The World’s Second Oil Crisis

When you mention the environmental threat of oil, most people would naturally assume that you are referring to crude oil. However, there is a second less known and arguably more serious threat, palm oil. Palm oil is the most in-demand vegetable product in the world and its versatility makes it an important raw material for several commonly used products, from cosmetics to fast food. Palm oil is also used as an added biofuel to fossil fuels for electricity production. The huge demand and cheap production costs have made palm oil the most vastly produced vegetable oil in the world. Farmers produced 77 million tonnes of palm oil for the global market in 2018, and that is expected to grow to 107.6 million tonnes by 2024. Oil palm only grows within 20 degrees of the equator – an area which also happens to be colonised by rainforests and is home to 80% of the earth’s species. The rainforest of South East Asia is the oldest in the world and one of the last three remaining rainforests, the others being the Congo of Africa and the Amazon of South America. However, in this region, vast palm oil monocultures are replacing the native rainforest. These monocultures support less than 10% of the forest’s bio diversity and without the rainforest, hundreds of endangered species, many found nowhere else on earth, face extinction.

Palm oil is the world’s most widely used vegetable oil.

The problem has been shown clearest in the Indonesian island of Sumatra. Sumatra is considered a wildlife haven and is home to some of Asia’s iconic animals. It is the last place on earth where you can still find the Sumatran tiger, rhino, elephant and orangutan all in the same place. These rainforests are also essential in the fight against global warming, as they absorb vast amounts of carbon dioxide released from human activity. Today the large multi-national corporations of the world are destroying the ancient rain forest by the most harmful method of all, ‘slash and burn’. Acres of forests are set alight to clear the land for plantations. Trees that have lived for centuries are torched and the flames lick away all the life from the forest floor. Tonnes of carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere through these fires and carbon held in the giant trees of the forest is released suddenly as what is often termed as a ‘carbon bomb’. The smog from the burning soon blankets the region. The wildlife that aren’t destroyed by the fires or suffocated by the fumes are left without a home or food source. The herbivores starve to death without their natural food source, and the predators are forced to prey on people and livestock and are often killed in retaliation. According to Global Forest Watch, Indonesia lost 25.6 million hectares of tree cover between 2001 and 2018, an area almost as large as New Zealand. Corrupt governments also make no effort to conserve the rainforest.

Palm oil is the no.1 cause of deforestation in South East Asia

We often unknowingly contribute to this destruction as consumers of the products of palm oil. Palm oil is used in nearly everything we consume - from soaps and cleaning fluid to cosmetics and processed foods. However, the future is not devoid of hope. Several scientists and corporations are working hard on sustainable alternatives to palm oil. But replacing a miracle product like palm oil is proving extremely difficult. Efforts are being made by the farmers to make palm oil more sustainable, the slash and burn method is gradually being abandoned and the corporations are employing more intensive techniques that take up less land. However, without decisive and strict action by the South East Asian governments, the rainforests of the region may meet their end in the World’s Second Oil Crisis.

By Shashank Uma Deepak