Green The Film – Deforestation, Species Loss and Climate Change – Video of the Week

Palm Oil production = deforestation, endangered species, greenhouse gas emissions, and climate change. Watch and listen to this 1-minute trailer by Patrick Rouxel and GreenPlanetFilms.org as they follow the final days of Green, a female orangutan, one of the many victims of deforestation, as the world’s rainforests are disappearing in the quest to bring products to market. The consequences are devastating but the connections, too often are not made. The 48-minute film is available as a free download; download it and watch it with the kids in your life.

We think too little about the long-term consequences on our natural world as we seek to exploit it and we strive to bring different products to market. Palm oil production is resulting in the destruction of the world’s rainforests, resources that we are squandering and can’t get back, carbon sinks, and contributors to our planets natural ability to absorb and deal with carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions. Not only are we taking this ability away, many of the rainforests in places like Indonesia and Malaysia sit on top of peat moss bogs, which once exposed, become major emitters of greenhouse gases. Similar to what is happening in the thawing permafrost regions in the northern most part of our planet, as these peat bogs become exposed, the carbon stored in them is released and the amount of greenhouse gases being released in the atmosphere increases exponentially.

FYI, Burger King recently joined multinationals Nestle, Kraft Foods and Univlever all of which have made commitments to look more closely at their suppliers of palm oil, promising to breaking ties with the worst offenders. Steps in the right direction, the question being too little too late?