A decade ago, the U.S. mandated the use of vegetable oil in biofuels, leading to industrial-scale deforestation — and a huge spike in carbon emissions.
What is the worst thing about the palm oil story?
Is it the destruction of the remaining habitat of wildlife such as the orangutan or the Sumatran rhinoceros? Is it the genocidal displacement of the forest people for profit? Is it the bog fires which will continue to burn unless the sea rises to quench them?
We would suggest that the worst part of the story is that nobody can reasonably be surprised at this outcome. It is obvious on the face of things that large-scale use of biofuels must displace either wild land or land under cultivation for some other crop, typically food. But environmental policy, sad to say, is frequently made based on feelings ― most often the feelings of people who will not bear the direct impacts ― rather than science and data.
Biofuels have long been a key talking point of the kind of “environmentalist” to whom the use of nuclear energy is, with no further discussion, unacceptable. It is a pity that the utter disaster brought about by placating these people has not discredited them.
