Palm oil is a multi-billion-dollar industry that supplies 65% of the world’s vegetable oil, and according to the World Wildlife Fund, its environmental impact has been devastating. In this post, Gary Chandler of Crossbow Communications contends that “even a so-called ‘sustainable’ plantation often sits on thousands of acres of former wildlife habitat within a critical watershed. The Roundtable On Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) appears to be just a shell game.” The palm oil industry is one of the biggest contributors to deforestation, which accounts for 20% of global greenhouse gas emissions, Chandler notes. “In addition to the carbon released when forests are burned, deforestation impairs the planet’s capacity to absorb harmful CO2 from our air.”
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