Reflections on Asia: Malaysia, The World's Largest Palm Oil Plantation

Although I love much about Malaysia, riding the bus through the nation is a profoundly depressing experience. Malaysia has decided to turn their nation into a palm oil plantation. Riding through the jungle is exciting. You don't usually see wildlife, though a few birds every now and then come around. But the sheer wildness, variety of flora, and slight tinge of fear you feel make it a great drive, no matter what country you are in. In Malaysia however, the government has replaced the natural jungle with palm trees. These trees go on endlessly--as far as the eye can see. Miles on every side, literally. This has now expanded from the peninsula to Borneo, where the incredibly diverse jungle there has increasingly been cut down for palm oil.

First, what is palm oil? Here's the article from wikipedia. It is a cheap oil desired by food manufacturers. It is also a key ingredient in biodiesel fuel.

Check out this picture of a palm oil plantation in Indonesia from rainforestweb.org as well as several links to the damage caused by these plantations.

Malaysia has long received international criticism for its forestry policies. This criticism is well-deserved. However, we should remember that this palm oil is not just dumped in the ocean. It is for consumption in the West. It is our consuming needs that drives not only the transformation of Malaysian forests but environmental disasters around the world. And isn't it interesting that palm oil is important for biodiesel. We keep coming up with technological "solutions" for the world's problems. But these solutions always have unintended consequences. In this case, we are pouring flourocarbons into the atomsphere, so we look to alternative fuels rather than find an end to our car culture. This is helping destroy the world's last remaining rainforests, making it even harder for the planet to process all the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Malaysia and Indonesia simply do not care about the criticism they receive. After all, members of these governments are getting rich off the palm oil business. But that drive through Malaysia, and I should state that this started at the Thai border and continued all the way to Singapore, was so depressing that it is really hard to imagine ever visiting Malaysia again.