Right now, you and I are killing the last endangered orangutans in Borneo. How? Through the very foods that we eat. Caught between their homes and the booming palm oil industry, orangutans are being burnt to death and starved as the forests where they live are razed to the ground. All this is done so farmers can make room for thousands of miles and miles and miles of oil palm trees — in order to stock our grocery shelves and feed our cravings.
Palm oil is in approximately half of all products sold in supermarkets. It’s in everything from cooking oils and margarine, to pizza and ice cream, to even soap. It’s also increasingly being used as a supposedly “eco-friendly” alternative to fossil fuels — but there is nothing eco-friendly about it. In fact, every time a farmer sets fire to the rainforest and underlying peatlands in Borneo, it destroys one of the world’s largest natural carbon sinks, while also murdering some of our closest genetic cousins. Sign the petition to tell government officials to crack down on palm oil fires, and save the orangutans before it’s too late!