Orangutans, chocolate and ramen noodles

I have a riddle for you. What is used in chocolate, is destroying orangutan habitat, and precooks your Ramen Noodles? Palm oil. Ever heard of it? Well you should. It is in almost half of all packaged products in the supermarket. The most common items to contain palm oil are foods, body products, cosmetics and cleaning agents. Unfortunately, determining whether or not a product contains palm oil is easier said than done because it can be identified in a variety of ways. Currently, there are over 20 names used to identify palm oil in a products label.

With large scale deforestation in Indonesia using fire to clear land for new palm oil plantations, global carbon emissions have spiked. So far in 2015, there have been over 100,000 fires and many have gotten out of control. These fires in Indonesia’s Borneo and Sumatra rainforests emit more carbon pollution per day then all U.S. economic activities. The Global Fire Emissions Database reports that the “emissions from these fires over a three-week period are already higher than the total annual CO2 emissions of Germany.” This helps explain why global deforestation accounts for close to 20 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions.

Indonesia has the world’s third largest rainforests and produces over 50 percent of all palm oil. These rainforest fires occur on top of peatlands, emitting up to 10 times more methane than other types of fires. This monoculture palm crop replaces thousands of square miles of once carbon-sequestering trees. With gigantic plantations replacing animal habitat, native wildlife is either displaced or killed.

Not only is Western consumption endangering species habitats but entire ecosystems as a whole. For example, the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources has classified, “the Bornean orangutan as endangered with approximately 55,000 left with 5,000 killed a year. The Sumatran orangutan is critically endangered, with approximately 6,300 left and 1,000 being killed a year.”

As chainsaws close in, The Orangutan Project is fighting to save these beautiful creatures. It is the work of nonprofits that help facilitate the safe capture of wild orangutans to relocate them to protected forests. Humans are 97 percent genetically identical to these species, and we should be nicer to our distant cousins.

Of greatest concern is the complete ethnocide of the indigenous people of the forests. With little to no warning, they are pushed aside to make way for large-scale plantations. Many of these people have lived off the land and have no other way of life. Their culture must redefine itself and its people. Some men find jobs working on the plantations and others move to the city to work in factories. Most women and children are forced to work for pennies a day. All too often, these people are taken advantage of by others and forced to live in industrialized poverty. The suffering of these people comes as a direct result of palm oil consumption.

We cannot blame this all on packaged goods, since over a third of all palm oil is exported to China and India for cooking mainly noodles. Since, all humans are personally driving the extinction of the orangutans, tigers and indigenous cultures in Indonesia; we must do something to stop it. This issue will require all stakeholders to come to the table and play ball. Both businesses and consumers must work together with farmers to evaluate the crops’ complete supply chain and reflect the true cost of all externalities in the price of palm oil.

Society needs to consider all alternatives to palm oil and look into phasing it out of products. To make an impact, speak out for the wild animals being silenced by unsustainable palm oil production. Be the consumer that demands better, more sustainable farming practices. Begin reading the food and product labels that you purchase.

You can make a difference. Learn about your palm oil consumption and begin with small changes.

Be the change you wish to see.

— Darren Bingham