Deforestation, palm oil and Black Friday Shopping

Are you some-one who is outraged at the banning of the Iceland (supermarket) advert outlining the plight of orangutans in the face of increased deforestation for palm oil plantations ?

Were you even aware of the issue before seeing this advert that is now so prevalent across social media?

Now let me ask you 2 more questions ...

• Are you planning to buy anything in a  Black Friday sale event, either in a shop or online?

• Are you busy wondering what Christmas gifts to buy all your family and friends, searching online lists of what to buy a difficult teenager or elderly relative etc or grabbing the latest ideas from slick TV adverts?

It is all very well to be angry at deforestation for palm oil plantations but each and every one of us is a part of the problem through our insatiable appetite to buy more and more things, many of which we don't actually need and many of which can be directly linked to deforestation.

Quote from WWF Global:

What is causing forest conversion?

• Rising demand for soy, palm oil, cocoa and coffee is translating into expanding plantations for these crops worldwide. Many of us unwittingly contribute to forest conversion in our consumption of everyday products. For example, palm oil is used to make a whole range of cosmetics, detergents and food products including shower gel, margarine, and ice cream. Soy beans are used to make cooking oils, bread, puddings and sweets and are used in the manufacture of paints, adhesives, fertilizer and insect sprays. And for paper products, pulpwood plantations clear acres of forest to satisfy demand. This human 'footprint' on the Earth shows how our behavior in one part of the world can have negative impact on tropical forests and the people living in other part of world.

Rain forests are not only being cleared for palm oil plantations.  It is used to grow things that we all buy on a regular basis.  Then along comes Black Friday with its associated frenzy of consumerism and for me it encapsulates everything that is so wrong with our consumer led society.  Leather goods, spice racks, bags of nutty sweets, new clothes and toiletry packs, the list goes on and on - we may buy them and think we are doing so well because they are palm oil free but in reality many can be directly linked to deforestation.  We may not actually have taken the chainsaw, ourselves, to the rain forest but we are all responsible for the loss of Rang-Tan's home.  We could plead ignorance (fair to a point) and we could say we had no choice but in truth we do have a choice. The choice to reject a culture of "Stuff".  It is not possible in either the short or medium term to put back the forests that have been cleared but we can strive to prevent further deforestation.  Now is the time to accept that we must all make some big changes to the way we lead our lives.  Changes that mean:

• we must reject a lot more than just palm oil.
• we move away from buying single use products and things we don't need.
• we must question the effect our purchases have on the environment
•  we must actually buy a whole lot less of everything and that what we do buy may be more expensive .... but better quality and longer lasting ie sustainable.

Advertisers would have us think happiness is born out of shopping carts full of the supposed best new products promoted as the best thing to make your life more convenient, the latest fashion, the newest phone or some fancy foodstuff from far flung places.  May I beg to differ and say it probably isn't.  Short term happiness perhaps. Long term? Don't think so. So before you grab those so called bargains on Black Friday or panic buy online before the last delivery day before Christmas can I ask you to spend 3½ minutes watching this video:



And if you agree with its message, please share the video or this post.  It will be more than orangutans who will thank you. It will be your children and their children ... and every other creature on our beautiful planet.  Maybe together we can change the fact that on Instagram #buy appears almost 6 million times but #buyless is only there 25,000 times.  Be a part of the #BuyLess culture.