Ext #2 – Alt Cause More alt. causes - Palm oil

Ext #2 – Alt Cause

Palm oil

This cheap oil carries hidden costs. For the most part, palm oil is sourced from industrial monoculture oil palm plantations that are notorious for pesticide use and poor working conditions. Plus, new oil palm plantations are generally grown in tropical forests. In Malaysia alone, oil palm plantations were responsible for 87% of the deforestation from 1985-2000.[3] The conversion of forests to monoculture plantations leads to an irreplaceable loss of biodiversity and, in Malaysia, several species of mammals, reptiles and birds have been completely lost to oil palm development. But the forest clearing has not only infringed on the habitat of the animal kingdom. Since the expansion of oil palm plantations typically encroaches upon native customary lands, indigenous communities are regularly displaced and robbed of their forest-based livelihoods, further compromising their identity and survival as peoples.

Soybeans

WRM Bulletin, August 2004. World Rainforest Movement. “Oil palm and soybean: Two paradigmatic deforestation cash crops,” http://www.wrm.org.uy/bulletin/85/oilpalm.html.

Deforestation of tropical forests took place at a rate of 10–16 million hectare per annum during the last two decades, and is showing no signs of slowing down. 16% of the whole Amazon forest has already disappeared and every day, another 7,000 hectares of forest is lost – a surface of 10 kilometers by 7 kilometers. The causes are complex and often interrelated, but among them is the role of large-scale commercial agriculture. In recent years, some of the fastest expanding crops in the tropics have been oil palm and soybean primarily planted as export driven large scale monocultures. Globally, the oil palm area increased by 43% (10.7 million hectares) and the soy area by 26% (77.1 million hectares) during 1990-2002. Government policies have facilitated this expansion which has occurred primarily in Indonesia and Malaysia (for oil palm), and in Argentina, USA and Brazil (for soy). In Brazil, in 1940 there were only 704 hectares of soy fields, by 2003 there were 18 million hectares. The most direct impact of this process has been the deforestation of approximately 2 million hectares of tropical forest in the case of Indonesia by 1999, and the loss of vast areas of forests in the Centre-West region of Brazil to make way for oil palm or soy plantations. Pesticides and herbicides inherent to these monocultures kill off the last vestiges of biodiversity able to co-exist with the plantations, and significantly diminish the chances of habitat restoration. In Indonesia and Brazil, oil palm and soy companies have been linked to devastating forest fires, that in 1997-98 alone destroyed over 11.7 million hectares of forest and other vegetation in Indonesia, and 3.3 million hectares of forest and other vegetation within the northern Amazonian state of Roraima, Brazil. Soybean is a crop very suitable for capital intensive, large scale cultivation. The main products derived from soybeans are soy meal (the world’s main oil meal for animal feed) and soy oil (the world’s most consumed vegetable oil). Only a small part of the global harvest is processed as whole bean for human consumption, mostly in Asia. The growing demand for cattle feed in Europe has driven the production of soybean, but recently also by a growing market in China for the production of oil.

AT: Nanotech

NANOTECHNOLOGY IS INEVITABLE

Perkins in 95

[Anthony, October, “The Incredible Shrinking World,” Red Herring Magazine, http://www.redherring.com/Article.aspx?a=4041]

scientists all seem to love really, really small, or really, really big things. Whether the nanorevolution will occur is a moot question. But we do know from a recent conversation with Intel founder Gordon Moore, that the photolithography technology used to build today's semiconductors will ultimately hit the wall, and the number of transistors you can fit on a single chip will reach its limit. What then? Let us introduce you to Eric Drexler--he just might have the answer. The Herring: So what turned you on to nanotechnology, anyway? >

NANOTECH INEVITABLE

R21 in 2002

[May 20, http://www.r21online.com/archives/000007.html]

Nearly 500 companies are researching and developing nanotechnology, including such behemoths as IBM, Motorola, Hewlett Packard, Lucent, Hitachi, Mitsubishi, NEC, Corning, Dow Chemical, and 3M as well as scores of start-ups, looking to raise money from nearly 75 different venture capital firms who have made bets on nanotech. A financial bubble, while not in the immediate future, will come eventually. >

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