Viewers in tears watching orangutan's battle with bulldozer

[G_j]

Viewers in tears watching orangutan's battle with bulldozer during Sir David Attenborough's new documentary

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/viewers-tears-watching-orangutans-battle-2779537

Viewers of Sir David Attenborough's new documentary were moved to tears over a heartbreaking battle between an orangutan and a bulldozer destroying its home.

During the distressful scene, the primate attempted to save its home from the machinery before being forced to flee.

Climate Change: The Facts, airing on BBC One, told how the soaring demand for palm oil was leading to large scale deforestation.

The series showed how huge areas of rainforest were being ripped down and replaced with palm oil plantations, according to the Mirror.

[onecaliberal]

1. :

[CrispyQ]

2. What a wretched species we are. So selfish.

Everything for the humans. Leftovers for everyone else.

[sweetroxie]

3. We are the pits.

This is so tragic.

[G_j]

4. Leftovers for the Dead and extinct

sadly

[progressoid]

5. How many Americans who are appalled by this also MUST HAVE coconut milk

Last edited Mon Apr 22, 2019, 06:05 PM - Edit history (1)

for their latest diet fad or some coconut based anti-aging cream.

EDIT! Sorry I misread the story!

As I said below, My wife is allergic to all palm / coconut based products so I tend to lump them together.

[malaise]

7. Coconut milk has been part of my diet before I could walk

Many Caribbean families have trees in their yards and in several public spaces. People also have coconut farms without harming animals.

I don't understand your coconut reference. Coconuts have also been an integral part of the diet in places like India and other Asian countries.

My sister in Florida has two trees in her yard

[progressoid]

15. Sorry for the confusion.

My wife is allergic to palm/coconut based products so I tend to lump them together. And as it is the latest fad healthy ingredient, it gets put into everything now so we read a lot of labels.

[tblue37]

17. Microwave popcorn is palm oil. nt

[MH1]

8. Let's say we all consume only the most environmentally favorable diet.

How many billion (million? trillion?) people could the planet hold, and still leave sufficient space for orangutans and other non-human species?

I'm betting that if we knew the number, it would be significantly LESS than the current 7.whatever billion.

Coconut milk, palm oil, or just ethically and locally grown mostly plants diet? It's just about the rate of destruction. Same inevitable outcome.

But of course we should still avoid the worst environmental choices, maybe buy some time for the human race to figure out how not to breed itself off the cliff. Just don't think that making those choices as an individual will be enough.

[G_j]

9. It's Palm Oil

and it’s in almost everything

[sinkingfeeling]

10. They're palm oil plantations.

[catbyte]

12. Palm Oil is from a different type of palm tree than coconuts.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palm_oil

[IronLionZion]

13. Do you think apple trees are cut down to get apples?

The palm tree isn't cut down to harvest coconuts. Impoverished dark skinned workers climb up and get them.

[Tanuki]

19. The oil palm trees are not cut down to get the fruit, but the orangutan's habitat is destroyed when

the natural forest is cut down to create oil palm plantations. The reference to coconuts in the other post is something of a red herring, as the coconut palm is a different species of plant from the oil palm, but palm oil is used extensively in the commercial food industry and is a major factor in deforestation in southeast Asia.

[NickB79]

21. Native forest is cleared to plant oil palms.

Oil palm plantations are basically giant corn fields, ecological deserts.

[MoonRiver]

6. Poor precious being. I hate humans.

[democratisphere]

11. This whole f'ing planet has lost it's way with drastically diminishing hope for the future.

This act against the orangutan is absolutely barbaric but very typical of humans. Until the human species goes extinct,.there is no hope for all of the other species on the planet.

[G_j]

22. Orangutans and Humans

Orangutans and humans share 97 percent of their DNA sequence. Is it the three per cent that makes humans think this is ok?

[democratisphere]

23. Humans are the most vile species in the cosmos.

The 3% makes all the human horrid difference.

[catbyte]

14. We suck. I agree with Agent Smith in The Matrix. We're parasites killing the planet.

[Duppers]

24. We indeed are parasites killing the planet. nt

[Kurt V.]

16. an experienced excavator ( this isn't a bulldozer) operator could have killed the orangutan. the me

are trying to shoo it. These men are not enjoying this, but the men who pay them could care less.

[c-rational]

18. This is distressing to watch. How cruel and stupid we are as a species.

[Honeycombe8]

20. I can't watch. Why didn't someone relocate the Orangutans?

Too heartbreaking. I just can't watch, if I can't do anything about it.

[Blue Owl]

25. More people need to see this

And deforestation must stop...

[sheshe2]

26. What have we done.