Palm oil, found in about 50% of all packaged items in a grocery store- is one of the most critically important resources to manage our planets fight against climate change. Palm oil plantations are among the main drivers of deforestation on this planet and have the potential to be a silver bullet that could kill our opportunity to fight climate change.
Here is why:
Indonesian rainforests; where a majority of the world’s palm oil is resourced, stores more carbon per hectare than the Brazilian Amazon due to its carbon-rich soil known as peatlands. These deep, carbon-rich peatlands found in Indonesia are among the most valuable and effective natural carbon sinks on Earth, making them internationally significant to the health of the entire planet. When these peatlands are drained, cleared and burned for conversion to palm oil plantations, this soil type is transformed into a carbon bomb that emits catastrophic levels of pollution into the atmosphere- where carbon and methane continue to be released for years as long as the moisture is not put back into these swamp lands and the land not managed sustainably. In Malaysia, the carbon sink of tropical forests can hold up to 99 million kilograms of carbon, per 1 square mile of peatland (that’s equivalent to the CO2 emissions driving an average car from New York to San Francisco and back 76 times- per 1 square mile of land destroyed). In 2019, The Rainforest Action Network (RAN) exposed major global snack brands: Unilever, Nestlé (KitKat), PepsiCo, Mondelēz (Cadbury/Oreo/Ritz), General Mills, Kellogg's, Mars, and Hershey sourced their palm oil directly and indirectly from suppliers that single-handedly destroyed 70,000 hectares of one of Earth's most ancient forest ecosystems (Indonesia's Leuser Ecosystem) in 2015-2017.
25,000 hectares of this was forested orangutan habitat known as the "Orangutan Capital of the World" and had the highest density of critically endangered animals on the planet. Illegal palm-oil plantations are responsible for the biodiversity loss of Sumatran elephants, tigers, orangutans, clouded leopards, rhinos, sun bears, and more.
As of 2019 — none of these brands have achieved "traceability to the plantation" level of transparency into their supply chains, making them unable to 100% commit certainty as to exactly where their palm oil is grown and sourced.
As of September 23, 2019 — these are the events unfolding in Indonesia due to illegal palm oil deforestation:
1. Deadly red haze shrouds Indonesia as rainforest burns after palm oil clearances — The Independent
2. Borneo is burning: How the world’s demand for palm oil is driving deforestation in Indonesia — CNN
3. Skies turn red across parts of Indonesia as crisis from fire-induced haze escalates — The Washington Post
From Aug. 1 to Sept. 22 of 2019, about 450 megatons of carbon dioxide were released into the air from Indonesia's fires. Compared to about 460 megatons released over the same period in 2015, when the Leuser Ecosystem and many high-priority conservation areas and critical wildlife habitats were destroyed in Indonesia.
Alongside the Amazon and the Congo Basin, Southeast Asia's rainforest region is one of the last remaining tropical forest regions left on Earth:
Runaway climate change occurs when humanity pushes earth past a tipping point — over the cliff — where "climate dominoes" begin cascading to set off a series of chain reactions and events that cannot be controlled all over the world. Palm oil deforestation destroys our planet's rich natural carbon sinks—where the loss of these thermal carbon sinks will cause the earth to irreversibly trap CO2 in our atmosphere through human activities, resulting in abrupt increases in global temperature.
The following events are to be expected as feedback loops (climate dominoes) begin to amplify one another to produce a runaway effect, otherwise known as runaway climate change:
Polar ice caps will continue to melt until ice can no longer reflect heat from the sun back into outer space as our global cooling system. Instead, an ice-albedo feedback loop will expose the darker land and ocean underneath, which will absorb the heat and sunlight, causing temperatures to increase at the poles dramatically due to the change in net radiation. This phenomenon is referred to as polar amplification.
If polar ice caps completely melt, ocean currents (Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation) driven by melt-water in the Atlantic that has existed for as long as we have known, will stop regulating the flow of cold water that have kept corals from bleaching and kept underwater ecosystems intact. This could cause underwater ecosystems to collapse along with their ability to store carbon and sustain life.
As Arctic permafrost begins to thaw, ancient plants and animals that were frozen begin to decay, releasing methane and CO2 into the atmosphere and further heating the planet.
As a direct result of deforestation, carbon absorption and a rapidly warming climate can affect the stability of cities worldwide, causing devastating floods, landslides, and the loss of subsistence resources like fish and forest products that countries rely on.
Runaway climate change can cause the earth's climate to unravel dramatically, making Palm Oil one of the most important resources to manage in our fight against climate change.
Our planet's future lies in YOUR purchasing power— to make socially responsible product choices as consumers.
Yorumlar