Bornean and Sumatran orangutans face a lethal cocktail of threats that could drive them to extinction: Habitat loss caused by forest-clearing paper and palm companies; potential kidnapping by poachers in the exotic pet trade; and isolation. But you can help.
Tags: · Borneo, endangered species, habitat threat, Nature in Danger, orangutans, palm oil, palm plantations, palm trade, paper plantation, Sumatra
This Valentine’s Day, spread the love, learn about endangered species, like the lovable bonobos of the Congo. They’re facing extinction, forced by humans, who could still also save them.
Tags: · BarbaraKesslerBlog, Bonobo Conservation International, bonobos, orangutans
Tigers, extinct? It’s not only possible, it’s likely, especially in the many nations that have yet to take action on behalf of this majestic animal.
A tiger with trap marks (Photo: Chris R. Shepherd, IUCN)
Tags: · Asian species at risk, Bronx Zoo, conservation, extinction, IUCN, orangutans, palm oil, poaching, rhinos, tigers, WCS
By Shermakaye Bass
Green Right Now
It’s The Year of Living Dangerously all over again.
Orangutan (Photo: Tom Theodore/Dreamstime)
On Tuesday, two journalists were arrested in Sumatra while covering a politically sensitive topic – palm oil harvesting and the ensuing decimation of Southeast Asia’s old-growth, carbon-capturing rainforests, and the subsequent release of giant CO2 pockets that lie beneath the forests and their peat swamps.
More disturbing than the reporters’ deportation, though, is how little we consumers seem to realize that, not only are we what we eat, but when it comes to palm oil, we are eating our own lifeblood. We’re ‘eating’ our oxygen, we’re ‘eating’ our fellow species. We’re consuming our own future by driving up carbon emissions much faster than we can offset them. We are the snake eating its own tail.
Tags: · Carbon Emissions, carbon pollution, deforestation, Indonesian third largest carbon polluter, orangutans, packaged foods, palm oil, palm planatations, Rainforest Action Network, Rainforest Alliance, Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil, RSPO, Southeast Asia, tropical rainforest
By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now
We had a chocolate attack at a store the other day, so we schlepped over to the cookie aisle seeking something sweet and crunchy.
Palm oil products (Image: PalmOilAction.org.)
Tags: · BarbaraKesslerBlog, orangutans, palm oil, products with palm oil, rainforest, Rainforest Action Network, Southeast Asia, stickering products with palm oil
Barbara Kessler
Andrew Winston
Danielle Nierenberg
Anthony Swift