EPA Rejects Palm Oil: Good News for Indonesian Rainforests

Before I started doing environmental work, I’d assumed that biofuel use would have a positive effect on the climate. It turns out the truth about biofuels is much more complex than I’d originally thought. Not every biofuel on the market today has a positive impact on the environment, and some actually pose a major threat. [...]

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Levi’s Unzips New Policy Excluding Logging Giant Asia Pulp & Paper

Asia Pulp and Paper is having a hard time holding onto customers these days. With the release of its forest products purchasing policy, Levi Strauss & Company has become the latest major brand to ban business with Asia Pulp and Paper (APP). This comes on the heels of a major public cancellation with APP affiliate [...]

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Can You Arrest A Corporation?

There are some who say that corporations are people. So can you arrest one? Well, we’re going to find out. Right now, corporations technically have the same First Amendment rights as real live people (as ruled by the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v. FEC two years ago). So shouldn’t we (real live people) [...]

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Great Moments In Stupid Chevron PR

Now that Chevron has been found guilty — again — for intentionally dumping a massive amount of toxic oil waste in the Ecuadorean Amazon, the company has become increasingly desperate to explain its refusal to take responsibility. But then, Chevron’s spokespeople have never been afraid to make absurd excuses for why their company puts profits [...]

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Occupy Our Food Supply!

Cargill tries to employ a 'too big to fail' analysis of their role in fighting world hunger, but it is the research of multiple studies that show that organic agriculture and agroecology have a better chance of created food security and solving the problems of hunger than the corporate model profiteering from crisis to crisis.

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RSPO Missing Persons Report

Update 11/25/11 10:08am Despite key commitments to work with the RSPO to meet consumer demands, several key RSPO members are missing at this year’s RSPO meeting in Sabah, Malaysia. Has anyone recently seen Kellogg’s, McDonald’s or Girl Scouts USA? They were last seen buying palm oil with Cargill and making assurances to the public that [...]

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A Lonely Voice For Forests, People, And The Climate

In an interview, Dr. Marc Ancrenanz of HUTAN notes that oil palm plantations cover a staggering 14,000 square kilometers of Sabah, one of the two states in Malaysian Borneo and the number one producer of Malaysian palm oil. This is equal to 20 Singapores planted solely with palm! In the same interview, Dr. Marc Ancrenanz [...]

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RAN: Big In Japan

This October marks the sixth anniversary of the opening of Rainforest Action Network’s Japan office, spearheaded by our Tokyo-based, activist-ambassador Toyo Kawakami. Toyo began working for RAN in 2005, campaigning to convince large Japanese paper companies and retailers to stop buying wood chips linked to the destruction of Tasmania’s old growth forests sold by Australian [...]

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Peat Fires Greet Governors’ Climate and Forests Task Force Assembly

Thick smoke from burning peatlands hangs over the capital of Central Kalimantan in Indonesian Borneo every morning. The smell from the smoke is pervasive, a constant reminder of how Indonesia has become the third largest greenhouse gas emitter in the world. Driven by relentless and ill advised palm oil expansion, Kalimantan’s carbon rich but relatively [...]

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Girl Scouts USA Announces Palm Oil Plan for Thin Mints: Greenwash or Game-Changer?

After four years of savvy campaigning by Girl Scout activists Madison Vorva and Rhiannon Tomtishen, Girl Scouts USA (GSUSA) has finally acknowledged its role in rainforest destruction by releasing a commitment regarding its use of palm oil in its iconic cookies. Unfortunately, the statement on palm oil just released is a small step in the [...]

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