By Ian Williams
NBC News Correspondent
One of the Sumatran orangutan’s richest habitats, an area of swampland containing the highest density of the red apes on the planet, is being illegally slashed and burned by palm oil companies to make way for palm oil plantations.
“If we can't stop them here, then there really is no hope,” said Ian Singleton as we stood on the edge of what had once been pristine forest, home to hundreds of orangutans, but now reduced to a charred wilderness as far as the eye could see. As he spoke we could hear the distant sound of a chain saw.
Singleton runs the Sumatra Orangutan Conservation Programme, an organization at the forefront of a battle to save what remains of the forest and the apes.
WATCH THE FULL REPORT: Orangutans dying as demand for palm oil soars
There are fewer than 7,000 of the critically endangered Sumatran orangutans left in the wild, according to a 2008 survey completed by Singleton and other scientists. The largest number live in a vast area of swampland and lowland forest close to the northern tip of the Indonesian island of Sumatra.
“Orangutan paradise,” Singleton calls the area – but it’s a paradise under threat.
Land cleared, drained and burned in the Tripa Peat Swamp Forest.
The key battleground for Singleton is the Tripa Peat Swamp Forest, much of which has already been converted to palm oil plantations. The relentless march of the palm oil business is the biggest threat facing the orangutans.
A cheap, edible oil, palm oil is found in almost half of all packaged supermarket products, from instant noodles, to cookies to ice cream, and Indonesia is the world's biggest supplier.
“Look, look,” said Singleton, handing me a pair of field glasses. In the distance a large male orangutan moved gracefully across the canopy of trees. We would soon see three more.
WATCH ROCK CENTER VIDEO: 'Orangutans are dying here as we speak'
There is something spell-binding about seeing an orangutan in its natural habitat, and for a while we were glued to that point, watching these high-wire masters at play. But excitement here was quickly tempered by the realization that the area of forest we were looking at was isolated and surrounded on three sides by plantations that were moving ever closer.
Singleton concluded that these apes had just about enough forest to survive - for now.
When he believes an orangutan is in danger, he said, he sends in a team to track and sedate it, transferring the animal to a sprawling rescue center he runs on the edge of the Sumatran city of Medan.
Singleton sometimes refers to the center as a “refugee camp.”
“These are the lucky few,” Singleton told me during a visit there. “They are effectively refugees from forests that no longer exist.”
And like in refugee camps across the world, there was no shortage of agonizing stories of suffering and survival, but also resilience and hope.
Chocolate, a 2-year-old toddler, rescued from animal traders
Among the 55 orangutans in Singleton’s care was a scrawny and bewildered 2-year-old named Chocolate, the newest arrival. Merely a toddler, Chocolate wrapped his arms and legs around Singleton, who lifted him carefully from a cot designed for a child.
“He’s a bit thin, but otherwise quite fit and feisty,” Singleton said. He believes the mother was probably shot.
“There’s no way a mother would allow a baby to be taken from her, not while she’s still alive – never in a million years,” said Singleton. Among orangutans, the bond between mother and child is one of the strongest in the animal kingdom, a child staying with its mom for as many as nine years.
Most orangutans arrive at the center as toddlers, many lacking even the basic confidence to climb trees. You’d have thought that came naturally to a great ape, but some youngsters will only scale the branches in the presence of a keeper, who acts as a surrogate mom.
That’s not a term Singleton likes. The aim of his organization is to build the animals’ skills and independence for an eventual return to the wild, though initially many are dependent on him and his staff.
He also introduced me to Leuser, a big male, probably more than 40 years old and blind.
“One day he went too near farmers at the edge of the forest and they took pot shots at him. They put 62 air rifle pellets into him, mostly around the head,“ Singleton said. Forty-eight are still there, and the X-ray resembles the speckled roof of a planetarium.
In the top corner of a nearby cage, 9-year-old Bahroeni was sitting inside a large tire, one of his legs dangling, encased in a cast. He, too, had been sold as a pet when he was a toddler and, as he grew up, the nylon rope that tied him to a fence was never removed.
Plantation owners and small holders frequently regard orangutans as pests, though there is profit to be had in illegally selling off the babies as pets.
“The law is very clear, but the enforcement is very weak,” Singleton said, tickling one of the toddlers, who reacts with child-like convulsions.
The center aims to return its refugees to the wild, in an undisturbed part of the forest, as soon as they are able to go.
As we spoke, a group of keepers from the rescue center carried on a stretcher an anaesthetised young male named Dito. They lay him out on an operating table in the medical center and after making a small insertion in his neck, they implanted a transmitter.
The transmitter will help Singleton monitor Dito’s movements, “so you know what they’re doing, where they’re going. That they are OK.”
Singleton and colleague Graham Usher launch drone with camera to monitor illegal deforestation.
On the Tripa frontline, Singleton and his team are now deploying a powerful new weapon: a drone, equipped with a small camera that will help them identify illegal forest clearing.
The area is supposed to be a protected forest, and using fire to clear the land as well as converting deep peat are illegal practices under Indonesian law.
Conservationists did have one recent victory, when one of the worst culprits, a company called Kallista Alam, had one of its operating permits revoked. That’s never happened before, since Indonesia has a terrible track record in enforcing its own environmental laws.
And Singleton says satellite imagery shows that burning has continued, even after Kallista Alam’s permit was revoked.
He is now urging criminal action against such companies and others involved in the illegal clearing, asking for their permits to be revoked, and the peat land to be restored.
For all the horrible destruction laid out before us in Tripa, Singleton remains optimistic, believing that the tide may now be turning in favor of Indonesia’s once lonely conservationists, and that the impunity with which the plantations destroyed the forest is at last being challenged.
Before leaving Sumatra, Singleton took me to an area where his refugees are being re-located. He told me that for him nothing can quite match the satisfaction of seeing the often bruised and terrified animals that turn up at his rescue center back in the wild.
“Now they have a second chance of spending 30 or 40 years in the wild, and of having four or five babies,” he told me as we tracked some recently released orangutans days later.
There was a sudden movement of red fur through the thick forest canopy above us.
“I get a real kick out of this,” Singleton said. “It’s as if they never left, and if we’d not been here they’d have died.”
Editor's Note: Ian Williams' full report, 'At What Cost?' airs Thursday, October 18 at 10pm/9c on NBC's Rock Center with Brian Williams.
Leave a Comment:
Shame on us... orangutans are the most human-like apes IMO
Please do not buy stuff that has palm oil!!!
We wont be happy until we have clear cut the entire world and the only non-human animals that are left on the planet are in zoos or private hunting reserves.
Who in his/her right mind eat this krap anyway? It's the absolute WORST stuff for your heart and it's arteries. Gag. Doesn't anyone look at ingredient labels? NO wonder the average of people here in the U.S. is now at about four hundred pounds.
Palm oil........keep it up guys and you'll go BLIND!!!!!!!!
It is a shame to see the greed of a few companies destroy such an amazing species. Orangutans are fantastic animals with feelings and emotions just like people. We need to be doing whatever we can to help protect them and what remaining habitat they have. That said, boycotting everything that has palm oil in it is not the answer, in part because it is completely impractical. What should be boycotted are the companies who buy their palm oil from the companies that are responsible for this destruction.
This is breaking my heart.....Orangutans are a particular favorite. Always with the greed. Palm oil. Thats great. Kill the elephants for the ivory, the gorillas for their hands (magic medicine?) and destroy all natural habitats so wild creatures have no place to live.
I had no idea. I recently succumbed to the pressure to switch to natural peanut butter, only to see that there is NO difference in ingredients other than they use palm oil instead of artificially hydrogenated oils. (Smuckers and Jif) I figured if that's better for me as a natural ingredient than it was better than doing nothing. I'm an idiot. So this big push to "natural" is only helping in the destruction of a natural habitat - I feel terrible for buying these products!
You want progress, right?
You want cheap goods, right?
The world needs jobs, right?
Remember, companies seek profits as much as consumers seek lower prices. As long as you can't see it "from my house", you don't care.
Why is it some Orangutans die and we now have to change the world but release a few millions tons of CO from burning oil, ah who cares.
I see so many comments on so many articles about "what a shame" and yet not a single person on here tries to do something real ... something of significance.
You want Orangutans to live?
You want an earth to call home?
You want clean water?
Friggin do something about it!
Please.....can the human race just leave this beautiful planet and find something more suitable to destroy? The sooner "we" go the better.
we're stripping the planet bare unsustainabley now, so wait until there are 3 billion more of us bipeded termites over the next 15 years. the earth will heal itself after we're gone, but until then we will have created so much misery in the world; and thats the part that is really sad ...
I'm soooooo glad I'll be dead in 50 years!!! This planet will rebel, I don't want to be alive to see that carnage!!
During my working years, I spent many weeks each year in Southeast Asia, including Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. And the problem of the forest vs Humans isn't a simple one to solve.
Stop buying palm oil? Now Humans starve--and they didn't have much to eat to begin with. Millions of families have become 100% dependent on palm oil income. And I must say, too, that the enormous forests of palm are quite breathtaking, and a beautiful sight, if that's any consolation.
The apes. Well, the apes have been disappearing from forests for about 30-years; nothing more to report. We're simply too late to save the animals in pristine forests. I know. I choked on the smoke of burning forests as it drifted across the Straits from Indonesia to my office in Ipoh, Malaysia. Thick in the air, I coughed up black phlegm. I was there to design, build, and ship tropical hardwood furniture to my chain of stores. Hate me? I was told that the forest was FCS approved (stamped such), and renewable. I was lied to. And I shudder when I read of the dead animals and destroyed forests.
I am sorry. Sorry for it all, and for everyone; Human and orangutan, and we haven't even talked about the gibbons, monkeys, and the incredibly beautiful birds, nature. Gone.
Thanks for the nice news article. But it is simply too late. And the same is happening in Black Africa; Chimpanzee, Bonobo, and Gorilla. Killed off. Corrupted officials, laws ignored, rules bent, life, death...it was too late 15-years ago.
At the rate of consumption and expansion, I doubt the human's rate will be able live for more than 100 years before we half of ours population die off from suffering the consequences of ours action.
We will never learn until it is too late.
As long as we humans keep up our unsustainable breeding rate, this planet is doomed. Yet everyone can keep glorifying families having 19+ kids like it has no effect at all on the planet. I keep hearing celebrities saying how they want a big family, yet then cry and promote save the animal and conservation causes, completely oblivious to the real reason this planet is doomed.
Enjoy what you see live today and take pictures for your grand kids to understand what you saw live..all be dead within 50 years ( me included).
The animals were here FIRST..we humans are the invaders!
aliveinsd you underestimate the power of intention.
Because we consider ourselves the superior species, humans feel entitled to take - be it from the Earth, from other species or from each other - whatever the hell we want with absolutely no regard for how our actions affect others who also have to live on this planet. Greed is an insatiable, vicious mistress. Every other species is totally at our mercy, and we have none. Philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer said: Humans have made the Earth a living hell for animals. We are spiritually bereft as a society.
Blackbird
"Please.....can the human race just leave this beautiful planet and find something more suitable to destroy? The sooner "we" go the better."
You first... see ya!
Hate to have to break it to you OldDog, but you'll be going, too.
We can send man to the moon; can't we find an alternative for palm oil?
Let us all be sure to vote for LESS REGULATIONS and GROWTH this election. What party is for that again? Growth only adds more pollution and does not fix a broken system/economy. If you need growth or have to rely on it to solve problems there is an issue with your system and how it works. Why does it not work with the number of people you have ALREADY. Why do they always need MORE. Less regulations so you can get away with crap like this.
Hmm palms, I wonder if we could grow those here instead. Oh, but then we might have to actually pay the workers at least minimum wage huh?
I am so sick of the stupidity, greed and ignorance of sooo many humans. it really breaks my heart. I never thought I would be alive to even began to see the desecration of this planet and the very animals we SHARE this
earth with..ALL because of humans.
What the article doesn't tell you...
The Palm Oil is also used in bio-diesel and to make ethanol...
Thailand is also facing the slash & burn methods to, clear for corn and palm oil.
The floods of last year started in the North of Thailand where the majority of this forest clearing is now occurring...
During the winter, vast areas have their visibility drop to almost ZERO. This is occurring across Asia, as airports in many countries are temporally closed and medical alerts, due to the smoke..
Southern Thailand is also experiencing these floods, but their problem is the rubber plantations. There they plant the trees so close together that there is NO ground vegetation and now this methodis being used in NE (Isan) Thailand...
You want to save the orangutans??? Drive less and use more energy efficient processes...
Tiggle - I'm doing something about it - I am a vegetarian, organic gardener, and a bee keeper who takes good care or my land and critters living there (well... most of them because some bugs are eating my stuff). I have greatly reduced my energy use, I recycle as much as I can and I buy used stuff I really need like clothes and tools. And I definitely read the list of ingredients on things I buy, avoiding palm oil. But what you say is very true - we have to be practical about it, not merely sentimental.
There are some companies that use responsibly farmed trees for palm oil production. NOT one of those is Nutella, thereby making itself a prime boycott target. So, quit Nutella, lose the weight AND support the surviving forests with the inhabitants.
Good old humans ---- screwing things up again. Where does it state that we have the right to do anything like this? We just keep screwing this Earth up more every day.
Palm oil ---- we just cannot survive without it. Shark fin soup --- just can't live without it. We, as a human race will not stop until this Earth cannot even support us, and we're well on our way. Good --- the sooner we leave this Earth, the sooner it can start repairing itself. I hope the human race only survives another hundred years. Bring on the nuclear holocaust so Mother Nature can start another project...
Stupid, uncaring people, we are...
Soooooooooooo...let me understand the overall picture here...
Its ok to take corn out of the mouths of humans just to drive vehicles but, it is a shame about palm oil cus orangutans are at risk?
Riiiiiiiiiiiight...
Put the pipe down...
No, it's not ok to do either, Johnny! You need to pick the pipe up and chill!
The corn used for ethanol is not "taken out of the mouths of humans." It is harvested specifically for ethanol and is a different species that you probably wouldn't think tastes very good.
Johnny if you want to eat monsantos genetically modifed corn then you be my guest, in fact why don't you start a conservative protect like the one the had for chick-fil-a where the wingnuts lined up to consume mass quantities of the processed chicken in support of the owner who hates gay people. I think you should stuff your face all day everyday with nothing but GMO corn to support Monsanto, oh and just ignore the French study the came out showing that the rats all developing massive tumors when fed GMO corn 30 days longer than Monsanto fed it to them for their study. You know how those French are anyway, viva la freedom fries!!
Corn, in of its self, is highly destructive, whether for consumption or for fuel. It has very little nutritional value, as well. This country needs to stop the nonsense and allow hemp to be grown in its, and in cotton's, place.
The biggest problem we, and every other species this planet faces, is our own population. When we kill all the animals, utilize all the water, and there is no more room to grow food, what then? Nip this in the bud. We need to teach the importance of keeping, and even reducing our population. We will not go extinct if we pull back our populace by 2 or 3 billion. We will, however, go extinct if we continue on this path of self destruction.
True Cameron - but it's production requires resources (water, fields) that would otherwise go to feed corn which eventually feeds humans.
Ethical food production needs to be considered for everyone. If this was starving individuals who were subsistence farming I would have a lot more sympathy but we are talking about companies using that while hiring some local people pay them as little as possible and ruin the land for future use. While it's true many of the worlds top economies made their fortunes while scorching their own earth, what is best for the local community in the LONG run needs to be considered.
In the end if everything is considered I would choose humans over apes but I have never seen a convincing argument that this is a zero sum game unless you are only concerned with multinational companies short term profits.
StephAce - the surest way of reducing population (besides genocide) is by increasing prosperity and woman's rights (including contraception education and access obviously).
Considering what is good for the local communities that neighbor these forests would do the most good for these animals -
Personally I think Jane Goodall's program targeting human development/enrichment in critical conservation areas Roots and Shoots is the right direction to take conservation.
If the world wants these precious animals and habitats preserved (which is important economically as well as priceless culturally), then the local communities should benefit from their existence and therefore become their champions rather than being burdened by land they cannot use.
Who cares about people? The last I heard there was a lot more than 7000 of us. Let the human kull begin please.
Corn based ethanol is terrible for the environment and is only being allowed to boost the corn farmers profits....
Johnny Apple, multinational corporations are also decimating miles of rainforest in other areas to plant corn for ethanol.
Palm oil is also used for bio fuels. Do we save the planet from carbon or do we save the forest, what to do, what to do....
Both.
Um,
hello Jojo, we wouldn't be able to breathe without the Rain Forest. So, What to do, what to do
down with big brother, thank you for saving me from having to respond to those two ignorant crybabies!
I hear you saying that arable land, once used for food production is now being sequestered, for the production of fuel - but, it doesn't affect food supplies?
Well then... that makes everything all peachy Keen. Move along folks - false alarm. That once verdant food producing land is now dedicated to fuel production, but - its OK... They meant to do that. It not a problem to you or me and will not affect the food supply or the prices we pay for food.
I feel much better now. How 'bout you!
The big drive in Asia for palm oil, is due to the bio-diesel...
There is currently a push to get the EPA, to reascend the ethanol increases. Backed by BOTH Democrats & Republicans, due to the corn shortages...
You know Obama's administration pushed for the EPA to INCREASE (double) the ethanol levels, during his first year in office...
I am not having kids. Not because I don't want to, but because I am physically ill, and will pass down the same illnesses, if not others that my family carry, down to my children. I am a prisoner in my own home, because of it. I end up at death's door every few years. Why would I, A., have a child that I could not properly care for, and B., pass things along that would make my child(ren) suffer? I would have been supremely self centered to that to a child. I don't like child abuse, and that is exactly what that would be.
Your excuses are poor. You can call me a green nut all you want, but it doesn't change the truth. Currently, 1/3 of the land is being used for food production. That, my SELF CENTERED friends, is a hard truth. You choose to overpopulate, it's not YOUR problem, but your children's and your grandchildren's, and we all know how concerned you are with them (sarc), with teh state of the environment. If you really love your families, you would keep it to 1 or 2. But you don't. You guys just love yourselves and your stuff.
Keep believing in your fairy tales that give you the "right" to destroy everything, including your own grandchildren's future. You won't be here when they have to watch their own children suffer, but it will be you that caused that problem. By the way, what is wrong with only having 4 BILLION people on the planet anyway? Nothing at all. You just want to justify your own self centered agendas.
MESSED UP PRIORITIES!!!
Orangutans are quite endangered, and one of the closest human ancestors on the planet.
Humans are the opposite; overpopulating this world in the extreme. Palm oil?? REALLY?? I wouldn't care if there was a hundred million metric tons of petroleum under the Orangutan's habitat. Protect the Orangutans above all else - the end.
Just a minor correction to my post above; I meant to type:
"one of the closest to human ancestors on the planet."
For the sake of clarity and accuracy, Humans and Orangutans are cousins, sharing a common ancestor. I did not mean to imply that Humans are descended FROM Orangutans, which is not the case. Humans and all the great apes are cousins; having evolved from a common ancestor between 15 and 5 million years ago.
Humans' closest relatives alive on the planet today are Chimpanzees, but Orangutans and Gorillas are nearly as close.
I believe we are actually more closely related to Chimps than that of Orangutans, no? Chimps, Gorillas and Bonobos are all African Apes, while Orangutans are Asian Apes. But I'm sure someone else can provide better clarification.
At any rate, yes. How anyone could destroy an animal like this is just beyond my comprehension.
The accepted genetic and social similarity goes ...Bonobo > Chimpanzees > Gorilla > Orangutans.
Bonobo were once thought to be a dwarf subspecies of Chimpanzee until late, Now genetic testing shows they are a separate species unto themselves and are a few points closer to the human genome than are chimpanzees.
Last I herd Ryan, ascribes to a theory that the earth is only 9,600 years old. So there were no dinosaurs. And obviously - the Homo spainian group could not have been the product of any form of evolution, natural or selective Darwinism.
I'd just like to point out, for the record, that I corrected my own original post above, and elaborated with the same information that Chad did eight minutes later. LOL!
And Beoweolf, excellent post. I've been fascinated with the Bonobo for years. They are indeed considered the closest living relative to Homo Sapiens, even closer than the "standard" Chimpanzee. I'd encourage anyone reading this to do some quick Google searches on the Bonobo Chimpanzee.
As for Paul Ryan and anyone else who subscribes to the claim that our planet is 9,600 years old... I think either the Bonobo, an Orangutan, a Gorilla or perhaps even a Lemur might have a higher I.Q.
I'd just like to point out, for the record, that I agreed with you, but was ending my statement with a question ... hence the "no?" for more clarification. You didn't "elaborate with the same information"....
.... Beoweof actually did that 4 hours later with: "The accepted genetic and social similarity goes ...Bonobo > Chimpanzees > Gorilla > Orangutans."
I guess it's a question of semantical absolutes ... but I guess I shouldn't agree with people, less they get offended.
:)
I wasn't offended Chad, just making what I hoped would be a humorous observation.
:-)
We are an ugly and uncaring species. We rape and plunder until there is nothing left.
Let's just nuke the entire planet and let Mother Nature start over. The Earth has been here for billions of years and we find a way to royally f_ck it up in 200. Who else but us "intelligent" humans could ever pull of such a feat???
Someone please push the button and wipe us all out ---- we don't deserve to be here.
THIS is what greenie wienie agenda gets you! no oil, no orangutans, no ecosystem. Crude Oil is the least impactful development there is, as is nuclear, it is just against the green Marxist agenda to develop it.
Crude oil is sequestered Carbon Dioxide. It needs to be left in the ground. If the Greenland ice sheet slides into the ocean, which it will do if we continue pull carbon out of the ground and throw it into the air, millions of people will lose there homes and world economies will be disrupted.
Keep working on that work of fiction, buffalo. People for once learning to stop polluting for things and activities they do not need would go a long ways towards culling own CO2 billowing habits.
Nuclear is our future.
Getting back to the article, I'm not some radical far-left greenie, but this is wrong, and I hope that the greed of a few people does not prevent the death of too many of these animals. I always say: It is alright if we put human needs in front of the needs of animals, but not necessarily human wants.
Humans are the cancer; a giant hurling asteroid with a direct collision of earth is the cure... IMHO.
I think you are right... BUt I am going to enjoy it while it lasts!
While your point is valid, I believe a giant asteroid hurled into Earth would also destroy these beautiful Orangutans as well, no?
No they are smarter than Humans they will survive...
Johnny you analogy shows you stupidity. Look at it this way, 40 percent of the earths oxygen is created in the Amazon Basin. Greedy corporations are destroying the canopy vegetation that creates this oxygen at the rate of 5000 acres a day. This has been going on for over 20 years now.
I suppose you are going to add something else stupid like "breating is overrated".
Mature forest - Produce NO additional oxygen or CO2. In order to produce oxygen the mass of the forest would need to be increasing, which it clearly isn’t in a mature forest.
This balance is only effected when the trees are cut and the forest regrow...
The World's Oceans produce almost half of the oxygen (Phytoplankton)... see http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/06/0607_040607_phytoplankton.html
The threat to the Amazon Basin, is the clearing for sugar cane (ethanol) and the The Brazilian government is moving ahead "at any cost" with plans to build the third-largest dam in the world. Plus the 130+other dams that are being built... see http://amazonwatch.org/work/belo-monte-dam
Use hemp seed oil!! Hemp can be grown close together and has multiple uses. Hemp fibers can make lumber, hempcrete, paper products, rope and clothing, the leaves can be used for biofuels, the seeds contain some of the highest quality protien on the planet, and the oil from the seeds is very nutritious. One acre of hemp can replace 4 acres of palm. Hemp needs no fetilizer or pesticides.
Writer your congressman today and tell them you want industrial hemp relegalized, there is no sane reason non-thc producing hemp is illegal.
Glad to see NBC picking this up. This has been ignored for way too long.
They somehow forgot to mention that palm oil consumption has risen along with the green tax credits to refineries to create bio diesel from palm oil. Instead they chose to blame it on human consumption which has changed very little in the last 2 decades.
Some days I am so ashamed of the human race. And a society with no consequences for bad action is doomed. Personally, I'd like to take these farmers and put 62 air rifle pellets into each of them, jail them if they survive, confiscate all their property, and put their families on the streets. Do this each and every time.
As for the ivory trade, I'd love it if technology could infect the live animals in a manner that would pass some kind of deadly disease in their ivory to those idiots who think it is medicine.
Palm Oil has no nutritional value and is extremely high in saturated fat. We'd all be better off if it's use was banned in food products.
You're mistaken about palm oil, the most commonly used cooking oil in the world. Its saturated fat is a medium chain fatty acid (MCFA) which is quickly burned as fuel for the body not stored as cholesterol/fat. The oil that's unhealthy is palm kernel oil (very different). Also, the ape is an Orang Utan (two words) -- Malaysian-Indonesian for Man Forest.
I wonder if the food processors are confusing palm oil with palm kernel oil.
Here we go again. Human greed knows no bounds and will not until it has destroyed us.
how about checking wood shipments and record on where it came from and when illegal wood comes in fine the crap out of the palm oil company
you cannot leave this to the company must be driven by the government, minus the greenback payments you know gov officials who are lieing thieves
The free market wouldn't be targeting the Orangutan's for extinction if it didn't have a good reason. Let's see how this plays out.
Your 'elevator does not reach the top floor'.
They're targeting palm oil because it's used in bio deisel. You may thank your green movement and gov't tax credits for this disaster.
Dear MSN. Right on the front page, bold as brass: "Orangutan habit slashed".
PLEASE hire me as your proofreader. The one you have obviously needs some remedial training. It sounds like the poor orangutans lost their heroin connection.
Sorry to say - the writers are in fact, recently matriculated English Literature graduates. With all the 'texting', using abbreviations and ungrammatical sentence structure you see prevalent in the youth of today, most people lack the critical 'eye' to be proof readers.
To qualify as a decent proof reader, you need to have internalized good grammar - so it may be recognized on sight; there,their,they'er are not the same, nor are they interchangable
This cannot be stopped. Soon there will be no more gorillas, rhinos, elephants, orangs, snow leopards, etc. etc. It's just a fact of the exploding population on this planet. You can all wail all you want, but if I or my children were starving and someone offered me money to clear cut orang habitat, what do you think I'd do? Yes, yes, I know, it's possible to grow enough food to feed the world-but it isn't going to happen because of politics. Check your history-pick a continent. We even have millions going to bed hungry in the USA every night.
Better build bigger zoos-that's the only chance for wildlife.
Don't be so sure - there are many conservation success stories which often are a result of enriching communities neighboring these areas - it can be done but we can't give up. See Jane Goodall's book - Hope for Animals for many examples.
The only people who are working in conservation are caucasians, and there aren't enough of them to stop the evil of the world. Shame.
marcos123, that is far from true. THfoot, if you had the time to learn more facts, you would realize that it is shear lunacy to sacrifice anything to the set of whims which has become defined for the most part, in most languages, as politics.
I watch that Animal Planet show Orangutan Island it's pretty good to watch. It comes on at 5:00 a.m. though, it might come on at another time too I don't know.
If I had a penny for every time I had oil on my palm...
I agree with deprogrammer. Use Hemp oil when possible. It's ridiculous that those in congress can't see the value of the plant.
Please do something by writing your congress person. We can help stop the supply and demand of Palm oil by substituting HEMP.
Also, use social media paste this article to your Facebook or Linkedin page. Get the world out.
Hemp is also good for you as it is high in omega-3 and -6 and low in saturated fatty acids, and contrary to popular belief, contains only trace amounts of THC; no more than 0.3%. The downside is that it is not a good oil for frying as it will smoke at a relatively low temperature.
Hempseed oil has a limited use in detergents, soap and shampoo and some other products such as ink, lubricant, paint and plastic.
Why do humans think we are actually better than the other creatures that inhabit this earth? I'm sure they would all beg to differ.
Mostly due to religion, somewhat due to stupidity, but those two are related.
At times in the past, some religions have tried to end the useless destruction of animals.
In intelligence and resourcefulness, we are better than every other species on earth. However, that does not necessarily justify things like this.
We are leaving our children and grandchildren a lifeless, polluted world. And the sad thing is, people won't care until it is all gone.
so sad. this is the first i have heard of this. it would be nice if these issues were brought to the forefront more often.
Clearly if the orangutan is to survive it must learn to make palm oil.
You're just figuring out that this is newsworthy?? People who care have been fighting this problem for years.
The orangs are in serious trouble. And there is a new twist on their abuse. They are being taken to brothels and are being raped by male humans.
People need to be screeaming out about this. Don't buy Hersheys candy for Halloween and let Hershey's know that you won't use their products until they stop using palm oil. Read your labels and avoid anything with palm oil in the ingredients. You will be surprised how many name brands are using it.
bart519, I know you are not a troll like nodak below your post. People like to ignore such facts, it is sadly true.
Palm Oil is great for deep fat fring monkey and other animals in.
It is interesting that this article does not want to specify that the palm oil companies are mostly international corporations.
Exactly - these companies are demolishing a relatively poor country's non-renewable resources and underpaying any local labor they do hire to make themselves rich - this is not a case of starving people doing what they can to service - it's greedy first-world a-holes taking advantage of desperation/corruption/ to line their own pockets. There are no winners in this case (except some already rich sociopaths).