Palm Oil Plantations Are Major Sources Of CO2 Emissions
Greenpeace volunteers and a local community are working to stop the destruction of an area of swamp forest in Sumatra, Indonesia, which is to be converted into a palm oil plantation. More than 30 volunteers will work with people from the nearby village of Kuala Cenaku to construct dams in canals that are being used for logging and draining peatland.
Greenpeace says that by halting drainage operations with dams, they will prevent the peatland from drying out and releasing large quantities of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, as well as stop the illegal burning of the peatland to plant palm oil saplings. According to Greenpeace, destroying peatland swamp forests is the main contributor to Indonesia’s high CO² emissions, which makes the country the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases after China and the United States.
Palm oil is used in a million things (from biodiesel production, to junk food). Is this how global capitalism will work? We dry out peatland to produce cheap palm oil to create “renewable” fuels and cheap junk food, at the cost of an even greater co2 burden on the planet? What do you think?
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Original post by Scytle
Monday Confessional
I did a lot of stuff this weekend. Tops on my list was meeting Bre Pettis (yes the guy who does Make Podcasts). He is a really cool guy, friendly and with a great sense of humor. I met him along with a lot of other very cool people at Podcamp Boston 2. I also saw a stunning and wonderful cyborg lady. I also went for several very nice bike rides. Specifically I was part of my first ever critical mass. For those of you who don’t know critical mass is a peaceful and rowdy reclaiming of the streets by bicyclists.
Basically a ho-billion bikers take to the streets in an “unplanned” gathering and ride around having a wonderful time. Because they reach a critical mass (get it) they take over the roads and are able to use the roads for what in my opinion they would be much better suited for, riding you bike. For me it really was unplanned I had no idea there was going to be a critical mass (I was not on the cool list), but one came by and I was on my bike, and blam mass ho!
This seemed to be a special Halloween themed mass ride because I saw a lot of very cool costumes and lots of people dressed up in a million fun ways. There was screaming, and chanting, and singing, and one group of bikers had what seemed to be a full drum set made from buckets and old pipes clamped to the front of their bikes. It was so much fun, I must have looked like a goof with my a smile from ear to ear.
I also was part of an anti-war protest. Don’t let anyone tell you that the anti-war movement is dead. There were thousands of people out in the rain this weekend marching and letting their voices be known. It all culminated in a big rally on the Boston Commons, with singing and dancing. By the way if anyone ever asks you what the opposite of war is, tell them art.
Energy Smackdown Episode 1
I met a John Herman (a pretty cool guy) at a conference this weekend. And he let me in on a little project he had worked on that might become something larger. I thought it would be cool over the next week or so to highlight the Energy Smackdown. It is a show about three families trying to reduce their carbon footprint. It happens over a 5 month period and may be turned into a larger show in the future. I like the idea of a show that combines Americans hunger for “reality tv” with practical tips for living a greener lifestyle.
China To Spend 14.5 Billion Dollars To Battle Lake Pollution
Remember a couple of months ago when we talked about the panic that was caused when a giant algal bloom happened in China, cutting off the drinking water supply to millions. Seems it is going to cost them, a lot, to fix.
China has announced a multibillion-dollar plan to clean up a severely polluted lake where an algae bloom forced the suspension of water supplies to millions of people this summer.
The $14.5 billion plan to clean up Lake Tai, in a densely populated area northwest of Shanghai, should take five years, said a statement dated Friday and posted on a government Web site of the nearby city of Taizhou.
The move comes amid mounting official urgency about curbing chronic pollution in China’s rivers and lakes that has left millions of people without clean water and disrupted city water systems.
Lake Tai is one of a series of lakes where blooms of blue-green algae blamed on pollution have disrupted water supplies this year. Some types of the algae can produce dangerous toxins.
“The plan will control the eutrophication of Lake Tai in five years and realize the clear improvement of water quality,” the government statement said. “In another eight to 10 years, the problem of the Lake Tai water pollution will be basically resolved.”(via)
This pollution is cutting off drinking water TENS of MILLIONS of people. Imagine if say the entire state of New York didn’t have drinking water. That is the kind of scale we are talking about. The environment is not just something Al Gore goes on about. It is the real life, physical world we live in, and if we mess it up badly enough it will no longer support us.
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