The Growing Demand for Palm Oil

The development of palm oil as a source of cleaner energy was an exciting prospect for several European political and environmental groups a few years ago. Palm Oil, which is produced primarily in regions of Southeast Asia including Malaysia and Indonesia, is largely used as an ingredient in many foods and products (around 10% of products at the grocery store contain palm oil). Some energy companies developed generators which utilized only palm oil, and all the excitement drew a huge increase in demand for palm oil. Farmers cleared out massive areas of rainforest all across South Asia, and often used damaging chemical fertilizer. Furthermore, they often clear out more space for palm plantations by draining and burning peatland, which releases great amounts of CO2 into the air, essentially counteracting the effort. Because of these practices, Indonesia has become the country that emits the 3rd highest amount of CO2 in the world (after the US and China), according to a study by Wetlands International and Deft Hydroulics, two Dutch companies. In the past 8 years, there has been a 118% increase in the amount of Indonesian land devoted to palm oil cultivation.

It turns out that there is a big risk that comes with the production of biofuels. This experience can teach us to proceed with caution, and research the benefits and drawbacks of biofuel production, and make sure the production of biofuels doesn't create worse emissions than the fossil fuels that they are trying to counter. Thats not to say that ALL palm oil production is harmful to the environment, but much of the southeast Asian production failed to take ecological factors into account. Hopefully we can overcome such issues by creating a more universal energy system-- if we cant have all stages of production under a single authority, then we need to make sure that the communication between the different stages of energy production is clear, and that we administer very thorough research before investing all that dough.