Last week we related the government's slightly-less-than-adequate response to the challenge of climate change. To be fair to them they are doing better than most other governments - which tells you a whole lot about the general standard of governance in the world, or maybe about the inadequacies of democracy.
Governments, of course, are not the only ones facing up (or not) to the challenge of climate change. Big business is right there too. And if I likened the response of the UK government to countermanding the "Hard a-port!" order on the Titanic, then some companies seem to be actively seeking out icebergs to aim their ships at.
Take palm oil, for instance. All the supermarkets are queuing up to get more of the stuff, as well as food giants like Unilever, Procer & Gamble and Nestlé, and now it is being hyped as a bio-fuel to replace petrol as the oil runs out. Isn't that good, you may ask - surely replacing petrol with renewable palm oil is a blow struck against climate change? Actually no. It's a weighty blow struck in favour of climate change.
Palm trees need space to grow, and there isn't much space left on the planet, at least not space where the ground is fertile enough to grow anything, so something else has to be cleared out of the way. What can we do without? How about those useless virgin forests? Or swampy peatland? No use to anyone! They'll do!
So in Indonesia, where most of the new supplies of palm oil come from, forests are being cut down like there's no tomorrow (rather appropriately, as there probably won't be). 1.4 million hectares so far in Riau province alone, with another 3 million already scheduled to be turned into cooking oil. Indonesia is also home to 22 million hectares of peatland, much of it also in Riau - or it was: half of it is gone already, cleared and drained. Riau's peatlands are eight metres deep in places, and contain the highest concentration of carbon stored per acre of anywhere in the world - where they still exist. The destruction of them already accounts for nearly 4% of all global greenhouse gas emissions.
The passengers need ice for their drinks. Helmsman! Aim for that big white thing over there and see if you can slice off a few cubes.
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