Global warming cited in Indonesia floods

Indonesia’s environment minister said Tuesday that global warming was at least partly to blame for tidal flooding that forced thousands of people to flee their homes and washed more than a mile inland.

Authorities used pumps to lower water levels, which reached 6 feet in the worst-hit areas, said Iskandar, an official at Jakarta’s flood crisis center. Like many Indonesians, he uses only one name.

At least 2,200 houses were inundated and the seawater cut off a highway to this capital city’s international airport.

“I haven’t seen it this bad in several years,” said Toki, a police officer directing traffic around a flooded area near Sukarno-Hatta airport, where thousands of passengers were stranded.

Environment Minister Rachmat Witoelar said global warming was at least partially to blame, causing sea levels to rise and making coastal cities such as Jakarta especially vulnerable to flooding and monsoon storms.

Authorities also ignored warnings about exceptionally high 18-year tide cycles, flood expert Jan Japp Brinkman told the Jakarta Post newspaper, and the situation was exacerbated by the failure to fix a breached sea barrier.

The flooding came as Indonesia prepared to hold the United Nations climate change conference beginning next week, which aims to start negotiations on a replacement for the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gas emissions that expires in 2012.

The sprawling archipelagic nation contributes to carbon dioxide emissions with its rapid pace of deforestation, but experts say it is also at risk of becoming one of the biggest victims of global warming.