SolarGizmo

Posts Tagged ‘bio fuel’

Many companies and people are promoting Palm oil as sustainable, great for the environment and it supports the local economies; however when you dig deeper into the palm oil story the truth is something completely different. Palm oil is used in many everyday items from bio diesel, margarine and even chocolate hundreds of supermarket products contain Palm oil yet very few people are aware of how this is made and where it comes from due to some very misleading packaging and promotions. The world seems to have gone crazy for the so called environmentally friendly product with demand rocketing as people look for alternative fuel sources. This rising demand has caused huge deforestation and creation of wasteland in areas once containing rainforest. The question is how Palm oil can be sustainable and environmentally friendly if it is produced by chopping down the rain forest? Indonesia already has 6 million hectares of oil palm plantations, but has plans for another 4 million by 2015 dedicated to bio fuel production alone.  The main organization behind so called sustainable palm oil scam is the RSPO (Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil) this organisation is trying to promote sustainability while taking no action to stop deforestation and they even help companies such as Duta Palma continue logging in areas of the forrest which are protected by law. What is required involves more contries using sustainable palm oil rather than the cheap easy alternatives, there are many areas of the industy desperate in need of regulation and investigation which is unlikely to happen due to the profitable nature of the product.