Wash your hands of Palm Oil

Lush have developed a non-palm oil based soap base and have cut out Palm Oil from their products!! I got a text from Tracy with a photo showing a huge ad in their shop window in Leicester:



You can read more here.

Save the Orangutan

When I was a kid, my Dad used to tell me stories from when he was out in Borneo with the aircraft carrier HMS Bulwark. I don't remember vast amounts of the details, but I do remember thinking, I must go there someday and see Sarawak for myself.

Now my concern is that, by the time I have the means to get there, there won't be anything left. Because of the palm oil industry, huge swathes of jungle are being cleared and replaced with palm plantations. Orangutans are being burned out of their trees, shot for bush meat, and their young left to die.

So what can we do? Well, firstly, don't take my word for it. There are lots of sites out there with information on what is happening and why we should do our best to stop it, and one that I found very informative is the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation. In fact, I've just adopted a baby orang called Madsen, who was rescued after a stupid woman had placed an order for him because she'd seen orangs and thought they looked funny. Because of her whim, Madsen's mother was shot. Now Madsen is in the care of the BOS and his future is looking better.

If we don't act, little Madsen and others like him may not have a jungle to go back to. So check the ingredients of the food you buy - if it has palm oil, put it back. Before buying furniture, ask where the wood comes from. Not just for the orangutans, but for the sake of the environment - according to Greenpeace, deforestation is a major contributor to climate change.