Demand for Palm Oil Destroys Wildlife in Sumatra

Courtesy of Elizabeth Martini:

As the world consumes more and more mass produced products, the earth suffers. Because of the selfish attitudes of modern day humanity, habitats are being destroyed to supply superfluous amounts of products to stores around the world. A major problem in today’s world is the exploitation of palm oil in Sumatra, Indonesia. The ecosystem has been stripped of its natural inhabitants, the trees preserved only to be used by consumerism. These silent forests wait only to be taken to benefit humanity. Animals have been forced to evacuate their habitats because the disrupted ecosystem is no longer sustainable. Several species, like the Sumatran Orangutan, have been threatened by extinction because of the continuous disappearance of forests.

Many people do not know how much palm oil has been incorporated into everyday products. Often misrepresented as vegetable oil, palm oil is present in products like chocolate, cosmetics, and soap. Some companies, like Unilever and Sainsbury (a supermarket in England) are working under the standards of the RSPO, Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, to make palm oil more sustainable and to raise awareness on the subject. Even with these efforts, organizations like Greenpeace criticize companies for not doing enough. After progress is made sustaining palm oil, CNN projects that in the future only a small percentage (less than 10%) will be reusable. Plans to replant the excavated areas do not make up for the destruction; the forests take hundreds of years to form and now will have to start over. The environment of places like Sumatra will continue to suffer immensely for consumer productivity.

The plants and animals are not the only agents affected by this exploitation. The clearing of these large scale forests emits tremendous amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. This is another factor responsible for global warming. With this effect, not only does animal and plant life suffer, but the future of humanity on earth will be jeopardized as well. Expending nonrenewable resources is extremely detrimental to life on earth. The companies who so dearly rely on palm oil as a resource will suffer too when the earth eventually runs out of raw materials.