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Palm oil may be certified sustainable, some greens skeptical

Posted at 2:22 PM on 26 Nov 2007

Hoping to quell criticism from biofuel bashers, palm-oil producers have drawn up criteria for certifying their product as sustainable. It's a nice idea, but green group Friends of the Earth has threatened to withdraw its support of the standards, saying that Malaysia and Indonesia -- which together produce nearly 85 percent of the world's palm oil -- are using the voluntary initiative as an excuse to keep from legislating against rainforest-pillaging palm plantations.

sources: Reuters, Mongabay

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Comments: (3 comments)

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Worse Than Petroleum

Destroying rainforests in order to grow crops like palm trees for biofuels is generally more ecologically destructive than drilling for oil, though it depends on what has been destroyed in order to drill for the oil. On top of that, biofuels emit even more greenhouse gases when burned than petroleum, so biofuels do nothing to combat human-caused global warming. (Burning ANY fuel emits gases; the best result you can get is emission of purely carbon dioxide, which is the most prominent greenhouse gas.)

Unfortunately, many well-meaning people have been bamboozled by the biofuel industry and think biofuels are some sort of magic panacea that will solve all the environmental and ecological problems caused by driving. WRONG!!! The only way to solve these problems is to stop, or at least greatly reduce, driving. Sorry kids, magical solutions only exist on TV and in the movies (I assume no one reads anymore).

by Wolverine at 5:57 PM on 26 Nov 2007

Wolverine, you're missing the point...

What's important here is that the deforestation and palm plantation is going on in Indonesia. If they said that they were going to deforest the entire state of Maine for biofuel production, I'd be concerned. As it is, now when I'm rich, I can buy my vacation home up there on the coast and have beautiful views of spruce-covered mountains unobstructed by nasty wind turbines. Let the Indonesians pay the consequences for our massive energy consumption!

And if you disagree with what I'm saying here, let me remind you "you're either with us, or against us." Besides, I'm sure those Indonesians are more than happy to have well-paying, unionized jobs working in the palm plantations for like $30/hr. Hell, they probably make more money than I do!

Il faut cultiver notre jardin.

by John former Marine at 8:22 AM on 27 Nov 2007

If you're gonna say Rueters

Then please link to Rueters.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKKLR9741 ...

-David Ahlport

by GreyFlcn at 10:39 AM on 27 Nov 2007

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