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Palm oil plantations


Yesterday I wrote here on palm oil plantations. My point was that their creation at the expense of forests has bad effects, such as has justified the EU in barring palm oil from such plantations as imports. 

The bad effect on which I focused then involved the greenhouse issue of the amount of carbon in the atmosphere, and the value of "carbon sinks" such as forests.  This equates to the dis-value of their removal even if "temporary" while the commercially preferred sort of vegetation grows in.

At any rate, I also mentioned that there are other problems with such plantations. One of those other problems is water pollution. Here is a fact sheet: https://www.greenmatch.co.uk/is-palm-oil-harming-the-environment  

The gist of the water pollution problem is an excess of nutrients in the run off, run as Palm Oil mill effluent, or POME.  This leads to algae blooms in bodies of water downstream, which depletes oxygen levels, which creates dead zones where marine life (fish and coral cannot survive.  In short, POME disrupts the food chain.  

Have cheery thoughts for the rest of your day. Our final "science week" post tomorrow will be completely different. 

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