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Specifically, I look at how palm oil demand has caused a huge increase in oil palm plantations. As a result, producers clear-cut, log and burn peatlands and primary rainforests in order to make way for palm oil fields. By itself, palm oil is not necessarily a harmful product, but because palm oil is now in thousands of products, the rate at which it’s being consumed has caused deforestation and environmental destruction on a large scale.
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Transcript Provided by YouTube:
00:00
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00:17
Oil palms.
00:18
Known for the oil its fruits produce, these trees are consuming the countryside and rainforests
00:24
of Indonesia and Malaysia at a shocking pace.
00:27
And this massive terraforming endeavor is all happening to satisfy demand from western
00:32
countries hooked on palm oil’s ability to replace more costly alternatives in products
00:38
spanning from shampoos to pizza doughs.
00:41
If you look closely, palm oil is everywhere.
00:44
Yet, it can often disguise itself with sneaky aliases on ingredient lists.
00:50
The ubiquity of palm oil has become such a hot-button issue that the European Union decided
00:56
to ban subsidies of palm oil in biofuels by 2020.
01:00
The oil is shrouded in controversy and skepticism, and I want to know whether the environmental
01:06
impact of palm oil consumption warrants these drastic measures and whether boycotting or
01:11
banning palm oil is a reasonable solution.
01:16
While palm oil often ends up in products consumed mostly in the US and Europe, the story of
01:21
palm oil’s environmental devastation lies rooted in Indonesia and Malaysia.
01:26
Combined, these two countries satisfy 90% of the global demand for palm oil.
01:31
Through a medley of small landholders and large corporations, rural land has been transformed
01:36
into an oil palm monocropping factory.
01:39
According to one analysis, from 1990 to 2010, 9.6 million hectares of land were converted
01:46
to industrial oil palm farms in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Papua New Guinea.
01:51
That being said, the makeup of the land before conversion varied widely, and as a result,
01:57
the environmental impacts of this massive land transformation is contextual.
02:01
One study conducted by Forest Watch Indonesia claims that while some of this deforestation
02:06
is government sanctioned, almost 50% of natural forest loss is located outside of lands zoned
02:13
for logging or production.
02:15
And it’s this act of rapidly terraforming forest land into neat rows of oil palms that
02:21
has led to a backlash against palm oil products.
02:24
Not only is the loss of rainforest a problem due to the subsequent loss of the ability
02:29
to sequester large amounts of carbon, but it also means the destruction of rich biodiverse
02:35
habitats.
02:36
And often, the easiest and cheapest way to read large swaths of forest for production
02:41
is through burning.
02:42
In the case of trees, this compounds the environmentally damaging act of clear-cutting by releasing
02:48
large amounts of carbon into the atmosphere via smoke.
02:52
Another peer-reviewed study on oil palm deforestation found that between 1990 and 2010, net Carbon
02:58
dioxide emissions from land use change due to oil palm plantations increased from 92
03:04
to 184 Teragrams of Carbon dioxide per yr in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Papua New Guinea.
03:11
That’s an increase of the equivalent of 36,800 Olympic sized swimming pools of Carbon
03:17
dioxide more per year.
03:20
Besides the deforestation of primary forests and rainforest, the draining and burning of
03:25
peatlands in Southeast Asia have caused huge problems for the environment and atmosphere.
03:32
Peatlands act like sponges for carbon dioxide: soaking up and storing large quantities of
03:38
CO2 in their waterlogged, low oxygen environments.
03:42
But when oil palm producers drain these swamps and burn the remaining foliage to establish
03:47
their crops, this carbon sequestration reverses and releases all the Carbon back into the
03:53
atmosphere.
03:54
This destructive process has led to a sharp decline of peatlands in Indonesia and Malaysia,
04:00
and according to a study published in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment Southeast Asian
04:05
peatlands could disappear by 2030 if the rate of oil palm farming continues.
04:11
Ironically, one of the main drivers of this rampant proliferation of oil palm plantations
04:16
in Southeast Asia is the desire for sustainable biofuels in Europe.
04:21
Or rather it was until very recently.
04:24
Europe has long sought to replace its emissions-heavy diesel fuel with something a little more clean-burning.
04:29
Their solution was biofuels, chief of which was palm oil.
04:34
Although the EU’s cars appeared to be fewer emissions-heavy with biofuels in use, the
04:39
true consequences of their supposed environmentalism lay halfway across the world in razed forests
04:46
and burned peatlands.
04:48
So their sustainable fuel initiative was not really sustainable at all.
04:53
As a result, the European Commission banned palm oil biofuel subsidies in March of 2019.
04:59
While this is a step forward in slowing the boom of slash and burn oil palm plantations
05:05
in Southeast Asia, it also means a strong blow to smallholder farmers reliant on the
05:09
expanding palm oil industry.
05:12
The Guardian interviewed 66-year-old oil palm farmer, Hussain Mohamed, who decried the EU’s
05:17
choice to drawdown their consumption of palm oil biofuels.
05:20
He says, “I have spent all my money on the palm oil farm, I have recently planted new
05:26
trees that will last for the next 25 years, and my whole family relies on this.
05:31
It’s how my kids afford to study.”
05:34
So, while independent small farmers represent only a portion of oil palm production (with
05:39
the rest owned by much larger corporations), this decision could upend their livelihoods.
05:45
In a sense, the EU’s flip-flopping on palm oil has manufactured a boom and bust process
05:50
for smaller farmers who’ve invested their future in palm oil plantations.
05:56
The point here is this: palm oil production is indeed tied to environmentally harmful
06:01
practices like clear-cutting rainforests and draining and burning peatlands, and for that
06:06
reason, our global consumption of palm oil needs to be minimized or at least driven into
06:11
a slower more sustainable model that considers the environmental impacts of land use before
06:17
tearing apart beneficial forests.
06:20
However, extracting ourselves from this process is a complicated matter that can exact negative
06:25
consequences on independent growers and wage laborers now dependent on the Southeast Asian
06:31
palm oil production industry.
06:34
As the primary consumers of this oil, Europe and the United States have driven the demand
06:39
for and ultimately the reckless pace of palm oil production in Indonesia and Malaysia.
06:45
As a result, simply banning palm oils is not enough.
06:50
In an official statement, The World Wildlife Fund argues that rather than boycotting, working
06:54
from within to establish environmental best-practices for oil palm growers is the best way forward.
07:00
There’s definitely truth to this statement, because when done right, oil palms can yield
07:05
the highest amount of oil per acre of land, and if western countries drastically decrease
07:10
their demand for palm oil that could bring harsh disaster for many now reliant on a western
07:16
thirst for the oil.
07:18
Ultimately, the palm oil industry is now at the whims of economically and politically
07:23
powerful countries and is just one of many industries that sacrifice environmental health
07:29
and the well-being of poor and marginalized communities in pursuit of profits.
07:34
When it comes down to it the problems of the palm oil industry are symptoms of a much larger
07:40
problem: that there are countries who get to dictate global economies.
07:45
And those countries don’t operate on an ethic of environmental or social care, but
07:50
rather one of domination and exploitation.
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09:10
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Again, thanks for watching and I’ll see you in two weeks.
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This post was previously published on YouTube.