Bonjour Smog Blog: May 2014

By Sabrina Kennelly

The race for finding new resources in order to create biofuels has been an ongoing battle due to the depletion of oil and the increase of greenhouse gasses. The US Energy Information notes that the total petroleum consumed by the world was estimated from 2010-2013 to be around 89406.6 thousands of barrels per day with the UK having 1402.7 thousand per day and the US 18490.2. Due to this high consumption of oil by the Western World, C02 emissions have risen as well. The US Energy Information notes that in 2011 C02 worldwide 11,407.68 Million Metric Tons were estimated to have been emitted (World growth, 2011, p. 17). North America was cited to have contributed 2,855.721 Million Metric tons while Europe was noted to have contributed 2,002.883 Million Metric Tons due to the consumption of Petroleum (US Energy Information, 2006, oil production and consumption section). These ecological and environmental damages due to the mass consumption of oil from the Western World that have led towards the want to find renewable energy.

Palm oil, made from the red fruit known as “palm fruit”, has become a thriving business. Produced in Southeast Asia, with Indonesia as the top exporter in the world, the production of palm has become a booming industry within the past 20 years due to this want and desire from the Western World for products such as margarine, frying oil, soap, lipstick, cookies as well as biofuel. Block notes that in 2009 the crop of palm oil was in demand for 2.2 million per year, with the UK and the US as their primary consumers (Block, 2009, p.1).

The production of palm oil didn’t start off as a collaborative merger. The Showtime documentary, Years of living dangerously, explained how politics established this relationship. During the 1960s-90s dictatorship took Indonesia’s “state forest zone” land and parceled them out to big companies (from the Western World) such as Cargill and Wilmar International. These companies then leveled the forest for the mass production of palm oil (Weird, 2014, episode 1). According to NASA, deforestation is the third largest cause for the increase of greenhouse gases. NASA explains further in the documentary that greenhouse gases produce twenty percent of all emissions. Indonesia was shown in the documentary to have the highest amount of greenhouse gases due deforestation, producing black carbon that can be seen from outer space (Weird, 2014, episode 1).

Once Indonesia became an independent state, the current minister of forestry of Indonesia recognized the environmental and ecological damage being made by the production of this crop and vowed to make a change. A law was put in place making the production of paper and palm oil illegal. Instead, of diminishing or stopping the production of palm oil, its production has actually increased. The documentary cites that the minister’s authority is limited and that the economy would shift completely if the production was halted (Weird, 2014, episode 1). The wants and needs for the production of palm oil from the Western World has not only pressured the Indonesian government and economy, but has also increased its production. “Oil palm is such a lucrative crop that there is almost no way to stop it” Scientist William Laurence notes that he expects the crop to double its production by 2030 (Gilbert, 2012, p. 14). World growth states that in May of 2010 the Indonesian government signed a deal with the Norwegian Government to impose a two year moratorium aimed at reducing greenhouse gases, which in return Norway would invest in $1 billion in forest conservation projects in Indonesia (World growth, 2011, p. 19). The land available for these efforts of conservation is unfortunately limited due to this high production of palm oil.

According to Webster’s Dictionary the term “biofuel” is defined as “a fuel derived directly from living matter.” Currently, the UK and US are debating about what this term means and how eco-friendly a product, such as biofuel, has to be in order to be considered truly “green”. The US’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the European Union (EU) have on ruling and marketing that palm oil is listed as a renewable fuel. The EU “continues to encourage the use of fuels based on palm oil” and is expected to blend biofuel such as pam oil with conventional oil in order to reach their target to raise the shore of biofuels used in road transport to 10% by 2020. The US on the other had has suggested that oil should not be classified as a renewable fuel, but has not set a date to issue its final ruling (Gilbert, 2012, p. 2). World growth’s article as well as Gilbert’s note that the branding of palm oil in the US and its products are generally labeled under “vegetable oil” instead of the fruit itself. The creation of biofuel is supposed to be a step closer to being environmentally friendly due to decrease on the dependency of crude oil. With decrease of one natural resource for mass consumption (crude oil), the increase of the dependence of another natural resource has to increase. With knowledge about the production of palm oil and its ecological and environmental damage, is its production as biofuel actually a step forwards or backwards?

Natasha Gilbert explains further in her article the implications of palm oil due to the increase of deforestation in order to plant large amounts of the fruit. She cites that in principle, biodiesel could be environmental friendly but because of its production process she deems it to be “less than environmentally friendly”. Large amounts of the forest are being cut down which often contain carbon-rich peat lands are releasing extra stores of CO2 due to deforestation. The production of palm oil is also cited to have been an attributing factor for 27% of the world’s deforestation during the year 2007-08 (Gilbert, 2012, p. 2). K.M Carlson notes in his article that the rise of deforestation, due to palm oil, is predicted to rise in 2020 from 27% to 40%. This has resulted in violent clashes with local village leaders and government arranged communities such as NGO’s due to the division of land and destruction of indigenous communities (Carlson, year). In addition to these clashes, breathing air has become intolerable in the northern parts of Indonesia, where debris can be seen floating in the air due to deforestation. “Pneumonia, asthma, eye and skin irritation have increased with air quality reaching dangerous levels in the northern regions of the country” states Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, a spokesperson at Indonesia’s National Disaster Management Agency (RTTC, 2014, paragraph 21).

Humans aren’t the only ones that are suffering due to deforestation. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and their animal protection services is an example of how efforts of conservation have been stopped by the Indonesian government due to the want and need of mass production of palm oil. Land deemed as “National parks”, which by law are protected by the government, have conflicts between wildlife and palm oil companies. The documentary Years of Living Dangerously and WWF cite that many elephant herds have been poisoned due to land invasion and that orangutans are on the brink of extinction because of deforestation (Weird, 2014, episode 1).

What could be seen as potentially environmentally friendly, rearing away towards the mass consumption of crude oil, could be (potentially) more environmentally damaging than the dependency, production and use of oil alone. It needs to be taken into account that this is a complicated issue when it comes to even suggesting to end or diminish the production of a crop that a country relies so heavily on their economy with. Goenadi estimates that employment in Indonesia due to the production of palm oil is estimated to have reached over 6 million lives, taking them out of poverty. In addition with the production of palm oil has helped workers secure incomes and allow for the access of healthcare and education (World growth, 2011, p. 19)

This year, after a 12 year delay, the Indonesian Parliament agreed to ratify a cross-boundary treaty between South East Asian nations to combat the haze due to slash-burn techniques in order to produce large amount of palm fruits (RTTC, 2014, paragraph 15). It is this step, even though it may be small, towards the future with less pollution that Gilbert mentions at the end of her article. “Consumer pressure could encourage companies to change their practices” (Gilbert, 2012, p. 2). Informing these customers, especially that from the Western World, on the complexity of palm oil needs to take place before change can occur. “What most Americans don’t know is that these (American) products (such as Starbucks and Domino’s) contain palm oil” says Calen May-Tobin, lead analyst for UCS’s Tropical Forest and Climate Initiative (RTTC, 2014, paragraph 21). By informing consumers of palm-oil based products, definitions of what a “green consumer” and “biofuel” can be determined, allowing for the process of palm-oil to be extensively looked at.

Works Cited

Block, Ben. (2009). Life-cycle studies. World Watch, 22 (4). 1.

Exploitative Labor Practices in the Global Palm Oil Industry. (2013). Retrieved from www.humanityunited.org.

Gilbert, N. (2012). Palm-oil Boom Raises Conservation Concerns: Industry Urged towards sustainable Farming Practices as Rising Demand Drives Deforestation. 14-15. Retrieved from http://www.nature.com/nature/index.html

Center for Science in the Public Interest. (n.d.). Palm oil report. Retrieved from http://www.cspinet.org/palm/

Responding to Climate Change. (2014). Palm oil producers blamed as smog chokes Indonesia. Retrieved from http://www.rtcc.org/2014/03/06/palm-oil-producers-blamed-as-smog-chokes-indonesia/

U.S. Energy Information Administration. (2014). Independent statistics & analysis: 2012. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Energy. Retrieved from http://www.eia.gov/countries/index.cfm?view=production

Weird, P. (Director). (2014, April 6). Premier [Television series episode]. In B. Cameron, J., Schwarzenegger, A., & Weintraub, J (Producers), Years of living dangerously. Showtime.

World Growth. (2011). The economic benefit of palm oil to Indonesia. Palm oil green development campaign. 1-27.

* Gasoline and diesel are actually ancient biofuels. But they are known as fossil fuels because they are made from decomposed plants and animals that have been buried in the ground for millions of years. Biofuels are similar, except that they're made from plants grown today.

* Much of the gasoline in the United States is blended with a biofuel—ethanol. This is the same stuff as in alcoholic drinks, except that it's made from corn that has been heavily processed. There are various ways of making biofuels, but they generally use chemical reactions, fermentation, and heat to break down the starches, sugars, and other molecules in plants. The leftover products are then refined to produce a fuel that cars can use.

* On the face of it, biofuels look like a great solution. Cars are a major source of atmospheric carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas that causes global warming. But since plants absorb carbon dioxide as they grow, crops grown for biofuels should suck up about as much carbon dioxide as comes out of the tailpipes of cars that burn these fuels. And unlike underground oil reserves, biofuels are a renewable resource since we can always grow more crops to turn into fuel.

*For the future, many think a better way of making biofuels will be from grasses and saplings, which contain more cellulose.

You can find the rest of the article here: http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/biofuel-profile/

Other articles on biofuel:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/biofuels-mandate-survives-oil-industry-challenge-in-court/
http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-05-08/biofuels-are-a-bad-idea
http://rt.com/usa/biofuel-corn-gasoline-carbon-804/