Political leaders around the world have been jumping on the latest bandwagon to hit town, cutting carbon emissions. One of the strategies for doing that is reducing the reliance of western countries on oil, favouring more ‘environmentally friendly’ fuels, such as palm oil. That all sounds like a good idea, until you look into where the supply of palm oil is coming from.
Indonesia and Malaysia are jockeying for position, to become the world’s leading producer of palm oil. In order to do that, they much carve out chunks of forest, planting a mono-culture of palm trees, destroying all that was there before. If that isn’t bad enough, the people who are supposed to be planting the palm trees often only want the timber, leaving the land bare.
The Guardian Unlimited has a story about this issue, which points to the end of several ‘flagship’ animal species, including the Sumatran tiger, Asian elephant and orang utan.
Politically the western countries are stepping out of the frying pan and into the fire. The oil supply comes from the Middle East, but the palm oil comes from another Muslim dominated area. Look forward to more trouble boys.
