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Palm Oil and Chicken Little Greenpeace |
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Written by Frank Tate
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 The Sky Is Falling, also known as Chicken Little, Chicken Licken or Henny Penny, is an old fable about a chicken (or a hare in early versions) who believes the sky is falling. The phrase, "The sky is falling," has passed into the English language as a common idiom indicating a hysterical or mistaken belief that disaster is imminent.
Sad, but Greenpeace International, that Environmental NGO with a penchant for the dramatic, has succumbed to this common malady – and, perhaps, the lure of the mighty Greenback to join this crusade against palm oil. In a recent “Report” entitled “Cooking the Cimate”, Greenpeace was at their alarmist best!
With reckless abandon, they allege that palm oil in Indonesia“only cover 0.1 per cent of the land on Earth, but thanks in part to the activities of the palm oil industry they contribute 4 per cent to global emissions!” (i)
Let’s examine the facts. In recent official data published on CO2 emissions by the International Carbon Action Partnership (the ICAP), the entire continent of Asia (where Indonesia is located) only contributes emissions per capita of 1.3%, the second lowest in the entire world! Compared to the countries of Canada (17.0), Australia (18.4) and the United States with a staggering 19.6 emission per capita, we have to question how Greenpeace could arrive at the 4 per cent global emission figure and make such wild and irresponsible allegations. (ii)
Quoting their own website, Greenpeace’s Report then went on to scrape the bottom of the barrel by alleging that 20% of global emissions are caused by deforestation and that these emissions were “more emissions than from the world’s entire transport sector!” (iii) Such alarmist assertions would have been funny if they were not so blatantly untrue!
What do jet planes blow out of their afterburners? Oxygen? Just think of the thousands of airports around the world and the number of jets taking off and landing every few minutes. In their intercontinental flights what do these jets emit and leave behind in the atmosphere? What about the millions and millions of motor vehicles belching out smoke on a regular basis all over the world? At least, palm oil plantations can legitimately claim to take in CO2 and produce and sequester enough oxygen for the world during photosynthesis - which rightfully, should have made CO2 emissions by palm oil plantations, a non-issue!
Yet these supposedly conscientious environmental NGO’s have elected to attack palm oil. So great has their hubris become that they actually insinuate that we're five miles per gallon away from Armageddon. The global warming faithful couldn't be surer that we're bringing about our own demise.
We can take comfort in the fact that just as we don't have unlimited power to heal the world, we don't have unlimited power to destroy it, either. And yet, there are other causes to which we might commit our resources as individuals, associations and a nation and actually accomplish something concrete.
The costs of reducing carbon dioxide emissions dramatically would be substantial — probably in the hundreds of billions over time — and the climatic results not at all clear. As Bjorn Lomborg wrote in the Wall Street Journal last year, the United Nations estimates that for $75 billion, "we could solve all the world's major basic problems. We could give everyone clean drinking water, sanitation, basic health care and education right now. Is that not better?"
One can have his doubts about the true costs of providing all of the above to all the world — or the wisdom of using unaccountable bureaucracies to do so — but it's hard to conclude that we should go to great lengths to cut a single kind of emission to hedge against possible future problems when we have real problems right now. People are dying in genocides. People are dying in terrorist attacks. People are dying because they can't get clean drinking water, and because counterproductive international aid policies prevent them from spraying the walls of their houses with DDT to prevent malaria.
There must be a thousand problems more pressing than global warming. It's hard to get jazzed about the greenhouse effect when you don't have a roof over your head. Do we have any idea how many people can't take that for granted? When you stop to think about it, the entire preoccupation seems ridiculous. But you aren't really supposed to think about it, are you? So we have to wonder how Greenpeace can be a party to this kind of opportunistic and unconscionable posturing.
References:
i) “Palm Oil: Cooking the Climate”, Greenpeace International, http://www.greenpeace.org/international/news/palm-oil_cooking-the-climate
ii) The ground-breaking international and interregional agreement was signed 31st October 2007, by U.S. and Canadian members of the Western Climate Initiative, northeastern U.S. members of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, as well as European members including the United Kingdom, Germany, Portugal, France, the Netherlands, and the European Commission. New Zealand and Norway joined on behalf of their emissions trading programs, www.icapcarbonaction.com/
iii) “Forests and Climate up in Smoke”, Greenpeace International, http://www.greenpeace.org/international/campaigns/forests/asia-pacific/working-in-paradise/forests-and-climate-up-in-smoke
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Another great article. Greenpeace have always been a little alarmist, this writing suggests a reason why. Posted by I. Sante, on January 7, 2008 at 8:18
What is now the stand of Greenpeace? Why they are against the Palm Oil Industry which helps to solve the denuded mountains by reforestation? There are more advantages than disadvantages in Palm Oil Plantation..Why Greenpeace is majoring on minor things?..It seems Greenpeace is out of focus. Posted by Victor, on January 4, 2008 at 10:53
You may be right, Fleishman, in calling these environmental organisations green loonies. However, I see something far more sinister than that. Orgainsations like greenpeace live for the funding that they solicit from other organisations. So, they´d ATTACK ANYTHING so long as they´re promised funds. That explains why they´ve joined the environmental bandwagon in attcking palm oil. They use these funds to fund their lavish lifestyles. That´s the real motive for their hatchet work on palm oil. It would be interesting to examine their accounts for the source of their funding..... Posted by Dave Scott, on December 22, 2007 at 10:43
Chicken little Greenpeace with chicken little issues. Wake up to the real world you green loonies! Posted by L. Fleishman, on December 11, 2007 at 9:06
I'm telling everyone I come across about the hot air coming out of Greenpeace. I agree that with all this money that could have been used to solve the world's basic problems such as better sanitation, drinking water, health-care and education to end being diverted towards global warming is criminal! Greenpeace are the sorry crooks. Posted by Jeff Hillard, on December 11, 2007 at 8:59
Doomsayers have been around since time immemorial. The only difference is that, nowadays they come around disguised as 'environmental organizations' with pompous sounding names like 'Greenpeace' and 'Friends of the Earth'. Posted by J. D\'Astou, on November 27, 2007 at 4:01
Greenpeace too? I can't believe it! Is the money too good to resist, Greenpeace? Posted by Mandy Hargitay, on November 20, 2007 at 4:13
I've always thought that Greenpeace was one of the more honorable enviro-NGO's. Now, I have my doubts. Posted by Amy Adams, on November 20, 2007 at 3:47
Hubris is the word! And Alarmist and Opportunistic! Greenpeace, what's gone wrong with you? How can you sink so low? Posted by Randy Pearl, on November 20, 2007 at 3:45
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Palm Oil and Chicken Little Greenpeace 
