Put On Your Dancing Shoes! Bike Riding, Groovin Orangutan!

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE VIDEO

In 2008 the Guinness Book of World Records listed Indonesia as the country with the fastest rate of forest destruction on the planet. Indonesia is destroying an area of forest equivalent to 300 soccer fields every hour. Indonesia has already lost 72 percent of its large intact ancient forests and half of what remains is threatened. - Greenpeace

The genocide of orangutans - for an unnecessary ingredient in cookies, cakes, candy, soaps, mayo, creamers...

Watch the video. Think.

Humans - do you want to be remembered for the extinction of these amazing creatures, or for their survival?

INT'L DELIGHT COFFEE CREAMER

Thank you, Jessica Walsh, for letting teamORANGUTAN know about the use of palm oil in these products.

**MOST COFFEE CREAMERS CONTAIN PALM OIL - EVEN IF THEY ARE LABELED ORGANIC** I used to be hooked on coffee creamers myself, but have found that using sugar and half and half is not only a HEALTHIER alternative - it's cheaper, and better for the environment.
Please consider using sugar and milk in your coffee instead of these artificial creamers.I know it's hard - coffee drinkers take their coffee seriously - but at what cost? You'll feel so good about yourself knowing that you are doing something better for the environment AND your body by not drinking artificial creamers that contain palm oil.

The International Delight website says, "The worldwide food industry leaves an enormous environmental footprint. That's why International Delight believes it is our responsibility, and a critical business priority, to find ways to become more sustainable."

LET'S EDUCATE INTERNATIONAL DELIGHT ON HOW TO BE MORE SUSTAINABLE. 

Contact them here: http://www.internationaldelight.com/Contact-Us

Let International Delight know about the dangers of palm oil (kill orangutans - 10 years until extinction). Ask them to please stop using palm oil in their products. Ask them to stand behind their ethical statements, and to show us action.

And please, don't buy coffee creamers that contain palm oil.

Let your friends know - pass it on.
  

Warning: IKEA CANDLES - Palm Oil

Great job, Anir! Thanks for making an effort to educate others about this!

http://www.ikeafans.com/forums/chats/38665-boycott-use-palm-oil.html

Please, take 30 seconds out of your day and send IKEA a message: http://info.ikea-usa.com/Contact/

Let IKEA know that their decision to use palm oil in their candles will kill the orangutan species. You don't need to use palm oil in candles - it's unnecessary and detrimental.

Every effort counts.

Thanks, Anir!

Unilever stops using palm oil!

SUCCESS!

Unilever, who is a part of the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil, has decided to stop including palm oil in their products. The plantation they bought palm oil from was actually destroying the rainforest and killing Orangutans. The plantation was a part of the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil.

Unilever's decision put a permanent end on a 33 million dollar supply contract.

UNILEVER WAS THE #1 PURCHASER OF PALM OIL! 

Products made by Unilever are safe to buy and safe to support. Some common ones are shown in this picture.

This means that orangutans were most likely killed to make those Girl Scout cookies.

Don't taste so good now, do they?

Two thumbs up for Unilever. Thanks for standing up for what's right.

If Unilever can do it, what's stopping the Girl Scouts?

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61N1LE20100224

Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil is the same association that the Girl Scouts are proud to be a part of. However, this association is just a name, and does not actually regulate how or where the palm oil is made. Don't let them fool you.  

TED.com

Ted is an amazing site - you can find blogs and videos on any subject, all delivered by prudent leaders of change.

Here is an excerpt from a blog, which elaborates on a speech given by Willie Smit. TED interviewed expert Richard Zimmerman, the director of Orangutan Outreach (redapes.org), to find out more about what's really going on in Indonesia .

"Orangutans are sentient beings who share approximately 97.8% of our DNA and express a range of emotions that is just as wide as our own. The forests of Borneo and Sumatra are the only two places on Earth where these gentle, intelligent creatures live. The cultivation of palm oil over the last decade has directly led to the slaughter of thousands of individuals as the industry has expanded into previously undisturbed areas of old-growth rainforest. The UNEP estimates that an area of Indonesian rainforest the size of six football fields is cut down every minute of every day. Read that sentence again.

The palm oil and timber industries are guilty of truly horrific ecological atrocities, one of which is the systematic genocide of orangutans. When the forest is cleared, adult orangutans are generally shot on sight. In the absence of bullets they are beaten, burned, tortured, mutilated and often eaten as bushmeat. Babies are literally torn off their dying mothers so that they can be sold on the black market as illegal pets to wealthy families, who see them as status symbols of their own power and prestige. This is not hyperbole, mind you. It has been documented time and time again.

Some of the luckier baby orangutans are confiscated and brought to sanctuaries such as Samboja Lestari, as Willie mentioned, or the Nyaru Menteng Orangutan Rescue Center, which is now home to nearly 700 orphaned and displaced orangutans in Central Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo). Many of these orangutans are only weeks old when they arrive, and all of them are psychologically traumatized and desperate for their mothers -- who are no longer alive. And remember, these are the fortunate ones. For every one we rescue, at least six others are estimated to have been killed, along with their mothers."

Be a part of the change. It's up to you. It's up to us.  Please stop buying and supporting products that use palm oil. Your purchase power is huge.

You can read the article here: http://blog.ted.com/2009/03/orangutans_and.php

  

Google Earth & Orangutans

Google Earth Helps Orangutans
^Click^

If You Don't Need Palm Oil - Why Kill Orangutans For It?

From the Girl Scout website: "Each baker produces Girl Scout Cookie varieties without palm oil."

So why do the Girl Scouts even use it in the first place?

Letter from Amanda Kalina and my response

MY RESPONSE IS BELOW

Sarah,

Girl Scouts of Colorado received your letter. I know you have contacted many councils across the country, including our national office in New York. Below is information we have on this issue with our bakery, Little Brownie Bakers. I can only speak on behalf of Girl Scouts of Colorado and our relationship with Little Brownie Bakers. Thank you.

Statement about Palm Oil in Girl Scout Cookies

As a socially responsible company, the manufacturer of Girl Scout Cookies in Colorado, Little Brownie Bakers, takes its commitment to the environment very seriously. Little Brownie Bakers conducts its business in ways that respect the environment and demonstrate good stewardship of our world's natural resources. Their comprehensive approach to palm oil use reflects this commitment. Specifically, Little Brownie Bakers uses the minimal amount of palm oil possible to ensure that products meet consumers’ nutrition and taste expectations. In addition to maintaining the quality of their products, the oil blends they use allow them to reduce or eliminate trans fats while minimizing saturated fat content. Little Brownie Bakers:
· Only purchases palm oil from growers committed to growing sustainable palm oil as demonstrated by their membership in the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), a group working worldwide to promote the growth and use of sustainable palm oil
· Is a member of RSPO
· Offsets its palm oil use through the purchase of GreenPalm Certificates, similar to the carbon offset concept


Amanda Kalina
Director, Public Relations
Girl Scouts of Colorado

Dear Amanda Kalina,

Thank you for sending me a message about Little Brownie Bakers. I am so glad you have sent me information regarding their stance with palm oil. I hope I can help both you and Little Brownie Bakers to make a healthier, patriotic, and environmentally friendly choice.

 "What I saw was horrendous. Coming back from Borneo made me doubt if there was any hope for mankind". This is how Iolo Williams, a wildlife expert describes his experience in Borneo. I hope that my letter stresses the importance of this issue, and how the companies you have trusted are doing nothing to help the situation.

 Valerie Phillips of Greenpeace says that, “the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil gives the companies [with membership] a green front and encourages more consumption, which is precisely the cause of the problem.” Let’s explore deeper into this.

You are holding up on your end as a member of the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil. On their site they state that members are expected to “actively and constructively communicate and support the continuation of the Roundtable process and the implementation of Roundtable projects.” Unfortunately this company is using you to spread messages that are false. For annual membership fees exceeding $2,000, you should demand the truth.

 Sustainable palm oil plantations should comply with global environmental standards. They should contribute to a good practice. The RSPO doesn’t evaluate these plantations, and there are no official laws concerning sustainable palm oil practices. The RSPO has a list of ‘Principles and Criteria’ that companies are to follow. Environmentalists main concern about these P&C’s is that there is no legal framework to enforce them, and companies are allowed to meet the criteria at their own pace. In other words, most criteria to be certified as “sustainable” is never met.

 As if that isn’t concerning enough, those that claim to have sustainable palm oil don’t even keep it separate from other palm oils! Orangutan-sos.org informs us that “the ‘green’ palm oil is not generally kept separate. It usually goes in the same tanker.”

 Eddie Tango, a representative of the Centre of Environmental Law and Community Rights describes the P&C as, “a voluntary initiative so the company cannot even be held accountable for failing to meet standards.”

 Torry Kuswordono, of Friends of the Earth Indonesia goes to say that, “all of the companies have gotten complaints” and that they are, “not following the principles and criteria of RSPO but still have the certificate.”

Another sad aspect of deforestation for palm oil is the deception communities face. Wilmar International has been a member of the RSPO and has faced numerous complaints since 2004, in both court and the media. Investigations by the IFC, a member of World Bank, into these complaints uncovered very serious social and economic impacts:
1.Illegal use of fire to clear lands
2. Clearance of primary forests
3. Clearance of areas of high conservation value
4. Take over of indigenous peoples customary lands without permission
5. Failure to provide free informed consultations with the indigenous people, therefore gaining community support.
6. Failure to abide by negotiated agreements
7. Failure to establish agreed areas of smallholdings
8. Social conflicts triggering repressive actions by companies and security forces
9. Failure to carry out and wait for approval of legally required environmental assessments

10. Illegal clearance of tropical peat and forests

 Regardless, according to Forbes, “Wilmar International enjoyed a 24 percent increase in net profits in the first nine months of this year, allowing the company's director and joint chief operating officer, Martua Sitorus, to become Indonesia's second-richest man, with an estimated net worth of $3 billion.” Martua is rewarded for helping kill off the orangutan species.

 We are murdering orangutans, and there are companies trying to deceive us. And of course they are, there is a lot of money to be had in palm oil. The net profit of Indonesia’s 40 richest men has doubled in the past year to 42 billion. And much of this growth is due to palm oil expansion.

 Now that you know some facts, I hope that you reconsider your support of Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil.

 Unfortunately GreenPalm isn’t any better. For around $10 anyone can buy a “certificate”. The only reason to purchase a certificate is for a company to cosmetically improve their image. We already know that the palm oil that claims to be sustainable is not, so holding a “certificate” you can post on your website or foods doesn’t do much good. Also, the money goes straight towards the plantations. The plantation owners (all, not just those that claim to be sustainable) have profited over a million dollars because of GreenPalm.

 Why have all the plantations profited? GreenPalm boss Bob Norman says this arrangement provides an incentive for farmers to grow sustainable palm oil without all the cost of running a separate supply system. Without any regulation, though, we can be pretty sure the money is pocketed.

 Also, poor migrant workers on palm oil plantations are beating orangutans to death when they trespass. Orangutans share 96.7% of our genetic makeup, and we are killing them for cookies. These plantation workers are paid by loggers, who encourage them to beat orangutans to death, according to The Independent, a UK newspaper.

The Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation has reported orangutans being buried to death, as well as a logger dousing an orangutan in petrol and burning it down with the forest.

Iolo Williams, a wildlife expert witnessed baby orangutans clinging to their mothers and getting their hands chopped off near the Borneo rainforest. "What I saw was horrendous. Coming back from Borneo made me doubt if there was any hope for mankind".

Stories like this bring tears to my eyes. I believe in mankind. I believe in our world. I believe and support organizations like the Girl Scouts. We are human and we have to come together. We have to stand for something, or we will fall for anything. We have to demand that palm oil is removed from all products.

WE MUST BOYCOTT PALM OIL! It's the only way.

Well, if we don’t use palm oil, what will we use? There is a myth that palm oil is a healthier alternative since it doesn’t have trans-fat. This is not true.

Palm oil is not a healthy alternative because it has a large amount of saturated fat. There are many other oils that are both trans-fat free and low in saturated available.

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute warned that the high content of saturated fat found in palm kernel oil and palm oil puts people at risk for heart attack or stroke.

The National Institute of Health did a study on the effects of palm oil. The results suggest that palm oil would not be a healthy substitute for trans fats by the food industry.

So what should you use instead of palm oil? Canola oil is trans fat-free. Canola oil is known as the healthiest of all cooking oils. It is low in saturated fat, high in mono-unsaturated fat (lowers cholesterol) and is the best source of omega-3’s. The Mayo Clinic supports the health benefits of using canola oil.

Where is canola grown? The United States and Canada. Not only is it a cash crop for our country, with major customers being Japan, China, Europe, Mexico, and Pakistan, but it helps our environment since it is grown here. Palm oil has to be shipped from Indonesia, whereas canola oil just has to be shipped domestically. We are saving our environment by many emissions by buying locally. We also help our economy when we buy products grown here.

 Canola oil is a healthier alternative to palm oil. It’s better for the environment. It helps our economy. Most importantly, canola oil doesn’t kill orangutans.

We can save them. Help me, and help our world. Switch to canola oil. Your cookies do not need to include palm oil. Please spread awareness about this. We are in this together.

Sarah Ware