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Viewers of David Attenborough's new BBC documentary were moved to tears over the heartbreaking battle between an orangutan and a bulldozer sent to destroy its home.
Climate Change: The Facts told how the soaring demand for palm oil was leading to large scale deforestation with large areas of rainforest being ripped down and replaced with palm oil plantations.
Cameras captured the moment a desperate orangutan tried to shove a bulldozer as it tore down trees in its path.
The animal was seen desperately trying to beat the machine away before fleeing the area.
Viewers at home were left devastated by the beast's plight, describing the scenes as 'truly heartbreaking.'
"This infuriates me, stop destroying their home," said one.
"How dare they do that to the Orangutan in its home land. Absolutely disgusting," fumed another.
"That orangutan fighting the digger was one of the saddest things I've ever seen," a third commented.
Throughout the documentary, Sir David and his team of experts aimed to highlight the damaging effects climate change is having on the planet.
They showed vast areas of rainforests being cleared and burned to be replaced with palm oil plantations - as consumer demand for the product increases.
Palm oil is found in many household products from soap to shampoo to crisps.
Scientists on the BBC programme explained that when centuries old forest are torn down releasing CO2 into the atmosphere, the planet heats up at anaccelerated speed.
"The consequences will get progressively worse," warned Sir David.
The hour long documentary is part of the Our Planet Matters season on the BBC.
Superbroom on April 19th, 2019 at 14:05 UTC »
If you don't want to deal with the website's ridiculous ads and about a 10s video of this, here is the full video.
CanIBeFrankly on April 19th, 2019 at 11:56 UTC »
From the WWF website :
Why palm oil boycotts are not as helpful as they might seem
SUMMARY: Boycotts of palm oil will neither protect nor restore the rainforest, whereas companies undertaking actions for a more sustainable palm oil industry are contributing to a long-lasting and transparent solution. Without transparency around the alternative oils to be used by companies, and evidence of how their actions to publicly boycott and source alternative oils will help to reduce the global pressure of unsustainable vegetable oil production on biodiversity to include rainforests, WWF cannot support the approach of any retailer that removes palm oil from its products.
FULL STATEMENT: Whilst WWF encourages all retailers to take their environmental footprint seriously and assess the use of palm oil and its ecological impacts; simply removing palm oil from the value chain will neither protect nor restore rainforest, whereas concerted action towards a sustainable palm oil industry can make a difference. It is well documented that unsustainable agricultural production has significant impact on the environment, including natural ecosystems, freshwater, wildlife and climate. In particular, unsustainable production of palm oil continues to be a major driver of tropical deforestation and a huge threat to wildlife, such as orangutans, elephants and tigers. Urgent action is needed to protect these iconic species, and the habitats in which they live. However, companies must assess the impacts of all commodities within their value chain, to include the impact of a ‘trade off’ between ingredients such as vegetable oil, and publish the evidence of how a switch to alternative oils is better for the environment.
In September 2016, WWF Germany published a report looking at the environmental consequences of palm oil substitution in Germany. One of the main conclusions was that exchanging palm oil with other oils can worsen the problems. Palm oil – when grown responsibly and to the best standards – is the highest yielding vegetable oil; and so substitution of palm oil with other oils, such as soybean, rapeseed and sunflower, can require significantly more land to produce the same volume. This could potentially cause greater impact to habitats, biodiversity and the environment. And because the global market for vegetable oil is so interlinked and palm oil is one of the least expensive oils, switching from palm to alternative oils is likely to simply shift demand elsewhere, meaning that overall demand for palm oil does not decrease. WWF therefore considers it is more productive to work with the palm oil 2 sector, as well as other vegetable oil sectors, to move them to sustainability rather than to boycott their products.
WWF believes companies can be drivers of change and are better placed to help develop solutions for sustainably sourced palm oil from within the value chain, rather than forfeiting leverage and allowing demand to simply shift to other products and markets. We applaud companies who are taking extra steps to work with others in the palm oil value chain to create and support models for sustainable production and best practice, particularly models that are inclusive of smallholders.
WWF believes that certification, complemented by other approaches and strong governance, will play an important role in ending irresponsible palm oil production. Joining the RSPO and committing to responsible palm oil supply chains is an important first step that all stakeholders concerned with ensuring sustainable production can take.
With the 2018 revision of the RSPO P&C, the RSPO Standard now represents an essential tool that can help companies achieve their commitments to palm oil that is free of deforestation, expansion on peat, exploitation and the use of fire. Building on the RSPO, the Palm Oil Innovation Group (POIG) has modeled best practices in the palm oil industry and helped guide the way for improvements in the RSPO. Innovative companies can also demonstrate their commitment today by purchasing oil verified to the POIG standard.
As evidenced by POIG, WWF and others, there are a number of innovative actions that companies and other actors in the palm oil value chain can take to create, promote and support innovative model of sustainable consumption and production. These actions should allow for multiple outcomes of protection, production and restoration, and can include supporting better land use planning practices, investing in smallholder support programmes, and exploring sustainable landscape approaches that are inclusive of multiple land-uses and involve all relevant stakeholders, including communities and smallholders.
Boycotts of palm oil will neither protect nor restore the rainforest, whereas companies undertaking actions for a more sustainable palm oil industry are contributing to a long-lasting and transparent solution.
WWF Letter regarding Palm Oil
CanIBeFrankly on April 19th, 2019 at 10:05 UTC »
From metro.co.uk to provide a synopsis for those who don’t want to click :
In the documentary, Climate Change: The Facts; the ginger ape scampers along a fallen tree trunk towards the digger, which has destroyed its home in Borneo.
It lunges at the heavy machinery but he’s no match for the big claw and it falls helplessly into the branches below.