Biodiesel And Orangutans

Biodiesel is becoming more and more popular nowadays. This brings us an opportunity to save what is left of our deteriorating environment. It is a fact that a vast majority of the required equipment, machineries and vehicles we need to produce our daily needs requires diesel. This fuel is known to produce emissions which can be harmful not only to the air we breathe but to us as well.

The production of biodiesel requires the use of palm oil. And though palm trees are very common around the planet, a great amount of these trees are needed to be able to produce enough palm oil for human consumption. With the increasing demand for biodiesel, palm oil production has increased and is projected to grow more in the next few years.

To be able to accommodate the production requirement of palm oil, the solution for the global need for production is to create larger plantations for palm trees. But at what cost? Did you know that biodiesel and orangutans are actually related?

Orangutans are known to live freely in the forests - especially around Asian jungles. As Indonesia and Malaysia are the largest known producers of palm oil, the creation of palm tree plantations have come at a great cost. The Indonesian government has declared that they would like to become the largest source of palm oil. This would mean that they would need to clear-out lands to be able to make way for the plantation.

It is rather sad to know that for the human race to have the product they demand, we put the next smartest species to the brink of extinction. Orangutans are known quite literally as the “forest people” in the Indonesian language. Their natural habitats are destroyed in the process of creating a new plantation thus driving them away to places where they are not safe.

Along with the destruction of the orangutans' natural habitat and the new palm plantations springing up, these magnificent creatures live in much peril. It has been said, that in every 200 or so orangutans rescued, 5 are killed. Some of these wander off to palm plantations and farmers try to protect their crops at the expense of these animal's lives. As the only way to catch one is if it is unconscious, some people hack its head until some of them die from cracked skulls.

At some point, the humans' effort of protecting and improving the environment costs the lives of other creatures. Destroying their natural homes just to be able to give way to bigger opportunities of production, profit and better economy without a plan for the orangutans' relocation has become a reality.