Every year, forest fires are started in Indonesian forests to clear way for new palm oil plantations. Technically, starting the fires is illegal. But the highly lucrative palm oil trade brings a big dose of greed in to the picture. So in reality, those laws don't really make much of a difference.
The bad news is that the smoke from all those fires travels over the ocean to Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines.
And the good folks in those countries are mad... and rightly so. Their anger is directed at the Indonesian government, the palm oil companies (who happen to have wealthy Singaporean and Malaysian investors), and anyone else who will listen.
Just try entering the hashtag #HAZE or #IndonesiaHaze into Twitter, and you'll see lots of unhappy people.
To see what these countries look like with and without the haze, you can check out these interesting before and after shots from Malaysia and Singapore by clicking HERE.
