Bali babylon

Greenpeace blocks shipment of Indonesian palm oil
Friday, November 16th, 2007
Thu Nov 15, 2007JAKARTA (Reuters) - Greenpeace has blocked a tanker carrying more than 30,000 tonnes of palm oil from leaving an Indonesian port to protest against forest destruction blamed on plantations, the environmental group said on Thursday.

The protest came less than three weeks before a U.N. climate change meeting on the resort island of Bali, where delegates from 189 countries will debate ways to slow down global warming, including the impact of dwindling tropical rainforests. from here

Michelle Desilets, director of the Borneo Orang Utan Survival Foundation UK, said: 'They are left hungry so they go in search of food in the plantations and destroy the plants. They become easy targets. Some plantation owners put a bounty of $10 or $20 on the head of orangutans, which is worth a few weeks' salary for the workers.

'Workers don't usually have guns: the orang utans that get shot are the lucky ones. We've seen them beaten to death with wood sticks or iron bars, doused in petrol and set on fire, trussed up in nets or tied up with wire which cuts through their flesh. Often a mother is killed and eaten while its baby is sold on or kept as a pet. In the local plantations where we're working, the managers have now agreed not to offer the bonus. But there's still a macho thing about bringing down an adult male.' more here.


Well now the bonobos having let slip that they are more intelligent than us, are in trouble, their plans to take over Terra when we the hairless monkies fuck up big time look less secure. In chimpanzee politics never reveal your hand too early or be too enthusiastic about your plans for power, showing you can count faster than students has obviously done a lot for the pride of the pride but is clearly a mistake.

The Oran Utangs sadly look on the way to extinction and yes the margarine at your supermarket and the biofuel in your bus are pushing them out. Huge areas of rainforest in Indonesia are being clear cut for palm oil plantations and palm will fuel the global fleet of motor vehicles after peak oil.

Every biofuel bus ticket bought is a bullet in the head of orangs whose habitat is disappering fast.

Green Parties should think about people, planet and other species, looking after each is looking after all.

Indonesia clear cutting and draining of marshes is one of the biggest sources of climate change gases.

We need to freeze the destruction and give local people and the orangs power over the forests.

Supporting the Free Papua Movement is essential, the Indonesians invaded West Papua in the 1970s and have cut and cut away at the forests.

lots to do from speaking out against biofuels and rejecting use of palm oil in processed food.

The WWF noted 'Orangutans are shot when they enter some oil palm estates'.

Animal rights, human liberation, one struggle, one fight.

WSPA appeal for orang utan sanctury here.

WWF note these interesting facts about our ginger friends under threat:
Some captive released individuals learned independently to untie complex knots that secured boats and rafts, and then to shove off, board, and ride the vessels across rivers.

Wild orangutans have also been observed making tools to scratch themselves, using leafy branches to shelter under, and using branches for foraging, honey collection etc. Released captive individuals are reported to use sticks for digging, fighting, prying, eating, scratching, and many other purposes.

Save the Orang utans site here