The fearless ape charges towards the digger and attempts to attack it, but the animal loses its footing from the felled tree and falls a few feet into the pile of branches and tree stumps below.
Sadness As An Orangutan Tries To Fight The Bulldozer Destroying Its Habitat
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The distressing footage released by International Animal Rescue is an example of the destruction of an animal's habitat for the sake of consumer greed, in this case, palm oil.
Palm oil is a vegetable oil derived from mesocarp of oil palms and is considered a cheap ingredient for everyday life such as foods, cosmetics, cleaning products and fuels.
Some 66 million tons of palm oil are produced, annually. Due to its low world market costs, the oils properties are found in half of all supermarket products, such as "frozen pizzas, biscuits and margarine, as well as body creams, soaps, makeup, candles and detergents," as reported by Rainforest Rescue.
According to The Sun, palm oil plantations are replacing the huge swathes of forests in the humid climates of South East Asia, forcing various local wildlife to flee from their habitats.
Reddit commenters are suggesting alternatives to palm oil as effort to cut down on deforestation.
"Hint hint: don't buy so much prepackaged food. You can in fact bake your own cookies with butter or coconut oil. Tastes better too! Palm oil doesn't taste like anything." – nominally
"We don't have to treat the world like this. We can be more careful and considerate. Greed and apathy is inexcusable." – Brocklesocks
"Massive deforestation must be met with massive reforestation" – GrumpyGreedo
Imagine putting yourself in the orangutan's point of view. This is traumatic.
"That orangutan is literally witnessing it's own version of the apocalypse that's so fucked up" – spliffyMcPiffy
"2,000-3,000 are killed every year by direct human action. Honestly I care a lot more about these guys dying than human death. Maybe if there were 50,000 humans left, I'd feel differently." – KillerJupe
"Indonesia, Brazil, The Congo and other rainforest states are being brutally exploited and the entire world will suffer. when the plankton population collapses it's all over." – CadillacBottom
Many are unaware of their contribution to destructive forces to these precious forests. So where do we start?
"I agree that apathy is way too prevalent when it comes to these issues but it's not just a matter of caring about it. I think a lot of people give a shit but wouldn't even know where to start on research or reducing their use of products that hurt the planet. I see plenty of comments here from people who had absolutely no clue about palm oil, imagine what the rest of the common population DOESN'T know or understand. Why does it seem like everyone wants to put the weight of responsibility on consumers when it should really be on these big companies?" – data_dawg
Suddenly, certain products are not necessities anymore.
"Fuck that we don't need coconut conditioner, figure something else out..." – shoe_botm
Attenborough, who is an environmentalist, explained in the documentary that climate change is the biggest threat to our planet in thousands of years.
"Right now we are facing our greatest threat in thousands of years: climate change. At the current rate of warming we risk a devastating future."
"The science is now clear that urgent action is needed."
"What happens now and in these next few years will profoundly affect the next few thousand years."
"It may sound frightening but the scientific evidence is that if we have not taken dramatic action within the next decade we could face irreversible damage of the natural world, and the collapse of our societies."
Approximately 70,000 orangutans roam the forests of Southeast Asia, but they face extinction due to EU's biofuels policy, which promotes the increase of renewable energy.
There are solutions in which we can contribute to the preservation of these habitats and the well-being on various species, including the Borneo elephant and Sumatran tiger, in addition to the orangutan.
We can eat home-cooked meals, ask retailers for palm-free products, sign petitions to elect representatives, and take other courses of action as suggested on the Rainforest Rescue website.
