The Everyday Ingredient Destroying the Planet

Kal Penn investigates the damage being done by the palm oil industry in Indonesia. The product is used in everything from cookies to shampoo, but its production has laid waste to forests all over the globe. With only 20% of palm oil deemed sustainable, Penn looks for solutions, including a UK startup with a lab-made version. But can fake palm oil compete with nature in quality and price?
---
Getting Warmer is Bloomberg's exclusive new show about climate, clean energy and business, anchored by actor and former White House aide Kal Penn.
Accompany him on his journey as he takes an up-close look at bold climate solutions and discovers new facets of the global transition to clean energy.
In a hosted studio segment, Penn sifts through the overwhelming news about our climate and breaks down the facts and trends to understand with a dose of humor and optimism. Why are the recycling symbols on your plastic cups misleading? How does the carbon credit market work and does it actually help? And what is the future of water in a drought-ridden world?
On the road, Penn meets the innovators, researchers, communities and businesses pivoting to new energy sources and spearheading low-carbon technologies. In documentary segments, Penn speaks to the self-declared “crypto cowboys” of Texas who claim Bitcoin mining can help stabilize the state’s troubled electrical grid, and travels to Nevada to visit the company attempting to build America’s first closed-loop supply chain for electric vehicles. In New York, Penn explores the urban designs proposed to save the city from the next Superstorm Sandy and goes inside New York’s Empire State building to investigate the challenges of decarbonizing our cities and landmarks.
The show builds on, and includes contributions from, Bloomberg Green’s award-winning team of climate journalists as well as London-based climate storytellers Jack Harries and Alice Aedy. With a focus on the most pressing questions for young viewers, Jack and Alice unpack one big idea each episode. From recycled wastewater to regenerative agriculture and the challenges of a just transition for workers in the energy sector, they’ll break down how countries across the world are finding intriguing solutions to our climate crisis, and outline the challenges ahead.
Watch Getting Warmer starting February 1st at 8p EST streaming on Bloomberg channels on Connected TV Devices including Samsung TV+, LG Channels, and Fire TV. And on & Bloomberg.com.
You can also watch on Bloomberg TV (BTV) at 10p ET.
--------
Like this video? Subscribe: kzbin.info?sub_...
Become a Quicktake Member for exclusive perks: kzbin.infojoin
Bloomberg Originals offers bold takes for curious minds on today’s biggest topics. Hosted by experts covering stories you haven’t seen and viewpoints you haven’t heard, you’ll discover cinematic, data-led shows that investigate the intersection of business and culture. Exploring every angle of climate change, technology, finance, sports and beyond, Bloomberg Originals is business as you’ve never seen it.
Subscribe for business news, but not as you've known it: exclusive interviews, fascinating profiles, data-driven analysis, and the latest in tech innovation from around the world.
Visit our partner channel Bloomberg Quicktake for global news and insight in an instant.

[@johnsamuel1999]

Palm oil has the highest yield out of all oil plants. So if we want to meet the same oil demand with another crop we would have to clear a lot more land for this. Not to mention other oils cost more BECAUSE they have lower yields than palm oil. So replacing palm oil will make cooking oil more expensive

[@danielcaceres9971]

So learn how to cook without it

[@AdinnaKhairilIkhwani-xl9ry]

@@danielcaceres9971 how???? can you tell me that???

[@vyhozshu]

so the demand should stop then, so it doesnt have to be met.

[@vyhozshu]

there are many different methods of cooking, as well dont need prepackaged foods and all the cosmetics to have it.@@AdinnaKhairilIkhwani-xl9ry

[@AdinnaKhairilIkhwani-xl9ry]

@@vyhozshu it can't if it's that easy, europe would done it long time ago

[@charlessimbolon7333]

Our forests, oceans, water, and climate are strained to the breaking point. Food insecurity and poverty lead to untold suffering. Palm oil already lifted millions of people from Poverty in Malaysia and Indonesia. Palm oil is the most efficient vegetable oil . At the very best practice one single acre of palm oil can produce up to 5.6 ton of vegetable oil , compare to soy just produce about 0,16 ton of vegetable oil. It is a miracle product . And ubiqtuous or versatile

[@sheedyaja6465]

Fyi, the Minyakita brand shown in this video is subsidized product only targeted for poor people

[@alexh4436]

Well you don't think that Bloomberg would target a product that rich people, use do you?

[@sniper7.62x51]

Seems pretty sustainable to me.

[@rendyputra423]

I dont know firstly where the palm oli is comes from but when i looked the brand of the cooking oil "minyak kita" i know its from indonesia. That is the subsidized brand from the goverment to the people. We use palm oil every day for cooking. Cheers from Indonesia.😊😊😊

[@VijaygKamat]

Anyways Palm Oil can be used as Environment Destroyer and Population Reducer.

[@myname-jj9oi]

​@@VijaygKamatyes, mostly when the country doesn't has palm oil tree but the importer. And the importer country pursue the world to do the forestation without looking at the mirror his/her own country is CO2 producer.

[@charlessimbolon7333]

@@myname-jj9oi In 2021, China, the United States, the EU27, India, Russia and Japan remained the world's largest CO2 emitters.

[@mbonisigumede7950]

I use plam oil on a daily basis. It's a great substitute to sunflower oil. It's much cheaper and with great healthy benefits

[@VijaygKamat]

What ? What ! What #

[@hooky84]

What have you been smoking?

[@user-yq8ck8yf3u]

It can be at a high level in butter as cows are often feed palm kernel as a cheap by product of the oil extraction process. this can alter the outcome of baking as oil incorporates differently to produce a unexpected outcome to the cook.

[@eaglestar2962]

If we use corn, olive, soy, peanut, sunflower, or safflower oil, we will need to clear much more ground, ruin more rain forrest and destroy more environment problems. It is better to use palm oil because palm oil has much higher oil yields per acre or per hectare.

[@vyhozshu]

or cut down on all that sh*t.

[@linmal2242]

Also what happens to trade with Indonesia if it becomes the Iran of South East Asia?

[@MrBoliao98]

If you don't consume so much oil, so much soap, so much basic needs, then maybe you wouldn't need the most efficient oil crop in the world. And I think it is unfair to label that Palm Oil Plantation involve burning down forests. In Malaysia, the reason states like Johor is covered 38% by the palm oil plantation would be that these are the legacy of the Rubber Plantations left behind the British. It is not exactly as damaging as we like to think. And perhaps, yeast on the grapes might be better. And well who knows, we might finally not need plantations. But where are you going to get that much waste proteins and sugars?

[@charlessimbolon7333]

In 2021, China, the United States, the EU27, India, Russia and Japan remained the world's largest CO2 emitters. In my own opinion , it is more trustworthy and ethical if the laser focus on those people . Because when we talk about climate change, we also needs to talk about environmental justice and social justice

[@vyhozshu]

the U$A is worst by far. they lobby to hide the milltary from the emissions readings. but emissions is a different topic from extinctions and deforestation. And most of these palm exports are for western multinationals. people cheering for palm for themselves are cheering for their own neo-coIonial exploitation which destroys their environment for western profits (and they get pennies buying into this economic system of relations)

[@tengchuankhoo6585]

Is palm oil superior given clever scientists spend nearly a decade trying to mimic a lab produced palm oil rather than olive, soya or fish oils

[@silverflame2501]

I always go for coconut oil and olive oil

[@MrJustCallMeJames]

People really don't get it. Palm oil is saving these areas. Palm oil is extremely area effective crop, you don't need as much space to make the same amount of money as with almost all other crops, and those have downsides. If palm oil didn't exist, these people would plant cash crops that demand far larger areas. Clearing far larger areas than currently.

[@ecoideazventures6417]

The fundamental issue you need to get is farmers in Asia slash and burn new forest areas to cultivate palm. Regular cash crops are grown in available land

[@techcafe0]

If I may paraphrase on old Cree proverb: Only when the last (palm) tree has been cut down, the last river poisoned, and the last fish caught... only then will man realize that he cannot eat money.

[@MrJustCallMeJames]

@@ecoideazventures6417 No, you have no idea what you are talking about. First off palm is a regular cash crop in asia, not some sort of special one, like people in west seem to think. The other cash stables of rubber/coffee/cocoa. Take huge amount of time to grow before any return, so are categorically different kind of cultivation. So eliminate palm oil, and they change into a slash and burn crop that takes immensely more space for the same cash return.

[@d2nd21st]

@@MrJustCallMeJames yea, these western thinkers think they know everything and know the best, less and lesser people outside them are buying their bs anymore these days

[@timjones1184]

@@ecoideazventures6417 These available land you mentioned used to be forest as well, so why dont the western country turned it into forest instead of generating income from the land if they are concerned about the environment. Or maybe profits from their income be shared to these southeast asean community to maintain the forest. Ppl need to eat, so by complaining wont resolve this issue

[@twilightgardenspresentatio6384]

All we ask for is reasonable standards and regulations for businesses and their owners

[@VijaygKamat]

When a person / business is there to make money, there is no REASONING.

[@design.dmitri]

palm oil, meat, energy, transportation, construction… wouldn’t be such a problem, if people learned to consume as much as they need, instead of more than they can.

[@containedhurricane]

It wouldn't be a problem if human population was much smaller. Billions of people means more energy, food, water and other resources are required, which will make climate change worse. Unfortunately, territorial, cultural and racial conflicts have been encouraging population growth race

[@CadyCadwell]

i went on study trip deep inside jungle of west borneo, there was no jungle, palm trees stretched as far as our drone could see. one of palm plantation we visit was owned and exclusively runs by south korean company, they used aggressive land clearing by burning all of those ancient forest, entire ecosystem vanish just like that. we couldn't even spot a single primate, none. let alone Rhinoceros hornbill that we hope to see outside conservation zones. locals and indigenous are literally in a form of modern slavery to this company, local labour were cheap or else the company hired cheaper one from other parts of the islands... many indigenous lose their way of lives of hunter and gathers because corrupt local officials sold their ancestral lands to this company... their only means to survive for now is just by working for this company where's pension and health benefits are literally non existence...

[@vyhozshu]

south korea is a vassal of the U$A. all the same hands. westerm lmperialist c4pitalism and its tentacles. extracting resources from neo-coIonies who fight for their right to destroy themselves for western markets.

[@xi_cuan]

Nope.. there are many forest in borneo. You only need google maps satellite view for search many forest in borneo.

[@wilsonwan7434]

Interesting. You wanna choose to pay more for RSPO certification products, or pay more for this alternative oil and let the Indonesian & Malaysia farmer lose their incomes.

[@mreditor5171]

well said.

[@1voluntaryist]

No one questions the mono-culture groves. In nature, all plants thrive together. Mono-culture doesn't exist. Is a natural palm forest grown anywhere? Why isn't it the rule, or experimented with?

[@kunal.khanna]

Thanks for covering this @Bloomberg. It's almost as if society forgot a while ago about how bad palm oil mass-farming is in its current form

[@rakriansindhu3290]

How come? It's also produce oxygen for earth

[@vipulpetkar]

new logo really sucks, this is coming from the guy who always liked new company logos. this is the first one i geniunly dislike.

[@superkas]

It's like saying that the African American people are not allowed to play in NBA, just because they are naturally superior at sports.

[@lissaleggs4136]

Palm oil in soap gives me a rash, didn't bother me as much as a kid but now it does. So I try to avoid bar soap with palm oil.

[@kydiong]

Don’t accuse without the fact and evidence.. land for planting palm oil is far more save than crop and others commodity

[@alean13]

yeah, if you compare to corn or canola (oil). but for tropical rain forest, still worst

[@johnytakdeep4839]

well... if most of tropical rain forests are turned into palm oil plantation I think we all gonna face a serious issue. sooner or later palm oil will turn the land into desert. Maybe CCP knew this already and therefore they are turning their desert into jungle I think in the future clean water will be very expensive

[@barracudastocks]

Palm oil is not only bad for the planet, but also not so kind to your health. Novel food is the way to go....only if we could let people learn more about all these alternatives and embrace them as replacement.

[@containedhurricane]

Unfortunately, people love fried food

[@timjones1184]

Same goes to avacado, why no one is protesting how bad it is for the planet?

[@barracudastocks]

@@containedhurricane true that..choose baked over fried whenever I could in the meantime.

[@barracudastocks]

@@timjones1184 Palm oil's carbon footprint is 50 times that of avocado. Avocado is bad but is quite niche in comparison.

[@timjones1184]

@@barracudastocks But if you look at yields of palm oil compared to other type of edible oil grown in this world, palm oil yields are much higher. Hence it would be better for soy bean oil, grape seed oil, canola oil, sunflower oil and olive oil farm to be replanted into a forest to reduce global warming.

[@idris8153]

isn't palm oil very unhealthy anyways. modern food is so bad

[@spacetoast7783]

Is it really any worse than peanut oil or canola oil? This is the first I've heard of it.

[@core-experience]

@@spacetoast7783 The slander stems from a smear campaign in 1980s by an American soybean company and eventually the corn oil industry. Palm oil is just too competitive in terms of prices so the campaign was used to maintain the use of domestically produced vegetable oils. If you are from the US or western Europe you will hear about the countless article and reports on the so called health effects of palm oil, whereas if you are on anywhere else of the Earth, you won't hear about them. The common anecdote is that when fast food companies used palm oil in their menu, it is then associated with heart diseases and obesity. But if you use your brain for a moment there, you will realise that it doesn't matter what kind of oil they are using, they are just simply using too much of it. And that is exactly what happened from 1990 to 2010, where the embargo on palm oil didn't really affected the obesity rate in America, as a matter of fact the rate climbed during the time, due to economy boom leading to increased income of average American household.

[@Ryan-Fkrepublicnz]

Yeah well it destroys your body too....

[@shindersamra4020]

Nobody should use palm oil, very unhealthy.

[@mreditor5171]

I am 50 years old, I grow up and use it in a daily basis. I am healthy and still can run 5 to 7 km daily. That's to show you a true facts, not from 3rd parties opinions.

[@upvotecomment2110]

Developing Countries are evil for this industries

[@pacresfrancis1565]

No they aren't evil per se. Its just the consequenses of Globalization. It may seem the developing countries doing all the 'bad work' but without them, europe will crumble and america will fall. Every country relies to each other, so this problem is actually evryone's proble.

[@dydactic1112]

What do you expect them to do? Depend on rich country for basic things like food? Rich countries with their monopoly and sanctions are evil. Not to mention snatching the best talent from developing countries because they are too selfish with comfy life to have children.

[@ioan_jivan]

Did you switch to clickbaiting? You had great videos before...

[@0510962013]

How about forest in Europe? 😂