back to article Plucky orangutan rescued from encroaching biofuel plantations

A critically endangered orangutan has been rescued after wandering into an area of forest in western Indonesia where palm oil companies have been illegally destroying the environment, a conservation group said. Orangutan at Chester Zoo The Sumatran simian had been trapped for days in a diminishing spot surrounded by palm oil …

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  1. Alister

    Ook! Ook, oook-ook...

    He couldn't find an LSpace portal.

  2. Tom 7

    Its not just biofuel

    soap etc used to be for cleaning you - now it seems as if they're a mechanism for rubbing palm oil over you - presumably so the oil makes you dirty faster and so you use more soap...

    And a lot of foods have the stuff added for no apparent flavour or health reasons.

    I try and make the effort not to buy anything with it in it but its bloody hard.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Its not just biofuel

      I recall an episode of R4's Food Programme, where they described the uses of Palm Oil. Apparently there's a variety of different oil types available from the one plant, and in fact there are many good things about palm oil from both practical and culinary perspectives. There is also some kind of sustainable palm oil certification scheme, but uptake is poor.

      Thus, I also avoid palm oil products.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Its not just biofuel

        "Thus, I also avoid palm oil products."

        You can try as hard as you like, but my smokey old diesel car runs on the stuff - as do many others.

        So at some point you've no doubt be hosed down with the unburnt offerings emitted out of the exhaust of such a car.

    2. Lloyd
      Pirate

      Re: Its not just biofuel

      I too try to avoid it, it's easy to avoid in food (except when you eat out), the devil is that it's used in so much other stuff, a Royal Pain in the posterior.

  3. TeeCee Gold badge

    "..biodiesel for use in vehicles and aviation..."

    Maybe other biofuels. You won't be using much biodiesel in aviation as everything runs on either Avgas (as near as makes no odds petrol) or jet fuel (in effect paraffin).

    1. Chris Hawkins
      Linux

      Re: "..biodiesel for use in vehicles and aviation..."

      Question: Couldn't Orang-Utan emissions be utilised for the production of bio-fuels thus killing two birds with one stone??

      Oook?

  4. Lewis Page 1
    Boffin

    Of course you can use palm oil to make aviation fuel, do keep up

    http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2012/04/11/wilmar-develop-aviation-biofuel.html

  5. The Axe
    FAIL

    Greenies against greenies

    So eco green warriers want us to use green fuel such as biodiesel. Then other greenies complain because their favourite piece of nature is being decimated by the first set of greenies' pet project. Don't you just love it when they don't think of the unintended consequences of their stupid actions.

    They'll blame it on big businesses but if you look under the hood you'd probably find some green eco warrier on the board of these businesses. So they only have themselves to blame.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Greenies against greenies

      I think, to be fair, as soon as all the side effects of unregulated biofuel/ palm oil plantations became clear, most "greenies" modified their enthusiasm pretty quickly. But then, "greenies" would (I assume) never have been thinking of eco-vandalising plantations as preferred method of biofuel production anyway.

      This is a problem resulting from unrestrained commercial greed, not from "greenies".

      1. Omgwtfbbqtime
        Facepalm

        Re: Greenies against greenies

        "But then, "greenies" would (I assume) never have been thinking..."

        ...and therein lies the problem, the Greenies in general do not think of the consequences of their pet projects.

        If they did there would be far more clamouring (by the greenies) for newbuild nuclear plants.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: think of the consequences?

          You think that the commercial interests ripping out protected forest for illegal biofuel plantations would not have done it anyway, since there is also money to be made from palm oil in food production, let alone other sorts of farming? I doubt that very much - in which case these particular "consequences" are nothing to do with biofuels or greenies, but entirely about what businesses can get away with in Indonesia.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Drones

    Just Hellfire a few of the illegal planters. At last a use for the technology that we could feel good about!

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    +1 rating for the ook

    Speaking as someone who once donned the monkey Ape suit for the purposes of amaterur dramatic entertainment with the side benefit of raising funds for the preservation of what we nickname "Orange Newton"

  8. Richard Wharram

    Is it just me...

    ...or is that ape masturbating?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Is it just me...

      No, it's trying to survive in a horrendous and every shrinking world that find its presence an inconvenience and a road-block to making more filthy green. I'm all for a joke but you are a plank!

      1. Richard Wharram

        Re: Is it just me...

        Oooooooookay...

        So that isn't a stock photo then?

      2. An ominous cow herd

        Re: Is it just me...

        Yeah, sure, and that's why the pic's caption is "Orangutan at Chester Zoo"...

    2. Mike Smith
      Coat

      Re: Is it just me...

      Dunno. I can't see what you're doing.

      1. Richard Wharram

        Re: Is it just me...

        @cow herd

        Good spot :)

        @Mike Smith

        I thought I'd made myself pretty clear. Although to be fair, I've finished since then.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I've been to Borneo and seen this first hand....

    Having been lucky enough to go to Borneo, I've seen the scale of destruction caused by Palm Oil plantations and it's truly sad, it goes as far as the eye can see in all directions. We drove through over 80 miles of plantations to get to a smaller area where Orang-Utans are safe...

    I was lucky enough to see 4 wild orang-utans during my visit. Humans are truly destroying the planet

  10. johnwerneken
    Mushroom

    Another rason why I am ORANGE not GREEN

    ORANGE being the OPPOSITE of GREEN, and I hate anything green, in the eco-politics sense, although it is my favorite actual color.

    A few orangutans are far more valuable to me than all the alleged homo sapiens addicted to Green-ism, or Yuppie-ism, or NIMBY-ism, or any other later day form of fascism/communism.

    Why would anyone want SUSTAINABILITY? WTF wants that? I prefer PROGRESS. Get more energy, not more expensive scarcer subsidized problematic ludicrous inconvenient energy.

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