Japan:Palm oil may not be 'environmentally friendly' as commonly believed, researchers say

Mainichi Shimbun ^ | 09/30/11

[TigerLikesRooster]

Palm oil may not be 'environmentally friendly' as commonly believed, researchers say

Thirty years after tropical rain forests were cleared and replaced with oil palms, the amount of carbon being stored is 65 percent less than the original amount, a National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES) team has found.

Carbon that was once stored in forest is feared to have been released into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide, contributing to global warming.

Oil palm cultivation has expanded dramatically in recent years, as the demand for palm oil in making environmentally-friendly soaps and biofuel has risen. The latest analysis results, which were published in Biogeosciences, a journal put out by the European Geosciences Union (EGU), are gathering attention as they suggest that increased interest in environmental conservation among consumers may have backfired.

At the 2,400-hectare Pasoh Forest Reserve on the Malay Peninsula, oil palms planted in 9-meter intervals reach a height of only 10 or so meters in 30 years. Trees in tropical rain forests, meanwhile, can grow to over 40 meters, depending on the type of tree.

[DB]

My body heat is contributing to global warming.

So what.

All this matter of fact “CO2 causes global warming” crap has to go. Journalist have simply become propagandists.

[McGavin999]

Environmentalists are really the worst thing that has ever happened to the environment.

[RoadTest]

Whence comes this fear of carbon dioxide? It’s harmless.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

CO2 does not cause "global warming."

The sun causes global warming.

Here is a simple, non-fake thought experiment for Algore: "What temperature would the earth be without the sun?"

Algore only likes fake experiments that give the result he wants, but you can't have everything, Al.

[Rudder]

Carbon that was once stored in forest is feared to have been released into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide, contributing to global warming.

This is an ignorant, crap-based presumption.