<![CDATA[Grist - Comment Feed for Amazing helicopter footage of Greenpeace in the Indonesian peat bogs]]> Grist Comment Feed en Comment #1 by amc89 http://www.grist.org/article/bali-burning/ Thu, 01 Nov 2007 05:27:02 -0700 http://www.grist.org/article/bali-burning/1 Transfatty acids

What a crazy situation. Good for Greenpeace for being one of the only groups to tackle this.  

Transfatty acids should certainly be avoided, and it's a good idea to replace butter in cooking since dairy has its own set of environmental and animal cruelty issues, but there's got to be other ingredients to use besides palm oil??  I buy Earth Balance for baking which I think is olive oil based. I use organic olive oil for sauteeing instead of butter as well. I know there's some eco problems with olive growing too but it can't be as bad as corporate dairy farms and palm plantations.

]]> Transfatty acids

What a crazy situation. Good for Greenpeace for being one of the only groups to tackle this.  

Transfatty acids should certainly be avoided, and it's a good idea to replace butter in cooking since dairy has its own set of environmental and animal cruelty issues, but there's got to be other ingredients to use besides palm oil??  I buy Earth Balance for baking which I think is olive oil based. I use organic olive oil for sauteeing instead of butter as well. I know there's some eco problems with olive growing too but it can't be as bad as corporate dairy farms and palm plantations.

]]> Comment #2 by jadedthea http://www.grist.org/article/bali-burning/ Thu, 01 Nov 2007 12:09:42 -0700 http://www.grist.org/article/bali-burning/2 palm oil as biofuel?

I just read an article on the BBC about how the EU goals for biofuel are resulting in shifts in agriculture to take advantage of the boom. I wonder if it is hoped that these date plantations will be used to provide biofuels, rather than snack foods? BBC article here.

Thanks for point this out; it's an important issue.

~summer~

]]> palm oil as biofuel?

I just read an article on the BBC about how the EU goals for biofuel are resulting in shifts in agriculture to take advantage of the boom. I wonder if it is hoped that these date plantations will be used to provide biofuels, rather than snack foods? BBC article here.

Thanks for point this out; it's an important issue.

~summer~

]]> Comment #3 by jadedthea http://www.grist.org/article/bali-burning/ Thu, 01 Nov 2007 12:12:22 -0700 http://www.grist.org/article/bali-burning/3 oops

oops. I see that is part of your post as well. What a cruel irony if environmental consequences of shifting to biofuels are not taken into account in this rush to cash in the new market.

~summer~

]]> oops

oops. I see that is part of your post as well. What a cruel irony if environmental consequences of shifting to biofuels are not taken into account in this rush to cash in the new market.

~summer~

]]> Comment #4 by caniscandida http://www.grist.org/article/bali-burning/ Thu, 01 Nov 2007 18:03:32 -0700 http://www.grist.org/article/bali-burning/4 the biodiversity crisis again

Not that there is any problem with using likely-to-drown polar bears as a symbol of the destructive effects of global warming, but it is interesting that the danger to polar bears is a couple of steps removed from the actual human activities that cause global warming.  On the other hand, the burning of tropical forests (for whatever reason!) is an activity that not only releases large amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere directly, and destroys carbon sinks, but also destroys countless plants and animals, both themselves individually and their habitat, including very many who belong to rare or endangered species.

Borneo and Sumatra are among the most intensely biodiverse places on Earth.  Among charismatic mammals, we should be concerned about how destruction of forest habitat affects not only the orangutan, but also a few species of gibbon, the clouded leopard, the Javan rhinoceros, the Sumatran rhinoceros, and sub-species of the tiger and the Asian elephant.  But in addition to them, there are very many other animals, from many other taxa, that are similarly adversely affected.

Good for Greenpeace, for highlighting this serious problem.  It is amazing, actually, that they are so flexible and adaptable as to be able to throw people into this dam-building project.  Whether they can be practically physically successful in stopping PT Duta Palma from draining this particular peat bog, or from destroying any forest anywhere, is perhaps not the point -- just as there is no real expectation that the presence of their two small monitoring ships in the South Pacific will directly stop the Japanese whaling fleet from killing whales.  Nevertheless, it ought to be extremely effective, that they have made these videos testifying to the destruction and the danger.  And it also ought to help, that they testify to the active disapproval of many Indonesians; it is not only Europeans and North Americans who are concerned and involved.

Chickens are our cousins! So are fish! So are other sentient animals! Let us learn to be kind.

]]> the biodiversity crisis again

Not that there is any problem with using likely-to-drown polar bears as a symbol of the destructive effects of global warming, but it is interesting that the danger to polar bears is a couple of steps removed from the actual human activities that cause global warming.  On the other hand, the burning of tropical forests (for whatever reason!) is an activity that not only releases large amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere directly, and destroys carbon sinks, but also destroys countless plants and animals, both themselves individually and their habitat, including very many who belong to rare or endangered species.

Borneo and Sumatra are among the most intensely biodiverse places on Earth.  Among charismatic mammals, we should be concerned about how destruction of forest habitat affects not only the orangutan, but also a few species of gibbon, the clouded leopard, the Javan rhinoceros, the Sumatran rhinoceros, and sub-species of the tiger and the Asian elephant.  But in addition to them, there are very many other animals, from many other taxa, that are similarly adversely affected.

Good for Greenpeace, for highlighting this serious problem.  It is amazing, actually, that they are so flexible and adaptable as to be able to throw people into this dam-building project.  Whether they can be practically physically successful in stopping PT Duta Palma from draining this particular peat bog, or from destroying any forest anywhere, is perhaps not the point -- just as there is no real expectation that the presence of their two small monitoring ships in the South Pacific will directly stop the Japanese whaling fleet from killing whales.  Nevertheless, it ought to be extremely effective, that they have made these videos testifying to the destruction and the danger.  And it also ought to help, that they testify to the active disapproval of many Indonesians; it is not only Europeans and North Americans who are concerned and involved.

Chickens are our cousins! So are fish! So are other sentient animals! Let us learn to be kind.

]]>