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. . . or why shopping is so difficult if you really care about rainforests and orangutans.
As soon as I learned from Rick LoBello at the El Paso Zoo about the destruction caused by palm oil "farming", I began reading labels a bit more carefully whenever I go shopping. I stopped buying products that have palm oil in them. What I have become more aware of is the extent to which palm oil derivatives make their way into hundreds of thousands of products on store shelves.
Just click on and enlarge the chart above. Want a more complete list, go HERE and scroll down.
Palm oil has many applications:
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It's like cigarette smoking. We all know that smoking causes lung cancer and other diseases. Rainforests are the lungs of the earth. Destroy our lungs and it will eventually destroy us even here in the Chihuahuan Desert. Deforestation also destroys the homes of indigenous people (thus putting more stress on urban and national economies) and native species. We depend on rain forests for food and pharmaceuticals.
Our immediate concerns are all good ones: relationships, paying bills, our jobs, etc. What is hard to grasp and appreciate is the interconnectedness of our biosphere. All that lives here and now share evolutionary stories. It's just not human species or the day to day concerns that each one of us has. It's a planet full of shared and dependent existence.
What to do? Keep reading those labels. AND start thinking about making your own products with a few simple ingredients while eschewing those store bought products with long lists of arcane chemicals. Google "diy natural homemade blank". Fill in the blank: shampoo, deodorant, toothpaste, furniture polish, whatever. Check out web sites such as Wellness Mama. Let the makers of products using palm oil and palm oil derivatives know that you will no longer buy their products.
You want the planet to breathe and be healthy and you want the same for yourself and your family.
