Team:Manchester/economytest

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             <p>Palm oil is used in hundreds of products. It is likely that you have either consumed or used a product today containing palm oil or its constituents, but we, as consumers, rarely think about it or where it comes from. The truth behind its current method of production is devastating.
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             <p>A recurring theme through our work into human practices has been the idea that diverse expertise will be an essential contributing factor in the progression of Synthetic Biology from an emerging industry to what could be potentially the next big industrial revolution. (This has been discussed in detail in our essay <a href="https://2013.igem.org/Team:Manchester/knoledgetest" target="_blank">‘Public Attitudes To Science and the Knowledge Deficit Assumption: How To Avoid A Crisis Of Confidence’</a></p>
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<p>With this in mind, the Manchester iGEM team has sought the opinion of a series of experts, from environmental campaigners to biotech industry leaders. However, perhaps none of these have been so thought-provoking as the ideas of our team economist, whose unique insight has made us explore our project in a whole new light.</p>
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<ul><li>300 football fields an hour are being chopped down every hour in Indonesia and Malaysia to make room for oil palm plantations[1]</li><br>
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<li>This mass deforestation is resulting in a massive decline in many critically endangered organisms, such as the sumatran orangutan (link to model here?)[2]</li><br>
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<li>Rare flora, much of which is yet to have been researched and is found only within these rainforests, is being destroyed and lost forever[3]</li><br>
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<li><i>People</i> live in the rainforests that are being bulldozed, their homes completely eradicated because of the palm oil industry[4]</li><br>
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<li>Rainforests act as a colossal carbon sink and are often growing atop peatlands - uprooting or burning these trees releases a huge amount of CO2 into the atmosphere (resulting in deforestation related to the palm oil industry accounting for more global warming than every vehicle on earth combined)[5]</li></ul><br>
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So yes, the problems arising as a direct result of the palm oil industry <i>are</i> a big deal.<br>
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<p>Following, we outline the key problems associated with introducing a synthetic, potentially more economical, route to producing the main palm oil components, and discuss the impact putting this new product on the market would have on the economies of countries reliant on current palm oil cultivation methods.</p>
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[1] http://www.rainforest-rescue.org/topics/palm-oil<br>
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[2] http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/mar/28/sumatran-orangutans-dying-indonesia-forest-fire<br>
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[3] http://www.indonesianrainforest.org/indonesian-rainforest/rainforest-medicinal-plants/<br>
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[4] http://www.rainforest-rescue.org/news/3891/indonesia-victims-of-the-palm-oil-industry<br>
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[5] http://www.ucsusa.org/global_warming/solutions/forest_solutions/palm-oil-and-forests.html</p>
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Revision as of 16:01, 1 October 2013

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Top

Safety

When doing the initial research for our synthetic alternative to palm oil components, we quickly came across lots of information regarding the current palm oil industry. It soon became apparent that the economies of some countries, for example Indonesia and Malaysia, depend almost entirely upon the current methods of palm oil production. Therefore we compiled an impact analysis report for synthetic palm oil, which can be found by clicking on the button to the right.

An Economist's Point Of View

A recurring theme through our work into human practices has been the idea that diverse expertise will be an essential contributing factor in the progression of Synthetic Biology from an emerging industry to what could be potentially the next big industrial revolution. (This has been discussed in detail in our essay ‘Public Attitudes To Science and the Knowledge Deficit Assumption: How To Avoid A Crisis Of Confidence’


With this in mind, the Manchester iGEM team has sought the opinion of a series of experts, from environmental campaigners to biotech industry leaders. However, perhaps none of these have been so thought-provoking as the ideas of our team economist, whose unique insight has made us explore our project in a whole new light.


Following, we outline the key problems associated with introducing a synthetic, potentially more economical, route to producing the main palm oil components, and discuss the impact putting this new product on the market would have on the economies of countries reliant on current palm oil cultivation methods.