Apocalyptic scenes as smog engulfs Singapore
Source: France24 International News
AFP - Fast-food deliveries have been cancelled, the army has suspended field training and even Singapore's top marathon runner has retreated as residents try to protect themselves from the smog that has descended on the city-state.
In Singapore's worst environmental crisis in more than a decade, the skyscrapers lining the Marina Bay financial district were shrouded by thick smoke Thursday as raging forest fires in neighbouring Indonesia's Sumatra island pushed air pollution levels to an all-time high.
Marathon runner Mok Ying Ren said the haze had forced him to run indoors on a gym treadmill as "it is just too crazy to run outdoors in these conditions".
"I tried running with a mask on, but after 45 minutes it is too sweaty and uncomfortable," said the 25-year-old doctor, who clocks 100 kilometres (62 miles) a week as part of a gruelling training programme to qualify for the 2016 Olympics.
Read more: http://www.france24.com/en/20130620-apocalyptic-scenes-smog-engulfs-singapore
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premium
(3,731 posts)We all have a ring side seat to the end of the Earth as we know it.
Personally, I think we're beyond reversing global warming.
xoom
(322 posts)premium
(3,731 posts)you know, smog, smoke, carbon emissions, etc.
ErikJ
(6,335 posts)Cancer
Kingofalldems
(38,456 posts)No joke, he has stated this many times.
jtuck004
(15,882 posts)It's too bad it will float elsewhere.
dipsydoodle
(42,239 posts)Its come over from Sumatra.
Singapore smog from Indonesia fire 'could last weeks'
Singapore's prime minister has warned that the haze engulfing the city-state could last for weeks, as air pollution soared to record levels.
The pollution standards index peaked at 371 on Thursday, breaking previous records and well above hazardous levels, before falling to about 300.
The haze is the result of forest fires started by farmers clearing land on the Indonesian island of Sumatra.
The issue has sparked accusations between the two neighbours.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-22982018
jtuck004
(15,882 posts)(they made sound cards and video cards for lots of early pc's) and the support facility was in Stillwater, OK. Had scores of students from OSU, a few young women.
Their management was the most authoritarian, misogynist group I have ever seen in my life. A manager living in the same apartment complex told an agent not to talk to him, because they weren't supposed to talk to their "betters". One day a group of their managers walked in, and one of them told the young woman on the phone nearby to look at her desk, because "women are not supposed to look at the men who they work for". From the others of that country I met, they see nothing wrong with such behaviour at all.
As far as I can tell, with a few more Teabagheads in political office here, we could be just like them.
I hope they choke on it, which is exactly what it sounds like is happening.
SwissTony
(2,560 posts)I've been to Singers a few times and never found Singaporeans to be anything other than friendly and helpful.
jtuck004
(15,882 posts)
Violet_Crumble
(35,961 posts)I've met a few Americans who are misogynists and authoritarians. I bet if I said the sort of thing you said next time something bad happens in the US, you'd be the first to complain that it's bigoted and judging all Americans by the actions of a few I've met...
Like Tony, I've been there and have friends who lived and worked there, and found the people of Singapore to be warm and friendly.
jtuck004
(15,882 posts)my opinion. And you are free to have yours, as well as to think you know the answer to your hypothetical.
RILib
(862 posts)SwissTony
(2,560 posts)JTuck's point was that because a few Singaporeans were authoritarian and mysogynistic (apparently some years ago, and I don't deny it based on his/her story), it's ok if "...they choke on it, which is exactly what it sounds like is happening". That's the issue I was having trouble with. A pretty callous disregard of peoples' health and safety. Based on something that apparently happened a couple of decades ago (hint: they made sound cards and video cards for lots of early pc's).
People are often criticised for painting with a broad brush. JTuck's seems to be 5.3 million people wide (and yes, I googled it).
Humanist_Activist
(7,670 posts)wildfires themselves being relatively common, worldwide, its just that the smoke from this one is affecting a major city in a significant way, this happens occasionally. I don't understand how this is either an example of the "destruction" of the Earth or some comeuppance on Singaporeans who did nothing to trigger this event.
progree
(10,907 posts)Sumatra".
As for that other person's sick and idiotic post about Singaporeans deserving this, I agree with you.
allan01
(1,950 posts)i remember scenes like this in los angeles as a kid . thank goodness we enacted fuel and air quality laws. and i shudder to what happens when the epa may be gutted along with the clean air and water act. (choke )
Adsos Letter
(19,459 posts)San Bernardino Mountains? What San Bernardino mountains...?
CanSocDem
(3,286 posts)Welcome to the Hotel California.
.
muriel_volestrangler
(101,316 posts)
I think France 24 is going to have problems with adjectives if that is 'apocalyptic'. The visibility looks to be well over 1km in other pictures. I think the forest fires in Sumatra must look a lot more 'apocalyptic' than that, but France 24 doesn't stretch to going to see them, check out their extent, etc. Instead, it's about Singaporeans deciding to stay indoors.
dipsydoodle
(42,239 posts)Our small plane had been flying low over Sumatra for three hours but all we had seen was an industrial landscape of palm and acacia trees stretching 30 miles in every direction. A haze of blue smoke from newly cleared land drifted eastward over giant plantations. Long drainage canals dug through equatorial swamps dissected the land. The only sign of life was excavators loading trees on to barges to take to pulp mills.
The end is in sight for the great forests of Sumatra and Borneo and the animals and people who depend on them. Thirty years ago the world's third- and sixth-largest islands were full of tigers, elephants, rhinos, orangutan and exotic birds and plants but in a frenzy of development they have been trashed in a single generation by global agribusiness and pulp and paper industries.
Their plantations supply Britain and the world with toilet paper, biofuels and vegetable oil to make everyday foods such as margarine, cream cheese and chocolate, but distraught scientists and environmental groups this week warn that one of the 21st century's greatest ecological disasters is rapidly unfolding.
Official figures show more than half of Indonesia's rainforest, the third-largest swath in the world, has been felled in a few years and permission has been granted to convert up to 70% of what remains into palm or acacia plantations. The government last week renewed a moratorium on the felling of rainforest, but nearly a million hectares are still being cut each year and the last pristine areas, in provinces such as Ache and Papua, are now prime targets for giant logging, palm and mining companies.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/may/26/sumatra-borneo-deforestation-tigers-palm-oil
DCBob
(24,689 posts)Anyone else see that?
muriel_volestrangler
(101,316 posts)It seems unlikely (but not impossible, I admit) that a major news site would have a virus problem.
dipsydoodle
(42,239 posts)Hardly likely France 24's site would be carrying a virus.
Aside from that try this which is later news from today :
New pollution high as haze chokes Singapore.
Pollution levels reached a new record high for a third day in a row in Singapore, as smoky haze from fires in Indonesia shrouded the city state.
The Pollutant Standards Index (PSI) hit 401 at 12:00 on Friday (04:00 GMT) - the highest in the country's history.
The haze is also affecting Malaysia, with another 100 schools closed in the south of the country.
Indonesia has prepared helicopters and cloud seeding equipment to try to tackle the fires.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-22998592
