Palm Oil Research Paper

The African oil palm is the principal source of palm oil. This species of palm tree can grow only in the tropical regions of the planet, as a result, the growing demand for palm oil has had a negative impact on the environment, particularly to the world’s tropical regions. Palm oil can be found everywhere, from the food we eat, to the gasoline we use to fuel our vehicles. It can be argued that boycotting palm oil is the solution to the negative environmental effects it has on the planet. However, the reality is that boycotting palm oil is almost impossible because this valuable oil is found in innumerable products. “Palm oil is in everything. It's the mostly widely consumed vegetable oil on the planet, and is in roughly half of all packaged
Most people do not make a connection between what they consume and their carbon footprint. Unfortunately, as previously stated, palm oil can be found in the majority of food we consume, and products we buy. The deforestation due to palm oil demand has had helped the increased rate of global warming. “Tropical deforestation contributes approximately 15% to total global anthropogenic carbon emissions” (Ivancic). We need rainforests because they are the lungs of our planet, helping it absorb the greenhouse gases that cause global warming. Tropical rainforests also produce the oxygen we breath. “Forests act as sponges to absorb greenhouse gases; destroying forests releases those gases into the atmosphere” (Palm Oil's Deceptive Lure). It is hard for people to change their lifestyle in order to decrease the rate of global warming. However, if rainforests continue to be destroyed, our quality of life will substantially decrease because of the effects global warming is going to have on the habitants of this planet. It is sad to know that given all the scientific evidence about global warming there are politicians that still deny the existence of this common threat. Fortunately, there are organization that are fighting to protect the rainforests from irresponsible palm oil growers, these organizations are coming up with solutions to the use of unsustainable palm
One of this non-profit organizations is The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). They have developed a plan in which they will identify products that have being made with sustainable palm oil with a green palm sticker. “Only 9% of the palm oil produced worldwide is RSPO-certified. The logo would make it clear to consumers whether products contained sustainably sourced oil” (Phyllips). This is a great way for consumers to start making well informed decisions about what they consume. If more people start buying only products that come from sustainable palm plantations, more companies are going to start using sustainable palm oil to made their products. It is in the hands on the consumers to stop once and for all the deforestation of tropical rainforests. “Consumers have the power to purchase goods with the RSPO logo and to also contact manufacturers and demand sustainably sourced ingredients” (Ivancic). There needs to be more public pressure to force all companies to change to sustainable palm oil. “Roughly 20 percent of the world's palm oil is now RSPO certified” (The World Runs on Palm Oil, and That's Fueling Climate Change). This means that eighty percent of the products we consume today are indirectly causing the deforestation of tropical