Not the End of the World: How We Can Be the First Generation to Build a Sustainable Planet

by Hannah Ritchie

In a large-scale consumer survey in the UK, palm oil was deemed to be the least environmentally friendly of the vegetable oils.33 Forty-one per cent of people thought palm oil was ‘environmentally unfriendly’, compared to 15% for soybean oil, 9% for rapeseed, 5% for sunflower and 2% for olive oil. And yet, for all of its flaws, palm oil has actually been a ‘land sparing’ crop, at least in a world that demands lots of vegetable oil. It gets a bad reputation, but it is surely the best of a bad bunch. Deforestation is almost entirely about farming: around three-quarters of it is driven by the conversion of primary forests for agriculture or plantations for the paper and pulp industries. The single biggest driver, by far, is beef.34 Forest clearance to make room for cows to graze on is responsible for more than 40% of global deforestation.35 South America is home to most of this destruction. In fact, Brazilian beef production alone is responsible for one-quarter of global deforestation. The next largest category is oil crops. This spans a wide range of crops, but is dominated by two: soybeans and palm oil. However, deforestation rates for both have been falling rapidly over the last decade, which might be a sign that some of the world’s policies are making a difference.36, 37 The expansion of paper and pulp industries is another key driver of tropical deforestation. Tree plantations have expanded rapidly, particularly in Asia and South America. In the UK we plant lots of trees...