A morning coffee, a chocolate bar in the afternoon, a steak for dinner – all contribute to deforestation in tropical regions. Growing demand for certain imports in wealthy countries like Switzerland is destroying vast areas elsewhere which have a crucial role to play in containing global warming.
“It’s easy to look at the farmers and foresters and countries where deforestation is happening and wish they would stop. But they are responding to the global market. We are buying their soy for our hamburgers and salmon, and their palm oil for our lipstick,” writes Daniel Moran of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, on the Carbon Brief website.
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