Aspiring botanist and ecologist with a passion for science communication. The door to learning about the natural world is always open; let’s go outside and play

Nov 24, 2015

Is your toothpaste killing orangutans?

*Beautiful little fruits with a big ecological cost*

Palm Oil

these may look like just a red berry, but they are so much more dangerous than that
these are the fruits of the African oil palm tree
palm oil trees are grown all around the world but most palm oil, meaning 85% of palm oil, comes from Malaysia and Indonesia
what is palm oil for?
it’s used in an enormous number of every day products
in fact, you have probably already used palm oil today
shampoo, laundry detergent, toothpaste, and even ice cream contain this edible oil
30% of the world’s vegetable oil production comes from palm oil
which equates to about 50 million tons per year
needless to say, the demand for palm oil trees is high
and this means deforestation
to plant trees for industrial use, you’ve got to rid the surface of the earth of a lot of natural forest

swaths of forest are cut down every day to make way for new palm oil plantations
trees are burned rather than cut down to make the process faster
this wastes valuable lumber and emits large amounts of green house gas
and biodiversity is taking a hard hit
one third of all Indonesian mammals are currently critically endangered
90% of orangutan habitat has already been destroyed
of course, there also are the classic deforestation side effects of erosion and water pollution at play here
tree roots and understory plants hold the soil in place
when they’ve all been cut down and burned, all that is left is the exposed soil
so when it rains, it all washes away
and when it washes away, runoff, picks up all of the pollutants left behind by the deforestation crews and dumps them into the nearest water source

The scorched earth has cooled and the crops are neatly in their rows. It must be quieter now, without the rainforest full of creatures.The orangutan population is dwindling, but at least we’ve got our toothpaste.

Now, the question we must ask ourselves is are these rows of trees and the products they help produce worth the ecological hardship?

Something to think about