Armed groups in Colombia are driving peasants off their land to make way for plantations of palm oil, a biofuel that is being promoted as an environmentally friendly source of energy.
Surging demand for "green" fuel has prompted rightwing paramilitaries to seize swaths of territory, according to activists and farmers. Thousands of families are believed to have fled a campaign of killing and intimidation, swelling Colombia's population of 3 million displaced people and adding to one of the world's worst refugee crises after Darfur and Congo.
Report
2 comments:
Palm oil plantations are ecological disasters on a huge scale. In SE Asia ten, if not hundreds, of thousands of square kilometers of rainforest have been cut down to grow palm oil.
It makes more sense to kill whales for their oil. At least the whale populations can come back. These rainforests are being lost forever.
But its "green" fuel. How could anyone argue with that? Just becasue we mow down all our rain forests to make wonder fuels is no reason to complain.
Better than killing whales, let's just render down some of the environmental hot-heads.
Actually, that's not a bad idea. If we rendered humans instead of burying them, we could get lots of biofuel. We could call it H-Fuel or Human-Power.
I need another beer.
Post a Comment