Biofuel demand leading to human rights abuses, report claims

[phantom power]

EU politicians should reject targets for expanding the use of biofuels because the demand for palm oil is leading to human rights abuses in Indonesia, a coalition of international environmental groups claimed today.

A new report, published by Friends of the Earth and indigenous rights groups LifeMosaic and Sawit Watch, said that increasing demands for palm oil for food and biofuels was causing millions of hectares of forests to be cleared for plantations and destroying the livelihoods of indigenous peoples.

The report, Losing Ground, said many of the 60-90 million people in Indonesia who depend on the forests are losing their land to the palm oil companies.

Pollution from pesticides, fertilisers and the pressing process is also leaving some villages without clean water.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/feb/11/biofuels.energy?gusrc=rss&feed=environment

[The2ndWheel]

1. Harnessing more energy for ourselves won't come cheap

Ourselves, the West, the developed nations, the developing nations, the global village, whatever you wish to call it. It doesn't matter what form of energy it is. Wind and solar will have negative consequences to the use of them. Why? Because we will increase our activity with it. We will build with it. We will expand because of it. We don't even understand what we're doing to the oceans, but we want to harness the energy of that habitat too.

Increased energy availablity means more activity which means greater impact. The better we get at extracting everything we can from the physical world, the more we will extract from the physical world. We get a habitat or we keep doing what we're doing. Both don't come on the same plate.

[speedbird]

2. you can't stop another country from doing ...

you can't stop another country from doing
what it wants with its own property.

biofuel is now economically competitive

[phantom power]

3. No doubt, you would feel equally philosophical about losing your home

to Exxon, or Monsanto, or whichever megacorp ends up growing fuel here in the US. Hey, it's not your property, or drinking water, right? It belongs to the USA and Exxon.

[Tashca]

4. economically competitive??

Tell that to the investors in ethanol plants here in the midwest....currently all are running at a lose. Not one is making a profit in the current market.

Displacing your citizens because of the greed of palm oil companies??....No you can't stop a country from doing this, but you certainly don't need to be buying their products to encourage this kind of idiocy.

[GliderGuider]

5. Boy, you can't keep a good troll down for long, can ya?

Welcome to your new moniker, razzleberry/patch1234. I wonder how long this one will last?

[poopfuel]

6. just to add a little balance to this debate

Here's biopact

http://biopact.com/2008/02/anthropologists-caution-against.html

[phantom power]

7. Seems like a straw man argument to me.

I'm all for avoiding "essentialism," but what does the "happy native" fallacy have to do with this situation? "Indigenous farmers" is not a synonym for "noble savage."

Furthermore, are any of these indigenous farmers being lifted out of poverty by expansion of palm oil plantations?