The volunteers risking their lives to defuse Indonesia's wildfire 'carbon bombs'

illuminem summarises for you the essential news of the day, reviewed by our editorial team. Read the full piece on BBC News or enjoy below:

🗞️ Driving the news: Fires have burned roughly 200,000 hectares of forest and farmland across Indonesian Borneo since early July, with thousands of volunteer firefighters —
• Many fighters which are Dayak or Banjar, are using hand tools, carts and portable pumps as Subterranean peat fires continue smouldering out of sight
• Two volunteers in Central Kalimantan died recently after their health deteriorated from the work.

🔭 The context: A "Super El Niño" has intensified drought, producing the region's worst transnational haze in over a decade
• Between July and August Indonesia's Health Ministry recorded over 50,000 respiratory infections linked to the fires, more than 12,000 in children under five
• Air pollution indices across Indonesia, Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines have reached almost 75 times WHO recommended levels in some cases

🌍 Why it matters for the planet: Borneo's 4.5-million-hectare peatland is among the world's largest, storing carbon accumulated over thousands of years under waterlogged conditions
• YKAN researcher Nisa Novita says Kalimantan deposits can exceed 20 metres deep, holding over 6,000 tonnes of carbon per hectare, roughly the annual emissions of 4,800 cars released rapidly when burned
• Professor Susan Page of Leicester notes drained peatland emits CO2 continuously regardless of fire; the blazes are the worst expression of an ongoing process, not an isolated event

⏭️ What's next: Water shortage is the immediate constraint, since extinguishing peat fires requires saturating ground until it resembles porridge, and reignition remains likely
• Kalimantan lost almost 160,000 hectares of forest in 2025, over a third of the national figure, largely to plantations — the same drainage that makes peat fire-prone

💬 One quote: "Peatlands are incredibly effective carbon stores because their waterlogged conditions slow decomposition… But this also means they can become a 'carbon bomb' when they are drained or burned" — Dr Nisa Novita, peatland researcher, Yayasan Konservasi Alam Nusantara

📈 One stat: Over 50,000 fire-linked respiratory infections in two months, more than 12,000 of them in children under five

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