Indonesian pledges of action to deter illegal burning and forest clearance after the 1997 disaster have had little effect. The Asean environment ministers agreed at their last meeting on an anti-pollution plan, including education, fire prevention, firefighting and surveillance techniques. None of this goes to the economic roots of the problem. Yet it is still unclear what proportion of the haze is caused by Indonesian forest fires and how much is generated by local pollution. Anyone who has tried to walk 500 metres in Kuala Lumpur through the pulsating heat emissions of its dense traffic will suspect that not all the pollution comes from Kalimantan.
Every Asian nation needs to think through the implications of urbanisation.
Each day in Asia, according to the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, the urban population increases by the equivalent of one city of 140,000 people. By 2025 they will be joined by Bangkok, Manila, Rangoon and Shenyang. East Asia's urban population as a whole will have doubled from 1990 levels in the next quarter of a century. These figures pose a challenge to the development model that has been taken largely for granted since the Asian economies took off in the 1980s. Few restraints have been observed and little effort made to learn from the negative environmental example of the West.