The Problem with Palm Oil
Why we don't use Palm Oil.
Palm oil is used in a great many everyday products, including many of the soaps, cakes and biscuits we buy at the supermarket, and increasingly in the production of biofuels. To feed this increasing demand, large swathes of tropical rainforests and peatlands of South Asia are being felled, to provide land for palm oil plantations.
Concerns about climate change and greenhouse gasses, and the search for alternative fuels is, ironically, making things worse. Clearing forests and draining the peatlands releases more greenhouse gasses than burning fossil fuels. This is have a major environmental impact, and a detrimental effect on local communities and wildlife.
Chief among victims is one of our closest living relatives, the Orang Utan, which could be virtually extinct in five years. Adults are killed and baby Orang Utans left ophaned by loggers greedy for land.
