<DrumBeat: January 30, 2007 The Oil Drum Is There A Painless Way To Fill The Oil Supply Gap?>

52 comments on Palm Oil -- The Southeast Asia Report

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Sam Foucher on January 30, 2007 - 2:55pm Permalink | Subthread | Comments top
The scale of the rain forest destruction on Borneo is just staggering!

I've posted a little animated gif on my blog:

A Virtual Plunge in Borneo's Deforestation

In 1997, the fires were so widespread that the smoke was reaching India:


Composit of Visible (R and G) and InfraRed (B) channels of GMS-5, showing 100E - 120E / 10N - 10S area with 1/20 degree resolution per pixel. The smog-covered area extends Borneo, Peninslar Malaysia, Sumatora and wider.



Cumulative map of fire pixels derived from the 13 nighttime AVHRR GAC scenes identified in the data of Figure 9 (July–December 1997). Each white dot represents a GAC pixel determined to have contained at least one active fire at the time of one or more of the satellite overpasses.
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dmathew1 on January 30, 2007 - 3:57pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

The scale of tragedy is trule immense. The Google Earth graphic on your webpage is distressing. You go good work, Khebab.

Isn't it unfortunate that the Universe's only intelligent primate is destroying what is (essentially) the Universe's only living planet?

The irony is that humankind is destroying ecosystems which have functioned successfully for millions of years on behalf of an economic system which cannot endure for another thousand years. Future generations will inherit a polluted, desolate mess. The money will become worthless, the wealth (and all of its trappings) erode away, and humans will find life hellish and short.

That's the price future generations will pay for this generation's reckless destruction of Nature. Nature will recover, eventually, but humankind will not.

David Mathews
http://www.geocities.com/dmathew1

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markincalgary on January 31, 2007 - 7:55pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Only intelligent primate? One might argue that some of the non-human primates are more intelligent than humans. They aren't destroying the Universe's only living planet.

In my university days, I took a few primatology classes, one involved many days spent watching the (non-human) primate species at the local zoo. This experience imparted me with a great deal of respect for these amazing animals. The experience was actually quite humbling. I couldn't help but feel apologetic for the amount of their habitat we've destroyed.

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dmathew1 on January 31, 2007 - 8:16pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Hello Mark,

I agree with you. The other primates are amazing creatures. They put humankind to shame.

I encounter plenty of wild animals every day and am astonished by their fitness compared to humankind. On the hot days, the animals endure the heat without complaint. On the cold days, the animals endure the cold without complaint. The humans cannot endure the climate at all. We hate the heat, we cannot stand the cold, and many humans could not survive without the crutch of climate control.

Humans are unfit and unhappy, stressed and angry, violent and destructive. These are the predominant traits of humankind. I think that the Earth cannot help but become a better place without us. We aren't exactly improving this place.

David Mathews
http://www.geocities.com/dmathew1

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southpaw on January 30, 2007 - 7:10pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Shocking level of deforestation in Borneo.

Right now, S. America lags far behind in palm oil production, but could this change? I don't know whether the growing conditions in the Amazon are suitable for a rapid expansion of palm oil production.

Interesting to note that the area of Borneo is 743,330 sq km and this is roughly equivalent to the area of Amazon deforestation since 1970. The Amazon rainforest area is 5.5 sq km and the rainforest biome is apparently a subset of this area (excludes savannah and natural fields) at 4.1 sq km. Using the latter figure, the deforestation level is approaching 20%.

Following the Brazilian government's new initiative to open up the heart of the Amazon to logging, I wonder if anyone has a good handle on what level of further deforestation we should be expecting for the Amazon. I realize that, besides logging, soybean and cattle farming are also contributing factors. The prospect of drought and forest fires is also worrisome.

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52 comments on Palm Oil -- The Southeast Asia Report

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