Airports have closed and children been sent home because of the “haze”

Uncontrollable forest fires raging in Indonesia are currently releasing more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere per day than all activity in the United States, threatening south-east Asia with one of its worst ever environmental disasters.

As a result, Indonesia will overtake India this year to become the world’s third worst emitter of greenhouse gases, according to calculations by climate scientists.

More than 100,000 fires have started this year on the massive islands of Sumatra, Borneo and Papua, dispersing smoke across the region, and threatening the health of humans as well as endangered animals such as orangutans.

The World Resources Institute, a think tank, said that this year’s fires, caused by illegal forest clearance for plantations, have emitted the equivalent of just over one billion