Det här är verkligen en grej jag lovar att hädanefter aldrig köpa. Palmolja. Palmolja finns i diverse produkter till exempel hudvårdsprodukter och man kan nästan alltid vara säker på att de där kexen eller småkakorna man köper innehåller palmolja. Ofta står det gömt under “vegetabilisk olja”. Palmolja går även att använda som biobränsle. Sverige importerar årligen cirka 44 000 ton palmolja för bland annat tillverkning av choklad enligt WWF.
Andra produkter som ofta innehåller palmolja: välling, barngröt, chips, nachos, margarin, pesto, flingor, tuggummi, russin, glass, bröd, jordnötter, rostad lök m fl.
Odling av palmolja är en jätteindustri, eftersom det är en användbar, lättodlad produkt. Problemet är att odlingarna innebär skövling av regnskog. De två största exportörerna av palmolja är Malaysia och Indonesien. Det innebär ju inte bara ett lokalt problem om regnskogarna försvinner, och ekosystem kollapsar. Regnskogarna är jordens lungor.
Förra året var det ca 4 % palmolja av all som var ekocertifierad, alltså framtagen på ett hållbart sätt. Efterfrågan ökar mer och mer. Bland annat räknar ICA med att från och med 2015 enbart ha annan olja eller miljövänlig palmolja i sina produkter.
Så kolla innehållsförteckningarna på varor ni konsumerar, och välj bort de som innehåller palmolja eller ospecifik vegetabilisk olja. KRAV-märkta produkter får inte innehålla palmolja som inte är framtagen eko-vänligt.
Fd. regnskog.
Orangutangen och palmoljan
Bild hämtad från www.saynotopalmoil.com
“Due to the massive international demand for palm oil, palm oil plantations are rapidly replacing the rainforest habitat of the critically endangered orangutan; with over 90% of their habitat already destroyed in the last 20 years.
Orangutans are some of our closest relatives, sharing approximately 97% of their DNA with humans. Orangutan means ‘Person of the jungle’ in the Indonesian language. It is estimated that 6 to 12 of these ‘jungle people’ are killed each day for palm oil. These gentle creatures are either killed in the deforestation process, when they wonder into a palm oil plantation looking for food, or in the illegal pet trade after they’ve been captured and kept as pets in extremely poor conditions and provided with extremely poor nutrition.
Orangutans are considered as pests by the palm oil industry. In the deforestation process, workers are told that if wildlife gets in the way, they are to do whatever is necessary in order to dispose them, no matter how inhumane. Often orangutans are run over by logging machinery, beat to death, buried alive or set on fire… all in the name of palm oil.
Government data has shown that over 50,000 orangutans have already died as a result of deforestation due to palm oil in the last two decades. Experts say that if this pattern of destruction and exploitation continues, these intelligent acrobats of the jungle will be extinct in the wild within 3 to 12 years (as early as 2015). It is also thought that their jungle habitat will be completely gone within 20 years (approximately 2033).
Around 50 million tons of palm oil is produced annually; with almost all of that being non-sustainable palm oil, that replaces 12 million hectares of dense, bio-diverse rainforest. That’s the equivalent landmass of North Korea deforested each year for palm oil alone!
Palm oil is also having a shocking impact on our planet. The production of this one vegetable oil is not only responsible for polluting rivers and causing land erosion, but when the plantation workers set fire to the remaining trees, shrubs and debris to make way for the oil palms, it produces immense amount of smoke pollution that is toxic to planet earth. This has been found to be the second biggest contributor to greenhouse gas in the world.
By purchasing products that contain crude palm oil, you are helping destroy ancient, pristine rainforest, wipe out species like the orangutan, and create a large-scale ecological disaster. Think of the consequences next time you do your weekly shopping; the consequences not only for orangutans and other animals, but for us as the human race; for we cannot survive without the rainforests either. We have a choice, orangutans do not.”
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