Action alert: Southeast Asia's burning rainforests 11 October 06

First, apologies for the technical problems on this site – I know the comments facility has been down for a while. We hope to resume normal service shortly, with new software running on a new server.

Now back to the main issue: as rainforests burn for yet another dry season in southeast Asia, massive amounts of carbon are entering the atmosphere. Agricultural conversion for palm oil plantations, now increasingly valuable as a feedstock for supposedly carbon-neutral biofuels, is also releasing vast quantities of carbon from peatlands under the forests. If another El Nino continues to brew in the meantime, drought will worsen the situation.

All is not yet lost – at next month’s climate conference in Nairobi the question could be put on the agenda, if enough people demand that their governments raise it. Make your voice heard now.