Palm oil is the main cause for destroying rain forests and dying animals in Indonesia. The Tripa Forest in Indonesia is being burned down to clear room for planting oil palms. Oil palms are trees whose fruit makes palm oil, which is widely used for food, cosmetics and biofuels. The plant is a major crop for poor farmers in developing countries like Indonesia, which is the largest producer of palm oil. Palm oil farms in Indonesia covers an estimated 8.2 million hectares of land. Exports of palm oil brings Indonesia $40 billion each year.
Palm oil is the choice cooking oil for many countries in the world because it is cheap and lasts a long time. But everything cheap comes with a price. Cutting down forests to build palm oil factories not only destroys the homes of the rare Sumatran orangutans, but also the endangered Sumatran tiger and Sumatran rhino. The burning of the trees releases smoke and the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, which can reduce air quality and cause global warming.
After reading this article, I think we need to inform and educate undeveloped countries on what they are doing to the environment. However, Indonesia relies on making palm oil for their source of income. To stop them from cutting down trees, we can just pay them to stop. If the endangered species are dying and we can do something to prevent that from happening, we most certainly should get started on that.
Source:http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/stop-burning-rain-forests-for-palm-oil/
Article published on November 13,2012
Palm oil is the choice cooking oil for many countries in the world because it is cheap and lasts a long time. But everything cheap comes with a price. Cutting down forests to build palm oil factories not only destroys the homes of the rare Sumatran orangutans, but also the endangered Sumatran tiger and Sumatran rhino. The burning of the trees releases smoke and the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, which can reduce air quality and cause global warming.
After reading this article, I think we need to inform and educate undeveloped countries on what they are doing to the environment. However, Indonesia relies on making palm oil for their source of income. To stop them from cutting down trees, we can just pay them to stop. If the endangered species are dying and we can do something to prevent that from happening, we most certainly should get started on that.
Source:http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/stop-burning-rain-forests-for-palm-oil/
Article published on November 13,2012