multi-species entanglements of oil palm plantations in West Papua

 

She was not just a great writer, but she was an hero who spoke the minds of people living around the Marina communities. Sophie Chao’s new book clearly striped out the impacts of oil palm plantations on Marind communities in West Papua. Sophie Chao examines the multispecies entanglements of oil palm plantations in West Papua, Indonesia, showing how Indigenous Marind communities understand and navigate the social, political, and environmental demands of the oil palm plant. 

As Chao note stood strongly pointed facts suffered from damages it caused, it was no secret that the palm oil sector has destructive environmental impacts: it greatly contributes to tropical deforestation and is a major driver of global warming. Situating the plant and the transformations it has brought within the context of West Papua’s volatile history of colonization, ethnic domination, and capitalist incursion, Chao traces how Marind attribute environmental destruction not just to humans, technologies, and capitalism but also to the volition and actions of the oil palm plant itself. 

What is Tropical Deforestation?

Just in case you don’t know what Tropical Deforestation is, Tropical deforestation refers to the cutting, clearing, and removal of natural forests for industrial activities such as cattle ranching and large-scale tree plantations in tropical Latin America and Southeast Asia. This deforestation has a negative impact on ecosystems, climate, and even increases risk for zoonotic diseases spreading.

Many of us are already of how much heat-trapping carbon dioxide (CO2) we are putting into the air when we burn fossil fuels to generate electricity, maybe fuel our cars, and heat our homes, but by putting down and burning trees, we release excessive of the average carbon dioxide into the atmosphere which is harmful to human health and to our natural inhabitants, which includes wildlife and other forms of living things which are edible, or of value to human consumption. 

Tropical deforestation accounts for about 10 percent of the world's global warming pollution.  

In a nutshell quickly, Sophia Chap’s book clearly addressed how greatly the business matters of Oil mining resulted to Tropical deforestation. Her standing can be pointed to some importance why it is very good not caused any form of Tropical deforestation, please see some points to consider below:

1. Global warming is global.

Every molecule of CO2 traps heat in Earth’s atmosphere, regardless of whether the CO2 comes from the tailpipe of a car, the smokestack of a coal-fired power plant, or the burning of a tropical tree. Thus, to address global warming, we need to reduce the CO2 produced everywhere on Earth, not just in the United States.

2. Tropical forest emissions are significant.

About 10 percent of carbon emissions come from tropical deforestation—equivalent to the annual tailpipe emissions of 600 million average U.S. cars. Deforestation is happening at an alarming rate—an acre of tropical forest every second. We cannot address global warming effectively if we ignore 10 percent of the problem.

3. Global warming solutions protect our citizens.

We pay for climate disruption every day in the form of hurricanes, droughts, floods, heat waves, and other dangerous weather events that pose significant health and economic risks. These risks will grow more severe if CO2 emissions continue to increase. Addressing global warming today will save lives and money for years to come.

4. Tropical forests are important for improving our climate.

Tropical forests not only provide oxygen for us to breathe, but also take CO2 out of the atmosphere and store much more carbon than forests in temperate regions (like those in the United States). Losing such forests greatly hampers Earth’s ability to remove carbon from the atmosphere and avoid the worst effects of global warming.

By approaching cash crops as both drivers of destruction and subjects of human exploitation, Chao rethinks capitalist violence as a multispecies act. In the process, Chao centers how Marind fashion their own changing worlds and foreground Indigenous creativity and decolonial approaches to anthropology.