No I don't want to plant a tree, an empty gesture, or sign a petition which says "I object". The only way to really object is to do it practically and compromise the demand for palm oil; that is, cut consumption. If you have a petition for shrinking economies, ergo demand; austerity measures--no production extraneous to immediate needs, I'll sign that.

Sign a petition...lol....it does nothing. These poor nations as they grow out of control, need something to supplement their existences by tearing it all down for the best of humanity:) Yes lets go! chop, slice, and dice everything, the world environments are for sale with No consequences! Hurry in now! while stocks last:)

Oh dear

LEA

This is truly distressing. The destruction of habitat is the single most immediate threat to our species' future. There are other pressing environmental, security and scarcity issues it is true but the loss of the globe’s biodiversity could spell our demise.

We humans are remarkable but creating new species from scratch is beyond or talents at the present time. To safeguard our future we must preserve as many different species as we are able. One never knows when entire cornerstone varieties of current food staples will come under threat of disease. Worse still, given the mind-boggling complexity of even the most contained ecosystem, it is difficult to predict what effect the elimination of one previously unheralded species may have.

We can progressively spend more money on problems like global warming if we don’t want to deal with it now. We are making precious little areas of new habitat. Worse still we are not making any more species. Once they are gone, they are gone forever. We may never know how valuable to us they might have been. We may never know how important they were to us until they were gone forever.

Thank-you Katja Wiese for bringing this tragic to our attention

And they say humans arn't changing the world.lol..by the end of this century, the Oldest rainforest in the world will be gone, if not all together. You know, I have to laugh at you people as well, for being the dumbest smart people I have ever seen:) Palm oil is one of the reasons your all fat pigs:) and those that are not.....its only a matter of time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3xC1_pLprY&feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Yv3XaucPBU&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-1DQwaauwE

Hey! Dont worry about it, the next gen will deal with the lost of everything, its fine.......you just carry on like there's No tomorrow:)

Like I've said.....8 billion, then 9 billion, then ten billion people.......I can see its all going to be fine:0 cant you?

Yes the bigger picture.......it does escape the best of us:)

LEA

I note this article was written by a German

I think the way Cameroon decides to treat its rain forests is something best left to those who are citizens of Cameroon and not somehting determined by "activists" from other nations

Otherwise all you end up with is a sort of defacto re-colonisation

and all those who "see the bigger picture" - in that picture you are actually looking at land owned by other people, not you....

They have a right to decide for themselves, without deference or consideration to your presumptions to merit, worth or sanctity

Col,

Nice bit of spin.

Talking about defacto re-colonisation....that is exactly what is going down at this present stage in Africa as a result of World Bank, IMF and various entities representing corporate "activism".

They've done it to India and now they are doing to Africa.

We don't all wear rose-coloured glasses.

Here you go, Col - educated yourself : )

http://www.wrm.org.uy/bulletin/165/Cameroon.html

Oh col.....still full of hate:) Iam sure the author will forgive you.

You sound like this man sometimes:)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nH0Et56Hxt4

Anyway, the planet is still getting smaller. Soon there will be nothing left:) and the exploitation of the second and third world peoples rise to western fame, will be of no conquerable guilt.

100 hundred years, ay! Co2 will replace O2....interesting:) I hope we all evolve in time to breath it:)

LEA

It's distressing that this article about actions of such profound consequence and imminence can only muster so few comments. Some transient rot about Julie Gillard's political fetishes, or similar, would generate dozens upon dozens more. Our capacity for sustainability is clearly reflected in what interests us most. The prognosis is not good.

And so what if an internet petition might not work. How long does signing it take to accomplish? 30 seconds? And how much does doing so prevent any other personal action from being taken? What if it might help in some way? And how does sitting at the keyboard feeling smugly impotent help in any way at all?

Good luck Katja. I'll sign even if the action might be unlikely to be of any great help. Sometimes we have to simply support what those at the fore-front of a particular significant action ask of us.

That said a means for assisting reciprocity between myriad response actions and a convergent aim toward the common fundamentals of all of these problems needs to be developed.

wallumi,
the reason I don't support this petition is because it naively validates the rapacious system that's responsible for the problem. It's a band-aid job. The problem is capitalism, and its indifference to all ecological, logical, ethical and ultimately survival issues. If you stop it in the rainforests of Cameroon it will reek havoc elsewhere for a time, but soon return, especially as fossil fuels, exotic timbers etc. become more scarce. It's just a matter of time; the Cameroon rainforests, deep oceans, the Great Barrier Reef... They'll all fall like dominoes in the fullness of time. I'm not interested in giving a rapacious system kudos for a small, grudging and temporary mercy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_environmental_issues
It's just feel goodism, flaky greeny accommodation.
The mortal enemy, for rainforests, biodiversity and humans, is capitalism. When we start addressing the disease, rather than the symptoms, I'll get behind it.