February 9, 2022

Palm oil is practically found in everything; toothpaste, makeup, donuts, and in some countries, biodiesel fuel. It takes several names such as palm stearin, palmitic acid, sodium kernelate, and vegetable oil to name a few.

Palm oil consumption on a global scale has quintupled since 1980, as it is easy to extract, has a higher yield, and is versatile. It does seem to be an amazing idea to incorporate at higher rates, but it also poses a massive environmental threat.

Palm oil plantations destroy millions of acres of forested land, create billions of tons of carbon pollution, and pose a threat to the surrounding wildlife, killing and endangering them, even leading some to extinction. Palm oil extraction is recognized to be one of the world’s largest environmental offenders. In 2015, over 62,000 square miles, mostly forests, were cleared for palm oil plantations. For reference and scale, that is relative to about four times the size of switzerland! Ranked in the top three reasons for global deforestation, Indonesia is responsible for over 50% of palm oil plantations! In 2015, over 10,000 square miles of rainforest were burnt, which were visible from space. The fires from 2015 added more than two billion tons of Co2 into the atmosphere.

Palm oil plantation creation threatens the 10,000 square mile leuser ecosystem in Sumatra; largest rainforest in Southeast Asia. The ecosystem is home to the only place in the world where orangutans, rhinos, tigers, bears, and elephants live together. However, their habitat is disappearing all due to the demand of global consumption of palm oil. Currently, sumatran tigers and sumatran rhinoceros are critically endangered with only 80 Sumatran rhinos and less than 400 Sumatran tigers left in the wild. In Borneo, there is a 50% decrease in the orangutan population from the past 65 years as a result of deforestation and conversion of woodlands for palm oil cultivation.

Land clearing for agriculture is the leading cause of deforestation and animal endangerment. If consumers don’t demand sustainable products and practices, the world will continue to lose rainforests and as a result, the animals that reside there.

But the thing is, you can help! A great way is to aim for buying products which do not contain palm oil, or palm oil which is sustainably sourced.