Is Palm Oil The Reason For CO2 Emissions?

For many years, the plantation of palm oil has been associated with all kinds of negative consequences such as deforestation and CO2 emissions. The latter consequence of palm oil plantation is an important matter, as CO2 is one of those greenhouse gases that accelerate the Greenhouse Effect. As a result, it is very important to determine just what it is that makes planting palm oil so unsustainable. Interestingly, the article "Palm oil is a net source of CO2 emissions when produced on peatlands" dedicates itself to explaining how it is palm oil can cause CO2 emissions. through this article, we learn that it isn't plantation of palm oil itself that is cause for worry, but rather the peat-lands that need to go through a process of drainage, degradation, and conversion. As the article states, "Performing life cycle analysis of land use change in tropical peatlands, Dr. Susan Page (University of Leicester) and colleagues[...]found that drained, degraded, and converted peatlands are substantial net sources — not net sinks — of carbon dioxide (CO2)." Thus, as the article points out, it is not necessarily palm oil plantation that needs to be stopped, but rather the deforestation of peat-lands. This article helps to have some insight into the real reason behind the association that has been made between CO2 emissions and palm oil. Reading this article helps viewing palm oil in a different light because the implications of these findings relieve palm oil of accusations of being sources of CO2 emissions. I hope that reading this article will contribute to a better understanding of this issue.

Source: http://news.mongabay.com/2007/1217-palm_oil.html