Deforestation - Palm Oil

Hello everyone,

Hope you’re all having a good day.

Easter is fast approaching us, and with it brings a host of yummy chocolate goodies. Unfortunately many of these chocolate goodies come with a price, not just the regular jack up that stores do for bunny shapes, but the excessive amounts of palm oil being used.

What is palm oil?

Palm oil is produced by harvesting the fruits of oil palm trees and is a vegetable oil.

Why is palm oil bad?

The actual product itself isn’t bad, having no ill effects on people that consume it. The problems that come from palm oil are created from the way in which we produce the oil in an unsustainable manner. The industry of creating palm oil has massive ramifications affecting climate change, deforestation, animal welfare and human rights.

How does palm oil cause deforestation?

Oil palm plantations are a huge industry that many countries are adopting because they are an easy plant to grow and they have a high yield of the oil. The high yield and ease of which it is produced means that it is extremely cheap for governments and companies to purchase it, which has now led to
the fact that almost 50% of supermarket products now contain palm oil.

At the start of the 20^th century 250,000 tonnes of palm oil were being exported out of South East Asia with the majority coming from Malaysia. In the 1970’s Indonesia started to produce palm oil and have now become the leading producer of palm oil, with 60,000,000 Tonnes being exported from Indonesia and Malaysia. When this all started oil palms were planted in areas of open grasslands but it eventually got to a point when there was none left and so what was a country to do when they had to meet a higher demand? They chose the very simple option of clearing rainforests to make way for more palm oil plantations. In the picture on the right you can see a huge palm oil plantation from Malaysia that exists nowadays and yet go back a few decades and this view would have been a natural rainforest.

At current rates it is estimated that 300 football pitches of rainforest are being cleared every hour to make way for new plantations! This enormous amount is what is causing all the problems associated
with palm oil.

What does this deforestation mean for the planet?

There are multiple threats that we face from the deforestation that is going on. The top 3 are from climate change, animal welfare and human rights so I will address each of these separately.

               1)      Climate change:

          The biggest increase of climate change caused by the oil palm plantations happens in the initial stage of deforestation, the clearance. When a new plantation is being created the rainforest or other plants on the chosen land have to be cleared to make way for the oil palms. Most of the trees and plants are chopped down and felled which creates a lot of plant material. So to get rid of this material the companies that own the plantations burn the material until it is no more, in fact they will also scorch the land to make sure that it is completely clear. This creates a huge climate change problem for us because the burning plant material releases vast amounts of carbon dioxide (CO₂) into our atmosphere.

          As well as the burning causing gases to be released the areas chosen for palm oil plantations generally don’t actually look at the quality of the soil medium that they are grown on which has led to many of them being planted of swampy peats. Peat is created when the land is below the water table and leaves and other plant matter fall to the ground and don’t rot away. The process by which this happens traps vast amounts of CO₂ in our soil, so much so that if you removed all of the CO₂ from peat it would equal the same amount of that produced by burning nine years’ worth of fossil fuels. Now, oil palms do not grow well on peat and generally are more prone to diseases, so the companies remove the peat by draining the swamps water and by digging the peat up; both of which release CO₂ into the atmosphere.

                2)      Animal Welfare:

          The animal welfare rights happen throughout the deforestation process. The biggest problem that the animals in the forests face is from their homes being destroyed when the trees are cut down and unfortunately, many are killed by the fires that are used to clear the forest. It is also not just homes that are destroyed though, it is also animal food sources without which the herbivorous species may face extinction which also has a knock on effect to the predators that feed on them.

          The animals also face the problem of habitat fragmentation which is where the forests become isolated and the animals cannot travel to new territories to find new resources. The fragmentation also limits the genepool of animals found in the forests which leads to many species inbreeding and become susceptible to genetic disorders and diseases.

          Furthermore, many of the species that are found in the forests are commodities that are often found in eastern medicines. With the plantations development roads have to be created which makes it easier for poachers and wildlife traffickers to find and acquire rare species. Often the animals they find are taken in order to sell them into the illegal pet trade and for their pelts and body parts. Unfortunately, because this is an illegal trade there is no regulation so the animals that are caught are stuffed into cages barely big enough to move in. Many of the animals that are heading towards the pet trade will never make it there because the conditions that the animals are stored in are awful.

          The Congo Basin is of particularly high concern for animals at the moment with these animals being at the highest risk:

               






               









               




          3)      Human Rights:

          Humans also face threats from the palm oil trade in the countries where the plantations are found. In many cases the land that is used is taken from the indigenous people found on the land however the plantations provide a substantial income to the countries government so they turn a blind eye when people are kicked off their land.

          For the “lucky” few that are allowed to carry on living on their land they still face problems that can affect their quality of life. One of the biggest problems is food insecurity because the palm plantation can clear out the plants they require for food and also the animals that originally lived in the forest that they hunted. Whilst some of the plants provided food, some of them are even more valuable and are used by many indigenous people as natural medicines. In fact many of our western medicines are derived from these same plants without which we may lose the cure to our next big outbreak.

What is the future of these plantations?

At our current rate the world consumes around 60,000,000 tonnes of palm oil and by the year 2050 the amount is set to double to between 120 and 156 million tonnes. Yet, we are currently destroying rainforests just to keep up with current demand so to reach these new higher quantities the only option will be to clear more forest to make way for plantations.

At the moment the main exporters of palm oil are Indonesia and Malaysia, but an emerging palm oil producer can be found in the Congo basin. In order to meet our increasing demands for palm oil the deforestation rate is set to double by the year 2020, only 3 years’ time from now. The Congo Basin has millions of hectares of land and all of it is at risk from deforestation if we don’t act now, but there are things that you can do to help.

What can you do?

There are huge strides that need to be made in regards to palm oil and a large proportion of these need to be dealt with by the governments where the palms are grown but much of it can be dealt with by people like us. This biggest thing you can do as an individual is make yourself aware of what foods and products you buy that have palm oil in them and whether the palm oil they use comes from a sustainable source. By boycotting products that do not use sustainable palm oil we can force large companies to have to change what they put in their products and thus reduce the amount of palm oil the world uses. A fantastic guide for this comes from the Rainforest Foundation UK which ranks major brands on their palm oil sustainability, a link to this can be found at the end. I thoroughly recommend looking at the chocolate section as it has some surprising revelations as to who’s bad and who’s good especially leading up to Easter and it may change your mind as to which companies you buy your eggs from.

Many organisations also rely on donations so you can donate money to help them fight the larger palm oil fights. These same organisations also have some influence with government and government organisations and so many petitions are set up to change the laws and regulations to create a more sustainable palm oil industry.

More information on palm oil can be found online with more in depth looks at the industry and what you can do to help.

As always keep trying to be the force for change.

Heyze.


p.s. here is the palm oil guide:

https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiwz9nU-O_SAhViJsAKHUU5D5QQFggnMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.rainforestfoundationuk.org%2Fmedia.ashx%2F38436-Rainforest-Foundation-UK-Palm-Oil-Guide-2016.pdf&usg=AFQjCNHbE9er6_I5_mtDVqPVxxLHcq7f-A&sig2=pbqBONFjB7YLMezStQ14kQ

Climate Change: What can I do 5

Hello Everyone,

I hope you’ve all been having a super day.

Day 5 is here and with it comes a double whammy to reduce climate change!

5. Recycling and Repurposing

We live in a world filled with plastic. A brilliant material, used for its versatility and its long lasting life. It’s hard to break it down and in some cases it can take centuries to degrade and yet we use it as a disposable item, items designed to be short lived. But whilst these items are short lived, the plastics we use don’t have to be!

     a)     Recycling. Plastics take large amounts of fossil fuel to create which just further pumps ever increasing amounts of CO₂ into our atmosphere. Recycling a plastic and turning it into a new piece of plastic uses less fossil fuels than it takes to create it

     b)     Repurposing. So much of the plastics we use are turned into containers of all shapes and sizes which can all be reused to store various things. I, personally reuse nearly all of my plastic containers to store things from nails to sea shells. By repurposing the containers we use no fossil fuels up and it means less containers are manufactured.

Along with our plastics we also use many forms of paper in the guise of cardboard and card. Again it’s something that many of you, and even myself, have thrown away in the bin; usually without even thinking. I know from a lot of people I’ve spoken to that the most common reason is when they have a little scrap of paper that doesn’t really matter if it’s put in the bin. The problem with this mentality is that people think they are individual but we are all part of the machine that is life and all of those little scraps soon add up.

a)     Recycling. Just like plastics card and paper can be recycled using less fossil fuels than it takes to create. In fact it takes even less fossil fuels to recycle paper than it does to recycle card!

b)     Purchasing. Many places, especially stores, favour plastic over card and paper which can be seen in packaging. So, we can help by choosing products made of recyclable materials especially if they choose to use card and paper over plastic; which will cause us to use less fossil fuels in the long run

c)     Repurposing. Just like plastic card can be repurposed especially by using the boxes for storage, but also to be used as craft materials in millions of different craft activities.

Along with CO₂ another culprit trapping heat in our atmosphere is methane. This gas is produced by everything that farts with vast quantities coming from cows! But it is also a by-product of landfill sights that is caused by matter being broken down in anaerobic conditions.

Landfill is filled with many different products and a large amount of it is organic matter such as apple cores, banana skins, peelings and other bits of food. All of these materials can be composted at home in a compost bin.

     a)     Recycling. In terms or recycling we are composting the organic matter. Compost is made by breaking down the organic matter in aerobic conditions which do not produce methane which reduces man made climate change. But, it also helps because compost is an amazing substance that can be used to feed plants and encourage them to grow tremendously and healthily.

Last is clothing. Many of us have unwanted clothes or clothes we bought that just never got worn. For the most part if these clothes are in good condition they can be given to charity to be sold on to raise money or to be given to people who don’t have access to clothes. For the clothes that aren’t good enough for charity they can be repurposed for many things from craft activities to chopping up old t-shirts to make cleaning rags.

Our society is filled with many products that have been designed to be disposable but disposable is not sustainable and never will be. The only way to a sustainable future is by recycling and repurposing as much as we possibly can.

More to come each day so keep checking in ;) Be a force for change!

Thanks for reading,

Heyze

Climate Change: What can I do 4

Hello Everyone,

I hope you’ve all been having a super day.

Day 4 is here and with it comes more ways to fight climate change and to help your local wildlife!

4. Plants

Today’s theme is plants. At current rates our climate is set to increase to an average temperature of 4.8^oC in the next 80 years. We need to get this down to a much cooler 1.5^oC otherwise we are going to be facing some huge consequences. Trees and plants can help us to reach these goals but at their current rate they can only help us with 30% of the work load with the rest up to us. That being said climate change is causing our plants to face negative consequences which could cause their 30% work load to fall making it even harder for us to fight. Here are a few ways to help plants and to help our planet!

     a)       Gardening. When we garden we quite often choose big extravagant plants from climates very different to our native environments, with most coming from more tropical places. To keep these plants alive, we must give them extra care and we must give them plenty of water to keep them alive. So, when gardening try not to choose the tropical plants but instead choose some of our more native species which require less attention and have the added benefit of feeding your local insects such as the bees and butterflies.

   

     b)      More Gardening. Choosing tropical plants means using more water which as we saw in the last post increases the rate of climate change. So, if you are going to plant more tropical species that need lots of water then I recommend doing it responsibly by getting a water butt. A water Butt only costs around £25 and collects rain water which can be used to water your plants instead of having to turn on the tap.

     c)       Even more gardening. The last gardening idea I recommend is to plant a native tree. Trees are fantastic, they live for years and they are brilliant when it comes to absorbing CO₂. Imagine if every person in the world planted a tree tomorrow, we would have an extra 7 billion trees growing across the planet! Along with their absorption capabilities they are also great for wildlife providing food and shelter for many birds, mammals and invertebrates; and as a bonus they also provide a shady retreat from the sun which is a great place for a picnic on a hot summers day!

     d)      Volunteering. Plants across the world are struggling with many problems, most of which come from us, that are being combated against by many organisations such as The Wildlife Trusts, WWF, RSPB, Woodland Trusts and National Trust. All the organisations rely on voluntary work from people just like you and I so why not consider lending a hand once a month (or more if you have the time) and helping our green friends on their way to help us.

I hope this gives you some good ideas and maybe helps you find some plants that you’ve never thought of planting

More to come each day so keep checking in ;) Be a force for change!

Thanks for reading,

Heyze

Climate Change: What can I do 3

Hello Everyone,

I hope you’ve all been having an awesome day.

Day 3 is here and with it comes new ways to fight climate change. New ways to save the world!

3. Water

Water is one of the fundamentals of all life on Earth and most likely for all life in the universe, without it we would all die. The water we get from our taps though,  is treated to make sure that it is clean and free of harmful bacteria and bugs so that we do not get ill from drinking. The process of making water safe is very simple with water taken from a reservoir (or somewhere similar). The water is pumped from the source through various filters that filter out any harmful particles and chemicals. Once filtered the water has chlorine added into it so that harmful bugs and bacteria are killed off before being pumped to our taps at home.

All of the pumping used for the processes unfortunately require fossil fuels to get the water from point a to point b. Furthermore, the water is sometimes not transported through pipes, as this isn’t always possible, but in large vessels carried by trucks and lorries which are in turn burning fossil fuels. All of this can’t be helped by us on a personal level because we do need the water and we do need it clean so that we can drink it but, there is a huge way in which we can help. We can help very simply by making every drop of water count so that water treatments don’t have to be done as frequently and thus reducing the planets carbon footprint. Here are a few ways to make every drop count:

   a)       Showering. When in the shower make it a game and challenge yourself to be as quick as possible. I personally do this by choosing a song that I like that day and seeing if I can get my shower over and done with before the song gets to the end!

   b)      Drinking. When your pour yourself a glass of water don’t waste it. Something I used to do before trying to save as much was I’d pour a large glass of water and after having a swig I’d pour the rest down the drain. Now I save what I have left over to have later instead of pouring a new glass. You can also just pour a smaller glass to begin with

   c)       Brushing your teeth. Even just by turning off the tap you can save water whilst brushing your teeth which all adds up in the long run!

   d)      Baths. Try to swap out your bath for a “power” shower instead.

   e)      Gardening. You can save water by gardening by setting up a water butt. Water butts are designed to collect rain water so that you don’t have to use tap water through a hose. This is also especially useful if you live anywhere that gets droughts and you end up with a hosepipe ban.

If every person could do all of these then I’m sure we could reduce the planets water consumption drastically and help to fight climate change on another front.

More to come each day :) Be a force for change!

Thanks for reading,

Heyze

Climate Change: What can I do 2

Hello Everyone,

I hope you’ve all been having a lovely day.

Yesterday I spoke about how we can reduce our carbon footprints to reduce climate change and today I’d like to continue that train of thought with the second way you can help

2. Transportation

A lot of us are guilty for using our cars waaaay too much and it is something that as a society we have grown dependant on. The cars that we use though, do have major carbon footprints and aren’t doing our environment, or climate change, any favours. Even electric cars, which do have a significantly reduced carbon footprint, still leave a carbon footprint from the electricity that we charge into them because the electricity still comes from companies burning fossil fuels to produce the electricity. So here are a couple of ways in which you can change your mind set on transportation to help save the planet!

      a)       When looking for a new car always try to choose one with lower mileage.

      b)      Keeping your car regularly checked and serviced. This can help by making sure airways are clean and to help with the fuel efficiency of your car.

      c)       Keep to the set speed limits. This is for safety but also by not fluctuating the speed of your car you increase your fuel efficiency. To keep your speed from fluctuating you should use a cars cruise control (If you have that).

      d)      Whenever you take the car out plan your journeys. By doing this you can fit in all the errands you need to do in one journey which will save you time and reduce the amount you are driving.

      e)      Cycling. This is an almost carbon neutral form of transport which also provides a free form of exercise. Sometimes it may seem like it’ll take that much longer to get to work but you will no longer have to put up with those stressful traffic jams making for a stress-free journey.

      f)        Long distance travelling. When travelling, long distances try not to use the car by opting to use public transport like buses and trains.

More to come each day :) Be a force for change!

Thanks for reading,

Heyze

Climate Change: What can I do 1

Hello everyone,

I hope that you are all having a good day.

In my last post we looked at climate change and how it is important for everyone to know about it but knowing about it is only half the battle and this next step is going to be the hardest one yet. In this post I am going to discuss with you how we can combat climate change and how we can all help as individuals to save the world!

1. Reducing our carbon footprints.

We all know that carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is the main gas causing the greenhouse effect and so by reducing our carbon footprints we can slow the rate of climate change and maybe get to a point where we can start to reverse the effects of manmade climate change. In order to reduce out carbon footprints we need to stop using fossil fuels and stop using electricity that comes from fossil fuels. Some ideas:

a)       When using a mobile phone use it till it runs out and once completely drained then charge it. After if it’s charged remove the power source. The same goes for laptops and other chargeable equipment as well.

b)       Put on some gloves and manually wash dishes instead of using the dishwasher ;)

c)       All lightbulbs can be changed to more energy efficient light bulbs (The energy rating can usually be found on the side of the box)

d)       We can also make an effort to switch off lights as we leave a room.

More to come each day :) Be a force for change!

Thanks for reading,

Heyze

Climate Change

Hello everyone,

Climate change. It’s something that has been in the news recently and it’s something that has been on my mind so I wanted to weigh in on it.

What is climate change?

Climate change is something that is affecting all of us across the globe whether you believe in it or not. It is a change in the earth’s temperatures and weather patterns across a period of time and it is something that has occurred on the planet since earth existed and it will continue long after we are gone. We have gone through periods of tropical weather to periods of ice as seen in our previous age. However, in the present we are faced with climate change that is raising the average temperature of the planet. (This is why we used to call climate change global warming!)

Why is the temperature rising?

The earth’s temperature is rising by an alarming rate and is expected to rise by 3.7 - 4.8^oC by the year 2100 (Climate international, 2016). Whilst this may seem like a small amount to us, this is a huge amount for the ecosystems on our planet and this rising is all because of us. As humans we use fossil fuels to create energy to help us in our day to day lives, from charging a phone to driving to work. All of the fossils fuels come with a heavy price though, the price for burning them is that they release carbon dioxide (CO₂) into our atmosphere which is causing a greenhouse effect trapping heat in our atmosphere.

Why should I care?

We should all care because it affects all of us, every single person and every single living creature on this planet is at risk if we carry on with what we are doing now. At the current estimates temperature is set to rise by up to 4.8⁰C by 2100 (Climate international, 2016) which would wipe out most of our rainforests as well as melt the ice sheets across Greenland and Antarctica (WWF, 2017).

Without the trees from rainforest are world may not be able to cope with the amount of CO₂ we are producing and so climate change would increase exponentially past 2100. If we lost the ice sheets from them melting then sea levels across the world would rise by 70m, which would affect millions of people making them homeless and causing them all to move further inland which would cost the government’s huge amounts of money therefore increasing taxes. Snow covered landscapes and glaciers are also natural heat reflectors which help to reduce the temperatures across the planet and if Greenland and Antarctica were to melt we would have virtual no way of reflecting heat so would cause an exponential increase in the global temperature.

If we can get the temperature increase down to 2^oC then the effects will be less drastic (WWF, 2017) but they would still not be great. First off we will see severe weather patterns across the globe with some countries having massive storms whilst others are stuck in perpetual droughts. The arctic ice (North pole) will melt and we would no longer have ice in the north which would mean polar bears will no longer have homes. It’s not just the polar bears that are affected either though as without ice in the north earth will be set to have a further temperature increase because ice reflects solar heat. Peter Wadhams told the Guardian (2017) this:“Sea ice reflects about 50% of the solar radiation it receives back into space. By contrast, water reflects less than 10%”

In order for us to have even a remote chance of saving ourselves and the planet we would need to have a maximum temperature increase of 1.5^oC. Trees are able to help with climate change because they naturally convert CO­₂ into O₂ through their own metabolic processes but with the amount of CO₂ the human race produces, trees will only be able to help us with 30% (Climate international, 2017). The rest is up to us. At our current rate 800 million people are under threat from climate change (Climate international, 2017). If we round our world population to the nearest billion then we have a population of 7 billion people so 800 million is 11% of the world’s population which mean that a little over 1 in every 10 people face the direct threats of climate change.

So in answer to the question, we should care because climate change will affect every single one of us.

But if climate change happens anyway then why should I believe scientists that it’s a problem?

Climate change is a reality that has existed since the earth began. There is a huge difference though between our current rate of climate change and those which happen naturally. Usually climate change that happens naturally happens across large spans of time, which gives many creatures and wildlife time to adapt to the changes. Our current rate though has been accelerated due to the amount of greenhouse gases being produced (WWF, 2017) which is trapping heat in out atmosphere. This accelerated climate change is giving wildlife no time to adapt which is fuelling our current sixth mass extinction.

We need to believe the scientists because they are producing empirical data using many different methods to show us that we are in an accelerated climate change. The most frequently looked at is ice cores that allow us to have a glimpse into the atmosphere of the past which tell us that earths temperatures are rising at drastic rates. Peter Wadhams (The Guardian, 2017) has predicted that by this summer or the summer of 2018 the arctic ice will melt completely during our summer times.

If the world is getting warmer why is there snow?

This can be a hard thing for many people to understand and is the biggest argument used by climate deniers. Quiet often the words climate change are used interchangeably with the term “global warming” which suggests that everything is getting hotter. Global warming though is used to describe the fact that our current climate change is signified by an average temperature increase across the planet. This average increase in temperature does not account for the day to day fluctuations we see in our daily temperatures and weather patterns. The current earth temperature, as of 16/02/2017 and according to Google, is 61^oF/16.1^oC, and I can tell you that even now the temperature is a lot less than this because it is still winter and climate change isn’t going to stop us from having colder weather and won’t stop us from having snow.

It is also worth noting that we still have snow because climate change isn’t something that is going to change overnight, so you can still expect to see some more snow for now… But, we have already recorded that average temperatures have increased over the last century but not by enough to stop us from having snow yet.

What can I do to help?

There is a lot that we can do to help and I will be posting about that in my next post. But for now make yourself aware of climate change and spread the word and don’t stop until every person understands what is!

Thanks for reading. Together we can be a force for change. Heyze

References:

Climate International, 2016. Climate. [online] Available At: <http://www.conservation.org/what/pages/climate.aspx?gclid=CNf19O7RkNICFQ2eGwod39kHlw> [Accessed: 16 February 2017]

The Guardian, 2017. Next Year or After, the Arctic Will Be Free of Ice. [online] Available At: <https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/aug/21/arctic-will-be-ice-free-in-summer-next-year> [Accessed: 16 February 2017]

WWF, 2017. What are Climate Change and Global Warming. [online] Available At: <http://www.wwf.org.uk/climate-change-and-global-warming> [Accessed: 16 February 2017]