Greenpeace volunteers and a local community are working to stop the destruction of an area of swamp forest in Sumatra, Indonesia, which is to be converted into a palm oil plantation. More than 30 volunteers will work with people from the nearby village of Kuala Cenaku to construct dams in canals that are being used for logging and draining peatland.
Greenpeace says that by halting drainage operations with dams, they will prevent the peatland from drying out and releasing large quantities of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, as well as stop the illegal burning of the peatland to plant palm oil saplings. According to Greenpeace, destroying peatland swamp forests is the main contributor to Indonesia’s high CO² emissions, which makes the country the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases after China and the United States.
Palm oil is used in a million things (from biodiesel production, to junk food). Is this how global capitalism will work? We dry out peatland to produce cheap palm oil to create “renewable” fuels and cheap junk food, at the cost of an even greater co2 burden on the planet? What do you think?
Please stop all these stupid posting, palm oil do not create a greater burden of co2, it is a plant for crying out loud, please go and study your science first before making stuoid comment for people to read
Hello Uncle: I disagree with your statement. Not only does the draining of peatland to plant palm add a lot of CO2 into the air, but the destruction of the large swaths of rain forest needed to make space for the plantations releases even more CO2, and at the same time takes away a habitat that actively sequesters CO2.
So I would respond to you, perhaps you should rethink your comment, as a fair number of scientific studies stand behind my claim, while you seem to have a hard time even spelling your statement correctly.
Any time we strip mass areas of land to plant one type of crop, we are not only destroying habitat, but we are contributing to the reduction in biodiversity. What makes the palm oil problem into a crisis, is WHERE they are planting it. Mostly, like “The Naib” said, its in the rain forest.
What I would like to see is a list of companies that utilize palm oil in their products. There needs to be an alternative to Palm oil for them as well. We can’t just tell corporations “you can’t use it” unless there is an alternative that is not just as bad. Until then, they won’t listen to us – or – worse yet – they will switch to something just as bad or worse and pretend like they are helping the environment.