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The devastation of Indonesia’s forests has helped to make it the world’s third-largest emitter of carbon dioxide; a 29-year-old Australian green entrepreneur thinks he has a solution.
As temperatures and sea levels rise, the world is scrambling to
stop global warming - a threat the UN Secretary General has
described as "the defining issue of our era." But international
consensus is slow to emerge, and debate over how to slow climate
change continues. WIDE ANGLE travels to Indonesia, where rainforest
areas equivalent to 300 soccer fields are cut down and burnt every
hour to clear land for crops such as oil palms. New studies show
that the devastation of Indonesia's forests has helped to make it
the world's third-largest emitter of carbon dioxide - exceeded
only by the U.S. and China. How to reduce these harmful greenhouse
gas emissions? Dorjee Sun, a 29-year-old Australian green
entrepreneur, thinks he has a solution: his idea involves selling
the carbon credits represented by large forest areas in three
Indonesian provinces to polluters in the West. "Burning Season"
follows Sun on a whirlwind trip to boardrooms around the
world - from Starbucks to eBay to Merrill Lynch - as he
tries to convince skeptical financiers that his proposal is viable.
To carry out the plan, local political leaders in the jungle of
Indonesia must also agree that their forests are worth more alive
than dead. Meanwhile, small farmers like Achmadi, whose survival
depends on cutting down trees to plant oil palms, fear the layers
of government officials will be the only ones in his country making
money from the carbon credit project. "Burning Season" captures
both sides of the climate divide and explores whether commercialism
can step in where altruism has so far failed to succeed.