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)!

London riots 2011 - my two cents

You surely still remember the London riots in the beginning of this month. Shocking pictures were showed on the TV screen and in the internet.

Questions of how it could occur, and how people can carry so much hate in their hearts that is expressed in such a violent and destructive way, might have come into your mind. Myself, I think about this when I see such things.

I think, there must be a very big portion of frustration and desperation to react like this. They might feel that they don't have or aren't given a perspective in their lives, neither professional nor personal. They might feel not accepted or even isolated in society so they see this as the only way to receive some attention from it.

But instead of doing something about the roots of such despaired reactions, it seems, the only thing the government do is to increase the police assignment for the time of the riots and start a relief fund for the store owners who have experienced a damage! (And what about the damage for the private owners of houses etc.?)

In my opinion, this will not change something about the roots of such civil disturbances and social desperation. What would prevent it, is to give the actors a perspective, organise an education so they could find a job, and start social projects to improve their integration in the society. Such things...

As long as this basis of social and financial security of each person is not given, and as long as there are persons who don't experience any tolerance and acceptance within the society, it is only a matter of time until a new riot in a European or whatever city will take place. Like it had already arrived in Paris 2005.