnesses and injuries, and long-term
impacts, including cognitive defects from brain damage in then children and in-utero
embryos. While it may appear that it’s the physical factors, with the high
temperatures, extensive fuel vegetation, low wind-speeds and amounts and the lower
than average rainfall of that year that led to the extensive transboundary haze, in
reality, it was almost entirely caused by human factors. The Indonesian rainforest use
to be considered as having 97% ‘high fire resistance’. Now however, due to extensive
interference, deforestation and most importantly, peatland degradation and draining,
often to a depth of 1-1.5 meters in order to utilise the areas for palm oil plantations,
that figure is reduced to 3%. In addition, the high temperatures and low rainfall that
year, although partially attributed to the El Nino weather phenomenon that occurred
in 2015, is mainly considered to be a result of climate change, which is considered to
be almost an entirely human caused event, due to burning of fossil fuels and
agricultural practices releasing extensive carbon into the atmosphere. Finally, the
actual cause of many of the wildfires, was the use of ‘slash and burn’ techniques by
plantation and small-hold farm owners to quickly and efficiency clear land for
plantations and farms, by burning away any existing vegetation. These small fires
quickly ran out of control on the degraded and flammable peatlands, as well as the
damaged and water-lacking vegetation, resulting in the massive wildfire event and it’s
extensive impacts. This shows, that despite the physical factors that may have
contributed to the hazard, without human activities and interference, the wildfires
were unlikely to occur, especially to that extent, and the hazard itself, which is defined
by the UN as having an impact on people, wouldn’t have occurred.
Human activities are behind a number of other hazards as well. In recent years,
though most extensively in 2007 and 2020, Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia, has
experienced extensive and serious flooding around much of it’s coastal areas, killing
people every year, but in 2007 and 2020, killing over 100, and then 78 respectively.
While some may link high rainfall, which can reach 2000-4000mm a year, a physical
view that the underlying causes leading to hazards is human activities, rather than
physical factors.
Despite Indonesia’s physical setting, which is on a number of tectonic plate
boundaries including along the pacific ring of fire, making it vulnerable to earthquakes
and volcanoes, and it’s climate, with high temperatures and high rainfall, making it
vulnerable to both flooding and wildfires, to an extent, I believe that human activities
are the underlying cause leading to the majority of severe hazards in Indonesia, both
due to interaction as outlined in the Deggs model of human and physical factors, and
directly due to human cause, as in the case of wildfires and floods.
Wildfires across the Indonesian peatland rainforests in 2015, resulted in the burning of
2.6 million hectares of rainforest and peatland, and resulted in the emissions on 600
million tonnes of GHG, and other harmful toxins, which resulted in an estimated
100,000 premature deaths, 500,000 respiratory illnesses and injuries, and long-term
impacts, including cognitive defects from brain damage in then children and in-utero
embryos. While it may appear that it’s the physical factors, with the high
temperatures, extensive fuel vegetation, low wind-speeds and amounts and the lower
than average rainfall of that year that led to the extensive transboundary haze, in
reality, it was almost entirely caused by human factors. The Indonesian rainforest use
to be considered as having 97% ‘high fire resistance’. Now however, due to extensive
interference, deforestation and most importantly, peatland degradation and draining,
often to a depth of 1-1.5 meters in order to utilise the areas for palm oil plantations,
that figure is reduced to 3%. In addition, the high temperatures and low rainfall that
year, although partially attributed to the El Nino weather phenomenon that occurred
in 2015, is mainly considered to be a result of climate change, which is considered to
be almost an entirely human caused event, due to burning of fossil fuels and
agricultural practices releasing extensive carbon into the atmosphere. Finally, the
actual cause of many of the wildfires, was the use of ‘slash and burn’ techniques by
plantation and small-hold farm owners to quickly and efficiency clear land for
plantations and farms, by burning away any existing vegetation. These small fires
quickly ran out of control on the degraded and flammable peatlands, as well as the
damaged and water-lacking vegetation, resulting in the massive wildfire event and it’s
extensive impacts. This shows, that despite the physical factors that may have
contributed to the hazard, without human activities and interference, the wildfires
were unlikely to occur, especially to that extent, and the hazard itself, which is defined
by the UN as having an impact on people, wouldn’t have occurred.
Human activities are behind a number of other hazards as well. In recent years,
though most extensively in 2007 and 2020, Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia, has
experienced extensive and serious flooding around much of it’s coastal areas, killing
people every year, but in 2007 and 2020, killing over 100, and then 78 respectively.
While some may link high rainfall, which can reach 2000-4000mm a year, a physical
