How much responsibility do corporations have for the climate crisis and for stepping up with solutions?
Here at the ISCFC we are committed to promoting personal, community, national and planetary solutions to reduce our environmental impacts and boldly confront the climate crisis. But as individuals, we can feel powerless when there are huge corporations -such as the fossil fuel industry and factory farms– that are disproportionately responsible for carbon emissions of the past and the present.
What should we do about this? Do you agree that corporations should do more? And if so, what does that mean exactly? How do we persuade or impel polluting industries to change their ways?
Corporate responsibility >
The Problem with Palm Oil
Every time you buy a jar of Nutella, a Hershey's chocolate bar or a bottle of Pepsi, your contributing to the killing of orangutangs and Co2 being emitted. Palm oil is an extremely versatile product and is very common in the US, especially in processed foods. During the manufacturing, countries such as, Indonesia or Malaysia's rainforests are being chopped down in order to create room for palm or plantations. This is a problem since trees are a carbon sink so they help absorb the Earth's CO2. When there cut down, all the Co2 which was once stored is now emitted. According to Gregory P. Asner at the Carnegie Institution for Science, "Tropical deforestation contributes to about 20 percent of annual greenhouse gas emissions." Not only is this issue contributing to climate change, animals specifically orangutangs are dying in the process from loss of habitat. According to Orangutang Foundation International, 1,000 to 5,000 orangutangs die each year in Palm Oil concessions. This is significant as there's only 55,000 to 65,000 orangutangs in the wild. Palm oil is a major issue which isn't talked frequently enough. One way to help is by boycotting brands such as, Pepsi, Nutella and Hershey's for using palm oil. By doing so we can lessen the demand needing less palm oil being manufactured. How can we further lessen this issue?