Unseen

Quick update! I found this (slightly dramatic) movie trailer, produced in 2014 by Nice and Serious, working in collaboration with WWF International and RSPO (Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil). The 'Unseen The Movie' campaign aims to raise awareness about palm oil and how destructive conventional palm oil production can be on the environment. The short video highlights the fact that palm oil is used in lots of everyday products and sometimes are not clearly labelled. Palm oil as an ingredient, and its derivatives can be labelled under many different names, making it unclear or confusing to the consumer to recognise the problems with palm oil.

Youtube

 Is sustainable palm oil possible? How can consumers help change the palm oil industry?

"We Breathe What We Buy"

Friday's Global Environmental Change seminar on Friday about COP21 and global warming, got me thinking about pledges and policies put in place to solve the issue of haze. There are different stakeholders involved in all environmental issues, especially at a global level, and the haze is no exception. "We Breathe What We Buy" is a pledge initiative started by WWF Singapore, PM Haze and Singapore Institute of International Affairs. Together, these 3 organisations are campaigning for "haze-free palm oil" (Channel News Asia, 2015). They have managed to generate some consumer demand for environmentally conscientious and sustainable products, with 13,195 pledges so far, but this is still a long way from their target of 50,000 pledges.

Just a very brief post to provide some food for thought. I'll be back later this week with a post on more haze pledges and policies - what is being done, and by who. 

Whose problem is it? And who is to blame?

The air pollution problem in South East Asia is not a recent environmental issue. The timely coincidence of this year's haze season and the prolonged dry season drought attributed to El Niño (Guardian, 2015), has resulted in the worst haze and one of the most severe events on record in 20 years (Time, 2015). The haze has been described as a "crime against humanity" (BMKG, 2015), especially as the thick smog air pollution has disrupted everyday routines. Communities dealing with the haze have had to cope with school closures and transport disruptions, in addition to the risks of respiratory infection. CNN (2015) states that there have been half a million cases of acute respiratory infection recorded since July, showing that the human cost of exposure to particulates is very high.

It can be argued that the ever-increasing demand for palm oil is the source of the air pollution problem in South East Asia. Pilloud (2015) suggests that the blame lies with western companies. The annual slash and burning which creates the thick smog is created by farmers in Indonesia, which is the world's largest producer of palm oil. The clearance of Indonesian peatlands is contributing largely to increasing carbon dioxide emissions, overtaking the US in terms of its output greenhouse gas emissions. The demand for a product from one part of the globe is having a very real effect on communities on the opposite end. People living under the haze must contend with immediate as well as long-term health effects posed by the toxic gases.Air pollution is an environmental problem which is not bound by national boundaries. As shown in the video below, neighbouring countries such as Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines, are also quite heavily involved due to the spread of the haze.

(Time, 2015) -  "Haze Chokes South East Asia"

Spread of the haze - (National Environment Agency Singapore, CNN, 2015)

So who is to blame?

The structure of the palm oil supply chain filters down to larger corporations subcontracting to smaller companies and farmers. To meet the demand for palm oil, forest fires are started illegally, yet it could be argued that these small scale stakeholders are acting based upon economic benefit as to them, it outweighs the environmental cost (Pilloud, 2015). Haze pollution is a yearly occurrence and an annual air quality problem - what is being done about it? Who enforces the regulations put in place to penalise those who contribute to the haze? Whilst the Indonesian Meterology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) might be portraying the haze as a "crime against humanity", but for the most part, the Indonesian government has turned a blind eye to the activities of companies in the peatlands. We need to consider who is responsible, and whether they are doing anything to help alleviate this environmental disaster?

Apologies for the delay in uploading my second post! It seems that there is not much of a correlation between the creators of the environmental problem and the people who are most affected. I'll leave that with you to think about. Until next time!