Kuala Lumpur: We reported last month that the El Niño weather pattern which originates in the Pacific Ocean may be the strongest since 1950. In Asia this past week, Luzon, the main Philippine island, was deluged with water but not too far distant, there has been little rain and over 100,000 peatland fires in Indonesia have been tracked this year and they continue to smoulder, releasing greenhouse gases equivalent to about 600m tons through September 22, a number that rivals annual carbon dioxide emissions from Germany, according to Guido van der Werf, a Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam scientist.