Palm Oil

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Palm Oil is a type of vegetable oil collected from palm fruit. Palm oil plants are originally from Western Africa, but can cultivate wherever there is heat and rainfall are sufficient. Today almost all of the palm oil is exported from Indonesia or Malaysia. Immense amount of untouched rainforest in Indonesia and Malaysia is slashed and burned each year in may lead the extinction of our beloved orangutans. Palm Oil is an extremely popular oil amongst manufacturers Cadbury, Chanel, Colgate, Earthly Essentials etc. because of the variety of foods they can use the palm oil for. Examples are the baked goods, confectionery, cosmetics, body products and cleaning agents. In many countries there is no law stating that they need to show on the package that palm oil was used in the product. Many companies hide palm oil under the name of vegetable oil. It has been suggested that 300 football fields worth of palm trees are removed every hour just for manufacturers to get their grubby hands on Palm Oil. The United Nations Environment Programme {UNEP} acknowledges that Malaysia and Indonesia are the main cause for this destruction is the development of palm oil plantations. The burning of these plantations is causing major air pollution in Southeast Asia. It releases Carbon Dioxide into the air and atmosphere that contribute to global warming. Research shows that 20% of all global carbon emissions comes burning fossil fuels come from rainforest destruction. Deforestation of palm oil plantations is alone responsible for the habitat loss of threatened and endangered species. Superiorly clearing of the forests impacted the Asian Elephant, Tiger, Sumatran Rhinoceros and the Orangutans. The Asian elephant and Bornean Orangutans are endangered and t... ... middle of paper ... ...ct_sheet/ Palm Oil Products https://www.daisysfriends.org/Palm_Oil_Products.html Problem with Palm oil http://ran.org/problem-palm-oil-factsheet Palm Oil http://www.choice.com.au/consumer-action/food-labelling/nutrition-labelling/palm-oil/page/social%20and%20environmental%20impacts.aspx Environmental and social impacts of palm oil http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/footprint/agriculture/palm_oil/environmental_impacts/ Environmental and Social Impacts http://www.sustainablepalmoil.org/consumers-retailers/consumers/environmental-and-social-impacts/ The Economic benefits of palm oil to Indonesia http://worldgrowth.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/WG_Indonesian_Palm_Oil_Benefits_Report-2_11.pdf Indonesia: “Indigenous people suffer the palm oil boom” http://www.cidse.org/content/articles/just-food/biofuels-indigenous-people-in-indonesia-suffer-from-the-palm-oil-boom.html

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