Working in an environmental field I come across a lot of horror stories about how we treat our environment and how we are actually doing more harm than we are good. There’s actually a lot that we do to our world that is grotesque and harmful, and it’s very sad to even think about that. Thankfully there is also plenty that we can do to help turn things around and save the planet that we call home.
Recently I learned about the damage that palm oil causes to the environment, and being the health and wellness blogger that I am, I wanted to bring to your attention how we can make the most sustainable choices possible. So today I am going to explain to you what palm oil is and what it means to our environment.
What is Palm Oil?
Palm oil is an edible vegetable oil, often disguised in ingredient lists as vegetable oil, and comes from the red pulp of the fruit of oil palms. These plants mostly derive from Africa, but there are also American oil palms, although plants can be planted anywhere where heat and rain are abundant. Therefore, oil palms can be found throughout Africa, Asia, and North and South America.
Palm oil is all around you. It’s in your vegetable oil, it’s in your common candy products, it’s in many different food products, cleaners, and detergents. It’s actually probably in 50% of your everyday food and household items. It’s nearly impossible to avoid which makes its environmental impact even harder to reduce. Everywhere you turn, you’re being exposed to palm oil.
What’s so wrong with Palm Oil?
In the year of 2006, palm oil accounted for 65% of all vegetable oil trades and the demand for palm oil only grew from there. By 2050 it is expected that the worldwide demand for palm oil will double what it was back in 2006.
Okay, so great facts, right? What does this mean for our environment?
Well, what makes palm oil so bad is that it is not being produced using sustainable measures. Want a visual of what that means? You know how in Dr. Seus’s “The Lorax” they cut down all the trees to make those little scarf things that “do everything”, you know, the sneeds? And you know how in the end they take down that entire forest and there’s literally nothing left? There are no trees and the animals are all forced to leave? That’s basically what I mean by non-sustainable methods of production. However, in the real world, when the forests go away, the animals don’t relocate, they go extinct.
The effect palm oil has had on forests throughout the years and future effect
The palm oil industry is linked with major deforestation and habitat loss which then causes further issues such as climate change and animal abuse. Let me put it this way, the World Wildlife Fund says that 300 football field sized rainforests are cleared every hour to make way for the palm oil production. That’s a terrifying amount when you think about how many types of plant and animal species call that home. This is causing for entire species to go extinct!
Does that matter to you? The World Wildlife Fund also says that if something doesn’t change and this continues, orangutan could go extinct in 5 to 10 year and Sumatran Tigers could go extinct in 3 years. These species all contribute to biodiversity and a little thing that’s called the “circle of life” where each species in an ecosystem has an effect on another species. That means that if we lose one, there is going to be significant damage to other species as well and we could actually end up losing entire ecosystems worth of biodiversity.
And not to mention the impact this has on global warming! (Yes, I do believe in global warming, if you would like me to write an entire blog post explaining the science and facts around that I would be more than glad to, just let me know below). Deforestation involves chopping down many trees, entire football fields worth of trees, harvesting what you need, burning what you don’t need, and then burning all the remaining forest undergrowth. This emits gigantic quantities of smoke into our atmosphere which gets trapped as greenhouse gas and therefore contributes to our climate change problem.
So yes, the Palm oil industry is a scary thing, but I promise there isn’t just bad news to this story.
What Can I do to help?
Surprisingly, the palm oil industry does not have to resort to their highly invasive ways of obtaining their goal, although convincing someone to change is rather difficult. Many organizations like the World Wildlife Fund are taking on the difficult task of trying to change the industry. This includes fronts like the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, which is an international group that sells, buys, and produces palm oil and help to implement and promote better practices for sustainable palm oil production. They also work to encourage other companies to use certified sustainable palm oil as well.
You can also help to change the way palm oil is produced and created. Sadly we can’t just completely boycott palm oil products because they are so vastly around us, but what we can do is pay attention to the types of palm oil we use. There are plenty of companies out there now that are using sustainable palm oil, which is derived from methods that do not involve cutting down the entire tree and destroying habitats. Instead these methods keep ecosystems intact.
And it’s easier than ever now to figure out what products use sustainable palm oil and which don’t. Thanks to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, there is now an app that you can download on your phone that will aid in your trip to the grocery store by telling you what products are made with sustainable palm oil! It’s super easy to use and it’s the best thing you can do to aid in this cause!
You can read more about the app here and even download it and try for yourself.
Now that you know about Palm Oil and the effect its production can have on our planet, please do your part. Buy sustainable palm oil, and most importantly, spread the world of what the cause is. The more people who know, the more it will show that people want sustainable products over products that are obtained the easy way.
If we don’t do our part to protect our planet, who knows how long we’ll actually have it for and who knows what sort of beautiful plants and animals we will lose by not taking care of it. So please, I encourage you to do your part.
Let’s open up a dialogue in the comments below about this problem. Share your thoughts, your concerns, or your stories. I would love to discuss it with you guys.
Until next time,
Kat
Sources and further reading (And I encourage you to read through these sources)
Say No to Palm Oil: http://www.saynotopalmoil.com/Whats_the_issue.php
World Wildlife Fund Links:
Palm oil: http://www.cmzoo.org/index.php/conservation-matters/palm-oil-crisis/
Making room for wildlife, forests and sustainable palm oil: http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/footprint/agriculture/palm_oil/solutions/
Which Everyday Products Contain Palm Oil?: http://www.worldwildlife.org/pages/which-everyday-products-contain-palm-oil
Kat Classics 