December 25, 2025 | 11:23 am
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The flash floods that swept across Sumatra and the tidal flooding that has inundated Java's northern coast did not arrive out of nowhere. The accumulation of greenhouse gases has trapped heat within the Earth's system. As a result, various climate anomalies have battered tropical regions and triggered an increase in extreme rainfall. Damage to environmental carrying capacity has worsened the situation.
Dwikorita Karnawati, a professor of geological engineering and environmental studies at Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta, described the long-term effects of greenhouse gases formed as a result of deforestation and the loss of carbon dioxide sequestration areas. "Trees are cut down indiscriminately, and people think, it's just cutting down a tree, what's the big deal?" said the former Chief of the Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) in an interview with Tempo on Saturday, December 13, 2025. "But it turns out the way the universe works is that complex, like the butterfly effect."
The butterfly effect is a chaos theory that holds that very small changes in a complex system can produce large consequences over time. Dwikorita explained that trees are like nails, their roots grip the soil and capture runoff, while their leaves convert carbon dioxide into oxygen. The loss of trees sets off a long chain of ecosystem damage.
Many coastal areas in Indonesia are now experiencing tidal flooding. What is actually happening?
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