Palm Oil - All the truth about it

Unfortunately, palm oil is still hidden in a lot of conventional products of the daily life, mainly in food, body care products and cosmetics. What maybe is less known: Sometimes it is even used as a bio fuel! And many well-known companies are involved in this unethical and environmentally disastrous business, as it is mentioned in this Greenpeace article!

But why do I say "unfortunately"? I will explain this in few words and sum up some interesting sources for more information.

1. Rainforests disappear through the cultivation of palm oil: Countries in which palm oil plantations take a relevant part of the economical market - mainly it is planted in Indonesia, Malaysia and Papua Neuguinea and in Columbia - often do this in the middle of their rainforests after deforesting the areals. There are few biotopes in the world where the biodiversity of the fauna and flora is so enormous. Through the tropical deforestation, many animals and also plants lose their biotope. A lot of them already are really seldom; for example the Sumatra tiger and elephants become much endangered species because of this! Not to forget the orangutans of Borneo! 
2. People who live or lived in the rainforests lose their livelihood: The ground now utilized for palm oil (this is of course also true for the plantation outside the rainforests once used by the inhabitants to earn their livelihoods) cannot anymore be used by the locals so they are even more pushed into their poverty or must suffer from hunger. Also, the deforestation of rainforest territories for the sake of the palm oil plantations highly influences the water resources of the region. 
3. The destruction of the rainforests has big impacts on the environment and especially the climate! Beside the role of all forests to take the CO2 from the atmosphere, the rainforest additionally plays an important role in the regulation of the global climate. So in the long term, the disappearance of each hectar rainforest redounds to the increase of the climate warming!

Here is a fact sheet of the palm oil problem. 

Surely you will agree with me this is a shocking truth. But: As consuments, we can all do something about it: By renouncing products which contain palm oil (and probably not buying products from companies known as selling products with palm oil, especially if they purchase it from certain countries)!

The blogger gene in the German version ;-)

I know certain English speaking people share the opinion that (said otherwise) German (econo- or not) bloggers lacks the blogger gene. ;-)

To prove Mr. Salmon could be wrong in some aspects, I will comment each point of his arguments here from my view as a German blogger.

1. In my long-term experience with the German blogging community (I blog since 2005) I never felt any hierarchy in that national blogging community. On the contrary, I always felt respected with my opinions I shared in my blog regardless of my social or professional state.

2. See what I said in point 1.

3. In that point, I sadly must agree: Blogs (and the voice of normal people) seem to not being noticed to such an extend from the German government and other important institutions. For this reason, political posts in Germany (posts which shows the opinion of the blogger regarding political items) don't have the same importance. In Germany - at least that's my impression as an insider - blogging seems to be more private. The readers in German private blogs mainly are a regular little circle of friends from the actual state of developement. So it is difficult to receive a larger attention. And it also seems the German state institutions actually aren't really interested in the opinion of the "little people".

4. No. From my view, I must reject this! When I take me for example, I am NOT career-minded at all! And - by the way: I blog for free, because I LIKE it, I receive nothing for it. Concerning the blogging skills: I think, I spend enough time to cultivate them. ;-)

5. I must admit that in the beginning of my blogging, I was a little bit afraid to make mistakes. (Personally, I think this is normal for all beginnings - at least if someone tend to be perfectionistic. But even if not, it isn't always easy to overcome his or her fears when beginning something totally new.) Until today, I tend to verify my posts regarding grammar faults and so. And if I say something wrong from the content, I correct this later. So I'm happy if someone reminds me of a big mistake, because that's the only way to learn from it. Without it, I wouldn't have noticed that I was wrong in the respective point.

6. Maybe the German way of blogging (or also of life) is a little bit different from the American one (or that in other countries too). But I don't think this is something critical. On the contrary, I find that's the interesting on blogging: The individual and cultural differences, from which the international blogging community can grow! There is no "one and only right way" of blogging. There are many ways, and that's what make it dynamic.

7. I am an outsider! ;-)

8. I cannot say much about this aspect from my perspective. But I know at least one German blogger who has an academical state and sometimes shares his ideas in his blog (well, only in German, but he does). ;-)

9. As I already said in point 4., I blog for free. For me, it is a hobby and a possibility to communicate and debate about ideas and thoughts.

10. Myself, I don't have any problems in taking vacations from blogging. I don't know if this is "typical German". But I probably know some German bloggers who cultivate their blogs even in their holidays, or take some preparations to hold their blogs "living" in their absence.

PS: In my German blog, I recently posted a related list of "symptoms" which probably could show if someone has a blogger gene. In addition, I started a little survey especially for German bloggers to find out how much of them may have the blogger gene and be proud of it (or not).

PPS: To return to the econoblogs: There are some German econoblogs I consider to be more reputated:
- Blick Log (partially in English; and there you can find lots of further links to German econoblogs)
- Boersennotizbuch
- Boersenblogger

By chance, I have found a more niched econoblog too: Aachener Wirtschaftsblog.