Save the Malaysian / Indonisian Jungles

[TroyGFC]

An interesting website I found;

http://www.palmoilaction.org.au/

Basically over in Malaysia / Indonesia they are destroying jungles in which habit the rare oranga-tangs, elephants, tigers and other animals. having been in Sabah / Borneo a few year ago it is widely visible the extent of the jungle clearing for oil palm plantations with the sounds of earth moving equipment and chainsaws during the night. Once these jungles are gone they are gone for good, along with any animal the habits the jungle.

[Psyber]

I spent several weeks in Sarawak and Sabah, Selingaan Island, and the Malay peninsula a little over 10 years ago and visited the Orangutan rehabilitation centres and stayed in a Dyak village for several days.

There was already a problem with swathes being cut out of the forests then. Of course the people doing that would be sceptical about us telling them not to do that while in Oz [Victoria] were burn our rainforests as a conservation measure. I'm not entirely convinced by the rationale either!

[therisingblues]

Nice work TroyGFC.
This is part of a global epidemic, it is like almost every country on the globe has just
thrown the conservation rule book out the window and declared war on the habitats
that have always sustained them. Public awareness is the key, the following companies/
products are the ones using the oil these forests are being destroyed for.
A boycott of all these, accompanied with letters to the respective manufacturers as
to why you aren't buying their products anymore is the most powerful action an individual
can take IMO. The more that do this the better.

[TroyGFC]

you can add KFC to that list as well, Idon't know how to post photos.

[smac]

As long as pizza shapes are in that list, I can't help you gentlemen...

[RustyCage]

Guys! Im a uni student. 2 Minute Noodles are a uni students staple diet!

[jackpot jim]

Bloody Hell, I've just realized that i could be responsible for 1/2 the deserts in the world with the amount of TimTams i've eaten.
Seriously though, the situation is out of control and probably and sadly irreversible due to Human GREED and Overpopulation and this practice will continue until there is no more land to clear, but then with Global warming out of control, in the next few centuries the ice caps will melt completely and the oceans will rise to Flood the Earth except for the upper reaches of the Himalayas.

[therisingblues]

I sort of feel the same way Jackpot Jim. I used to go out of my way to locate Tim Tams in Japan. I also would pass them around to the locals here, and ex-pats from other countries, who were always impressed. Having found an outlet, I'd advertise it to others, always trying to do my bit to push up the profile of Australian goods. (Or at least those that were invented in Oz, I think Arnotts is just another branch of Campells nowadays).
Not anymore.
I also ask anyone that has spotted one of their favourites on the list of "Palm Oil" products, to stop purchasing it. You are the people that will have an effect with your spending habits. It is easy to forget what it is you are condoning in those purchases. After all, when you walk the aisles of the supermarket and see your Pizza Shapes or 2 Minute Noodles, you can't see the deforestation taking place. When you pay for it at the check out, you don't think that you are contributing dollars toward the removal of a natural carbon "sink", and you don't smell the fires of the resultant peat bogs, which has made Indonesia the third highest emitter of carbon in the world. As you sit in your lounge rooms or kitchens, and munch away on your palm oil goods, you don't think that you are tasting the food that was once protecting Orangutangs from extinction.
Maybe if the global warming issue was on the front page of the paper everyday, as it should be, people would be more educated about the choices that need to be made, and we'd be a lot closer to forcing politicians to make some sort of stand. I know I am coming on pretty strong with my opinion here, but many of our habits today maybe forcing the generations that follow us into a literal oven, surrounded by land that will not bear sustenance. If you guys can afford to be so flippant about taking actions to reinforce those predicted miseries on your children, purely because one of your preferred foods is having an impact, then I think I'll be a little bit strong in expressing just a glimpse of what I have read on this topic.

[TroyGFC]

Well said rising blues.

[Psyber]

TimTams unfortinately also contain the azo-dye [derived from petrochemicals] Tartrazine. It is a yellow colouring commonly found in chocolate, yellow soft drinks and foods. It is linked to allergies, asthma attacks, and hyperactivity in children. That's why I reluctantly gave them up.

An amazingly high range of synthetic substances are allowed in food as colourings, preservatives, and synthetic flavourings, and there are those of us who wonder about their link to increasing rates of cancer.

Many substances with benzene rings in their structure are cancer-inducing - thats why methyl bezene stopped being used to increase the octane rating of petrol in the late 1970s or early 1980s

[Sheik Yerbouti]

As long as pizza shapes are in that list, I can't help you gentlemen...

I'm with smacky, if BBQ shapes are out, so am I.

[smac]

As long as pizza shapes are in that list, I can't help you gentlemen...

I'm with smacky, if BBQ shapes are out, so am I.

Looking back at the list, none of the rest pass through my house so I am happy to continue with the shapes. Although if they sold the 'crumbs' from the bottom of the packet I would buy just those.

[therisingblues]

Why not just buy another brand Smac?
I know it is very easy to be light-hearted about an issue that hasn't broadcasted itself with the full vigour of the mighty-media. As for me, I feel sorry for the Orangutangs but what really concerns me is the loss of that rain forest. To understand why I suggest reading "Revenge of Gaia", in it the author makes a very valid point that scientists tend to be overly rational, and extremely hesitant to strongly argue for something because the nature of science always suggests that anything beyond what has already been proven is possible to disprove it. Therefore scientists are always questioning, rather than spouting. Unlike your mighty TV set that companies use to carefully sanitize any image designed to sell you something, no matter how much bloodshed was involved at the manufacturing end. My point being, if you saw what was happening as a direct result of you buying that particular brand of snack, you'd re-think the choice in a flash.

[smac]

To answer your specific question, theri, because I like them.

To answer 'the' question... Personally, I tackle a lot of issues that take a lot of effort. I won't go into details here, but my plate is full. I think it is too much to expect everyone to do everything they can to resolve every issue the world faces. My lack of contribution to this issue is far outweighed by my contribution to others.

[therisingblues]

Smac, I get where you are coming from, although I don't know exactly what contributions you are making to other issues, I know that today's world is so full of issues and do's and don'ts that our grandparents never dreamed of, we could spend every minute of every day attempting to observe every do, and spend all our sleeping time listening to tapes of things we shouldn't do, and still be unable to satisfy every person's opinion on what is right or wrong. I sort have been led by my conscience throughout my life, but I have been mindful of others' rights to follow their own beliefs and not thrust mine down their throats. So grew up always "doing my bit" for the environment and hoped in the back of my mind that the abuse of our planet wouldn't be as much of a problem for the future as some of the more "radical" conservationists would have us believe. I can't ignore what I am reading these days though, and I am becoming more vocal because those "radical" conservationists are being proven correct on a great many issues. It is no longer about the future, it is about now. This particular issue is the most significant of our (human-kind's) history, if the scientists are correct.
At the moment I am reading up to at least have an informed opinion and hopefully encourage others to move in the correct direction, I will be starting a thread on these issues later, but this one is related to our global problem in a big way.
I understand when I talk about these issues I am on thin-ice regarding people's tolerance of the subject matter, as there are so many "do's" and "don'ts" nowadays. Eating the wrong food may seem trivial to most people, but the collective impact of the millions of people around the world all eating the wrong food amounts to problems that won't destroy the world, our Earth is perhaps far more resilient to be destroyed by anything we could even intentionally do to harm it, but so far as wiping our own race from the face of that Earth, we are very, very capable of doing that.
The root of that problem is not third world nations struggling to get by, it is the 1st world nations so far removed from the question of survival that we condone the destruction of the last barriers nature has laid to protect us from an ever building disaster, all for the sake of a few luxuries.

[Psyber]

I try to buy from ethical sources, at least in theory, Chartreuse, Benedictine, and Moet Chandon [including Dom Perignon] are all owned by the Catholic Church, and the monks at Sevenhills make good wine.

[Snaggletooth Tiger]

Save the Malaysian/Indonesian Rainforests?
TroyGFC's extended family the Orangutans are an endangered species!

[TroyGFC]

Yeah they will be extinct just like you "snaggletooth tiger".

[Snaggletooth Tiger]

Bring it on bitch!!!

[MagicKiwi]

As an advocate only for the rights of animals, I find the motivation to save the planet for the sake of our children, more humans, distasteful - however, whatever works to save the habitat for those with whom we share this planet and have an obligation to protect. Hopefully, it is our children who will act on this obligation.

Keep it up theri, good for you - it's a lot more palatable cause than man's inhumanity to dumb animals which is sickening. Also, thanks for posting the foods up, I will now give the two minute noodles the flick. Is there another brand? What should we be looking for on packets?