Borneo forest fires spike again: Why El Niño isn’t the sole culprit

Forest and land fires across Indonesia have spiked once again. News and social media in the country are flooded with images of thick plumes of smoke from Kalimantan (or Borneo) — the world’s third largest island, which are choking residential areas and even drifting into neighbouring countries. It is tempting to write this off as a purely weather-driven crisis: the dry season is well underway, and a strengthening El Niño is driving temperatures towards predicted historic highs around the…