From NASA, while we wring our hands over coal fired power plants in the west, the rest of the world seems oblivious to creating even far worse air pollution. Hi-res sat image follows.
Illegal Fires Set in Indonesia Cause Smog Problem
Widespread wildfires are lighting up Indonesia, but these fires were not started accidentally. These fires were set deliberately to clear land for palm oil companies. This type of “slash-and-burn” agricultural has been used for centuries to clear land for new planting, however, the setting of such fires is now illegal in Indonesia. That doesn’t seem to be stopping plantation owners from continuing this practice. The Huffington Post reports that Laurel Sutherlin of the Rainforest Action Network, a San Francisco-based environmental organization sent the paper an email stating, “Widespread, illegal burning to clear rainforests and peatlands for palm oil and pulp and paper plantation expansion is unfortunately a well-established yearly ritual in Sumatra.”
The worst by-product of this practice is the deliterious smog produced by the fires. Smog so lethal that a record high of 401 pollution index was recorded in the city-state at noon on Friday (Aug. 16), according to UK’s The Independent. A measurement over 400 is said to be life-threatening to sick and elderly people, the paper notes. Of course, deforestation is also a negative by-product of this practice as well.
A staple for cooking throughout Southeast Asia and elsewhere, palm oil is the single largest traded vegetable oil commodity in the world, and global demand is rising rapidly, the U.S. Department of Agriculture says. The oil is increasingly used in the manufacture of cosmetics, soaps, pharmaceuticals and industrial products. It is also used to make biodiesel fuel.
Image: NASA’s Terra satellite collected this natural-color image with the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, MODIS, instrument on August 27, 2013. Actively burning areas, detected by MODIS’s thermal bands, are outlined in red. NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz LANCE/EOSDIS MODIS Rapid Response Team, GSFC. Caption by Lynn Jenner with information from the Huffington Post and The Independent
Download Links
This is over-hyped, impractical parroting of Greenpeace “sales talk”, designed to fill their coffers and perpetuate the lifestyles
Greenpeace were rather late to this and still don’t admit that the problem comes down to total demand for palm oil, and as noted above total demand could be reduced substantially by stopping its use for biofuel. Mostly, Greenpeace harp on about greenhouse gas emissions, without reference to environmental destruction.
Greenpeace are now heavily into the racket of certifying the source of palm oil or whatever is sustainable. Little more than extortion IMO.
I stand by my ‘ the worst environmental destruction of my lifetime’ comment, without pretending to have solutions, excepting stopping it’s use for biofuels. Much of the rest of the problem results from effectively zero environmental protections in Indonesia (a country I have been to many times), and that’s a much harder problem to solve.
Sad about Australia’s rain forest. Think about it, that’s the first I have heard about it. We really need an action plan to replant tropical jungle and harvest sustainable hardwoods. It can be done and be very “profitable”.
Do we read Orang Utan for Polar Bear?
Also replant the hedges and copses in Europe. Introduce mixed forestry rather than monoculture. Encourage, cutting and clearing, small scale forest management producing truffles, pork, mushrooms, charcoal, mulches and composts. Not a difficult job. Indeed its how we used to do it. But now with high tech, good communications and cheap energy, it can be done and no need to live an isolated hermit existence to do it.
You can’t compare Indonesian corruption with the USA or Australia. The only laws in Indonesia are ones you can’t afford the bribe to get out of.
Philip
Malaysia has a huge stock of certified sustainable palm oil. They cannot sell it, nobody wants it. They want it cheap and cheerful.
The vast amount is used for food, food feedstocks and cosmetics, not biofuel. Its simply not economic.
Corruption? Laws, Justice? here if you caught speeding ( phew), slip the policeman RM 50 (usd 10) and go on your way. In the USA, get stopped, searched, beaten up, tasered, cited for disobeying a lawful command, face jail time and min USD 300 fine. I know which i prefer. Does not make it right but the lesson is?
Since the late 1700s much of Australia’s rainforest, including 75% of its original tropical rainforest, has been cleared for agricultural, industrial and urban development
I’m sceptical of that number, because almost all of Australian tropical rainforest is in areas with little agricultural, industrial and urban development.
And this source shows 4 times the amount of rainforest as your source.
http://www.forestlearning.edu.au/sites/default/files/resources/documents/13_forests_map-correct.pdf
Philip Bradley says: August 28, 2013 at 12:54 am
And this source shows 4 times the amount of rainforest as your source.
NIce map, but it shows all types of forest. (Even mangrove!)
Interestingly, we often underestimate how much the pioneers were able to log the country. My father owned land in southeast Queensland – very steep mountainous country. He had the old survey maps and written across all the slopes were the words “Red Cedar and Hoop Pine”
Well, there was not one remnant of either tree anywhere within 20 km on those slopes, they were all ironbark and eucalyptus.
But, these were not clear-felling loggers, they did leave forests behind them – it is the areas cleared for cultivation and cattle that have lost their forest.
I’m not against these activities – saving areas of forest, and selectively logging all are reasonable in my opinion. If we need anything it is perhaps corridors of forest to link reserves. That would entail taking land back from landowners, or at least dictating what they did with it.
It would be very nice indeed if the Indonesians made more reserves, and more so if they linked them with corridors.
http://www.rainforestinfo.org.au/good_wood/lnd_cl.htm
Yeah, “recycle breadcrumbs, save the wheat!”. 😉
Very many of the Eucalyptus and open forest constituents persistently shoot after being felled and fired.
Here in Western Australia there have never been rainforests, excepting some small pockets in the very far north. A while back I visited a Karri (at one time said to be the 2nd biggest tree in the world, but now downgraded to the 3rd biggest) forest cut about 80 years previously,.and the regrowth was astonishing. Karri trees so close together, it was difficult to walk between them.
Planning a trip to the Great Southern Woodland in a few months time. Looking forward to it.
I’m about as far from a raving greenie as you could find. I’d like development and preserving as much as we can of the natural world.
The Kuari tree is a magnificent beast indeed. As with so called Globul warming, mitigation, conservation and management are far better, easier and more productive ways to advance.
That really in a nutshell is the naked exposure of the bankrupt and corrupt watermelon movement.
Just look at the flyby posts here.
We now have a much better understanding of the relationships between trees, fungi, bacteria and soil chemistry than we did. A single person in Assam has restored vast tracts of forest on his own, without help. This deforestation being the major cause of floods and devastation in Bangladesh.
Tropical forests are rich in many resources, cultivated, restored and developed they offer a huge potential to improve the world and mitigate some of mankind’s past stupidity. That they adsorb and store for slow release, rainfall, being just one massive advantage.
Solazyme (SZYM) can also make myristic acid, which is the highest value derivative of palm oil. It’s going to start with that first.
There are many useful articles about the company on the Seeking Alpha financial site–just search for SZYM. Here’s one that discusses palm oil: http://seekingalpha.com/article/1586312. See also:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/cfm?id=how-to-survive-as-a-former-algae-biofuel-maker-solazyme&print=true
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/23/business/for-solazyme-a-side-trip-on-the-way-to-clean-fuel.html?pagewanted=all
Grey Lensman @ur momisugly 3:36 am:
I was wondering what a kuari tree is? I’ve heard of Kauri in New Zealand and seen Karri in Western Australia.
A karri forest is a wonderful place.
Philip Bradley @ur momisugly 2:53 am:
Lucky you in WA! I would love to see those Southern forests again. Alas…our visits seem to be confined to the Eastern States (Vic and Qld) these days. One day again, maybe. Enjoy your visit.
LOL, My spelling/typing leaves a bit to be desired.
as does your willingness to accuse your fellow posters .. far from being a paid troll I am a nurseryman in N. Ireland who loves nature more than plantations …
So Roy, you gonna replant all the wheat plantations in Europe? Perhaps all the Potato plantations as well. How about the Clear cutting of North Carolina to feed Drax?
Tell me why is oil palm so bad but firewood is so good. Why is Wheat good but Oil Palm bad.
You said
quote
I havenn’t bought a product even suspected of containing Palm Oil in over 20 years .. surely the rest of the world has noticed the devastation caused by the development of this monster ?
Unquote
But supplied no evidence, facts, data or science to substantiate it. Have you bought bread?
Roy, not aiming at you but the blinkered view you seem to hold. Read the posts. most Palm Oil Plantations replaced coconut and rubber. Why did Coconut fall out of favour, because of Soy and margarine and the saturated fats myth ( never mind the transfats).
Do you have a car or a bike, rubber tyres! Or maybe you drink Tea. Note the thousands of hectares of prime jungle turned over to tea Plantations.
It was good of Anthony to put this post up but its a shame the debate has been abandoned.
On the bright side, it is true that palm oil has contributed to economic well-being in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Papua New Guinea and other countries that produce it and no one denies that.
On a balanced view, we should know the dark side as well, which is what conscientious people are fighting against. Leave alone the destruction of rainforests and the habitat of orangutans, piggy elephants, biodiverstity and issues of paraquat.
From climate change point of view palm oil production is very damaging to the environment at present releasing millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere yearly. This is more than the carbon dioxide released from the coal fired power plants in these countries.
The farmers, planters, agriculturists and small holders work hard to bring palm oil on the table, however, in contrast the palm oil mills in the supply chain cause all the havoc. The solution to climate change damage lies at the palm oil mills. The mills should stop considering the 74% biomass by-product remaining after extracting palm oil and palm kernels in the palm oil production process at the mill as waste material. It contain massive amount of clean energy!
Technologies and means are readily available to harness this energy to displace fossil fuel elsewhere outside the mill thereby mitigating the climate change damage by reducing the carbon footprint. The sad part is that the will to adopt is wanting in the palm oil milling industry.
Rightfully, it’s the palm oil mill that attention should be in the focus.
The increased production of palm oil in recent years necessitates in large quantities of it being converted to biodiesel to absorb the supply. In this scenario, where the biodiesel is meant to displace petroleum diesel to reduce carbon emissions, the carbon footprint of palm oil comes into greater focus.
For interesting read browse: http://www.rank.com.my/energywise
Yours sincerely,
Energywise
Climate change is ‘an immediate and growing threat.’
No stone should be left unturned to mitigate GHG and climate change.