The most destructive crop on earth is no solution to the energy crisis

[Guest guest]

A few articles on palm oil and orangutans:

The most destructive crop on earth is no solution to

the energy crisis

 

By promoting biodiesel as a substitute, we have missed

the fact that it is worse than the fossil-fuel burning

it replaces

 

George Monbiot

Tuesday December 6, 2005

The Guardian

Over the past two years I have made an uncomfortable

discovery. Like most environmentalists, I have been as

blind to the constraints affecting our energy supply

as my opponents have been to climate change. I now

realise that I have entertained a belief in magic.

In 2003, the biologist Jeffrey Dukes calculated that

the fossil fuels we burn in one year were made from

organic matter " containing 44 x 1018 grams of carbon,

which is more than 400 times the net primary

productivity of the planet's current biota " . In plain

English, this means that every year we use four

centuries' worth of plants and animals.

The idea that we can simply replace this fossil legacy

- and the extraordinary power densities it gives us -

with ambient energy is the stuff of science fiction.

There is simply no substitute for cutting back. But

substitutes are being sought everywhere. They are

being promoted today at the climate talks in Montreal,

by states - such as ours - that seek to avoid the hard

decisions climate change demands. And at least one

substitute is worse than the fossil-fuel burning it

replaces.

The last time I drew attention to the hazards of

making diesel fuel from vegetable oils, I received as

much abuse as I have ever been sent for my stance on

the Iraq war. The biodiesel missionaries, I

discovered, are as vociferous in their denial as the

executives of Exxon. I am now prepared to admit that

my previous column was wrong. But they're not going to

like it. I was wrong because I underestimated the

fuel's destructive impact.

Before I go any further, I should make it clear that

turning used chip fat into motor fuel is a good thing.

The people slithering around all day in vats of filth

are performing a service to society. But there is

enough waste cooking oil in the UK to meet a 380th of

our demand for road transport fuel. Beyond that, the

trouble begins.

When I wrote about it last year, I thought that the

biggest problem caused by biodiesel was that it set up

a competition for land use. Arable land that would

otherwise have been used to grow food would instead be

used to grow fuel. But now I find that something even

worse is happening. The biodiesel industry has

accidentally invented the world's most

carbon-intensive fuel.

In promoting biodiesel - as the EU, the British and US

governments and thousands of environmental campaigners

do - you might imagine that you are creating a market

for old chip fat, or rapeseed oil, or oil from algae

grown in desert ponds. In reality you are creating a

market for the most destructive crop on earth.

Last week, the chairman of Malaysia's federal land

development authority announced that he was about to

build a new biodiesel plant. His was the ninth such

decision in four months. Four new refineries are being

built in Peninsula Malaysia, one in Sarawak and two in

Rotterdam. Two foreign consortiums - one German, one

American - are setting up rival plants in Singapore.

All of them will be making biodiesel from the same

source: oil from palm trees.

" The demand for biodiesel, " the Malaysian Star

reports, " will come from the European Community ...

This fresh demand ... would, at the very least, take

up most of Malaysia's crude palm oil inventories. "

Why? Because it is cheaper than biodiesel made from

any other crop.

In September, Friends of the Earth published a report

about the impact of palm oil production. " Between 1985

and 2000, " it found, " the development of oil-palm

plantations was responsible for an estimated 87 per

cent of deforestation in Malaysia " . In Sumatra and

Borneo, some 4 million hectares of forest have been

converted to palm farms. Now a further 6 million

hectares are scheduled for clearance in Malaysia, and

16.5 million in Indonesia.

Almost all the remaining forest is at risk. Even the

famous Tanjung Puting national park in Kalimantan is

being ripped apart by oil planters. The orangutan is

likely to become extinct in the wild. Sumatran rhinos,

tigers, gibbons, tapirs, proboscis monkeys and

thousands of other species could go the same way.

Thousands of indigenous people have been evicted from

their lands, and some 500 Indonesians have been

tortured when they tried to resist. The forest fires

which every so often smother the region in smog are

mostly started by the palm growers. The entire region

is being turned into a gigantic vegetable oil field.

Before oil palms, which are small and scrubby, are

planted, vast forest trees, containing a much greater

store of carbon, must be felled and burnt. Having used

up the drier lands, the plantations are moving into

the swamp forests, which grow on peat. When they've

cut the trees, the planters drain the ground. As the

peat dries it oxidises, releasing even more carbon

dioxide than the trees. In terms of its impact on both

the local and global environments, palm biodiesel is

more destructive than crude oil from Nigeria.

The British government understands this. In a report

published last month, when it announced that it would

obey the EU and ensure that 5.75% of our transport

fuel came from plants by 2010, it admitted " the main

environmental risks are likely to be those concerning

any large expansion in biofuel feedstock production,

and particularly in Brazil (for sugar cane) and

south-east Asia (for palm oil plantations). "

It suggested that the best means of dealing with the

problem was to prevent environmentally destructive

fuels from being imported. The government asked its

consultants whether a ban would infringe world trade

rules. The answer was yes: " Mandatory environmental

criteria ... would greatly increase the risk of

international legal challenge to the policy as a

whole. " So it dropped the idea of banning imports, and

called for " some form of voluntary scheme " instead.

Knowing that the creation of this market will lead to

a massive surge in imports of palm oil, knowing that

there is nothing meaningful it can do to prevent them,

and knowing that they will accelerate rather than

ameliorate climate change, the government has decided

to go ahead anyway.

At other times it happily defies the EU. But what the

EU wants and what the government wants are the same.

" It is essential that we balance the increasing demand

for travel, " the government's report says, " with our

goals for protecting the environment. " Until recently,

we had a policy of reducing the demand for travel.

Now, though no announcement has been made, that policy

has gone. Like the Tories in the early 1990s, the

Labour administration seeks to accommodate demand,

however high it rises. Figures obtained last week by

the campaigning group Road Block show that for the

widening of the M1 alone the government will pay

£3.6bn - more than it is spending on its entire

climate change programme. Instead of attempting to

reduce demand, it is trying to alter supply. It is

prepared to sacrifice the south-east Asian rainforests

in order to be seen to be doing something, and to

allow motorists to feel better about themselves.

All this illustrates the futility of the technofixes

now being pursued in Montreal. Trying to meet a rising

demand for fuel is madness, wherever the fuel might

come from. The hard decisions have been avoided, and

another portion of the biosphere is going up in smoke.

 

www.monbiot.com

Environment: Biodiesel " most destructive crop on

earth "

06 Dec 05 17:04

 

 

 

Crops grown to provide raw material for biodiesel fuel

are potentially hugely destructive, according to

environmentalist George Monbiot, and " no solution to

the energy crisis. "

 

Monbiot writes in The Guardian today: " The biodiesel

industry has accidentally invented the world's most

carbon-intensive fuel. "

 

He is not against the reuse of waste oils such as

cooking oils, but argues that besides requiring vast

areas of land which would otherwise be used for food

production - especially in developing nations - an

industry is being established for large-scale

industrial plantations that have a hugely negative

impact in their local areas.

 

 

Biodiesel producers are looking for crops that grow

quickly and can easily and cheaply be synthesised into

oil. Palm oil has already proved successful. Monbiot

quotes research by Friends of the Earth claiming that

between 1985 and 2000, the establishment of oil-palm

plantations led to 85% of deforestation in Malaysia.

In Sumatra and Borneo, around 4m hectares of forest

has been cleared to make way for palm plantations,

with a further 6m hectares scheduled for clearance in

Malaysia and 16.5m in Indonesia.

 

Four new biodiesel refineries are also being built in

Malaysia, with another in Sarawak: foreign consortia

are also building plants in Singapore, all to

synthesise palm oil to make fuel, mostly for export to

the west.

 

" The entire region is being turned into a gigantic

vegetable oil field " , says Monbiot. " The orangutan is

likely to become extinct in the wild. Sumatran rhinos,

tigers, gibbons, tapirs, proboscis monkeys and

thousands of other species could go the same way.

Thousands of indigenous people have been evicted from

their lands and some 500 Indonesians have been

tortured when they tried to resist. "

 

Monbiot concludes by commenting on the UK government's

policy: " For the widening of the M1 alone, the

government will pay £3.6bn - more than it is spending

on its entire climate change programme. Instead of

trying to reduce demand (for fuel) it is trying to

alter supply. "

http://www.channel4.com/4car/news/news-story.jsp?news_id=13543

 

References:

1. Jeffrey S. Dukes, 2003. Burning Buried Sunshine:

Human Consumption Of

Ancient Solar Energy. Climatic Change 61: 31-44.

2. The British Association for Biofuels and Oils

estimates the volume at 100,000 tonnes a year. BABFO,

no date. Memorandum to the Royal Commission on

Environmental Pollution.

http://www.biodiesel.co.uk/press_release/

royal_commission_on_environmenta.htm

3. http://www.monbiot.com/archives

/2004/11/23/feeding-cars-not-people/

4. Tamimi Omar, 1st December 2005. Felda to set up

largest biodiesel plant. The Edge Daily.

http://www.theedgedaily.com/cms/content.jsp?id=com.tms.

cms.article.Article_e5d7c0d9-cb73c03a-df4bfc00-d453633e

5. See e.g. Zaidi Isham Ismail, 7th November 2005. IOI

to go it alone on first biodiesel plant.

http://www.btimes.com.my/Current_News/BT/

Monday/Frontpage/20051107000223/Article/; No author,

25th November 2005. GHope nine-month profit hits

RM841mil. http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?

file=/2005/11/25/business/12693859 & sec=business; No

author, 26th November 2005. GHope to invest RM40mil

for biodiesel plant in Netherlands.

http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=

/2005/11/26/business/12704187 & sec=business; No author,

23rd November 2005. Malaysia IOI Eyes Green Energy

Expansion in Europe.

http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/33622/story.htm

6. Loh Kim Chin, 26th October 2005. Singapore to host

two biodiesel plants, investments total over S$80m.

Channel NewsAsia.

7. C.S. Tan, 6th October 2005. All Plantation Stocks

Rally. http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=

/2005/10/6/business/12243819 & sec=business

8. Friends of the Earth et al, September 2005. The Oil

for Ape Scandal: how palm oil is threatening

orang-utan survival. Research report.

www.foe.co.uk/resource/reports/oil_for_ape_full.pdf

9. ibid.

10. Department for Transport, November 2005. Renewable

Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO) feasibility report.

http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/dft_roads/

documents/page/dft_roads_610329-01.hcsp#P18_263

11. E4Tech, ECCM and Imperial College, London, June

2005. Feasibility Study on Certification for a

Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation. Final Report.

12. Department for Transport, ibid.

13. ibid.

http://www.countercurrents.org/monbiot081205.htm

 

 

New species already threatened by palm oil:

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/dec2005/2005-12-08-01.asp

 

 

Michelle Desilets

BOS UK

www.savetheorangutan.org.uk

www.savetheorangutan.info

" Primates Helping Primates "

 

Please sign our petition to rescue over 100 smuggled orangutans in Thailand:

http://www.thePetitionSite.com/takeaction/822035733

 

 

 

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