K.T. VISHNU KUMAR, in Melbourne, forwards a YouTube video of a Greenpeace campaign against Unilever (Hindustan Unilever in India), makers of Lux, Dove, Surf and virtually every other soap, detergent and beauty product you see on the supermarket shelves.
Unilever is allegedly buying palm oil from suppliers who destroy Indonesia’s lowland rainforests, causing forest destruction and species extinction, and speeding up climate change.
Sign the open letter to Unilever here: Dear Group CEO Patrick Cescau
Read the proof Greenpeace has gathered here: Unilever campaign questions and answers
Tags: Churumuri, Greenpeace, Unilever
29 April 2008 at 6:26 pm
The cosmetics/bath industry is rather disingenuous in many of its claims .
The video reminded me of a “Time” cover story a month back about America’s and Brazil’s thirst for biofuels pulverising the Amazon rainforest.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1725975,00.html
The need to save Brazil’s and Indonesia’s rainforest from these “market forces” is urgent. We need an international treaty.
29 April 2008 at 9:52 pm
MP,
The game of the human race was long over the day the traders and religious nitwits took over. No international treaty will be worth the paper it is written on and would be enforceable. Think of the Kyoto protocol.
We
29 April 2008 at 10:49 pm
If Unilever stops buying palm oil from Indon or Malaysia, will the forests survive? No. If possible take a trip to our own Coffee growing Coorg, Chickamagalore and Hassan…most of the planters have sold the huge hundred year old hundred feet tall trees and replaced them with skiny silver oak, thus altering the original natural design. It is a shocking sight right next to us. One can get a proper idea of the timber being cut at the yards at Mangalore Port.
We too would be bereft of our rainforests before many kids here turn 15.
29 April 2008 at 10:52 pm
I will use Chandrika soap.
29 April 2008 at 11:24 pm
Boycotts rarely work, and unless it is total it is meaningless posturing.
Then again, “Meaningless posturing (preferably with nudity)” is the motto of Greenpeace.
30 April 2008 at 12:07 am
one suggestion to the soap users [ :P ]
look for the TFM content of the soap before buying. TFM stands for Total Fatty Matter — important for preserving moisture and other essentials of skin. In India, the preferred minimum TFM is 76 %. Anything less than that is not worth using. Soaps having more than that are classified as Grade 1 soap, and they are definitely good to your skin, especially in extreme weathers of summer and winter.
30 April 2008 at 6:29 am
@arun
Please note the factual error in your post…timber at Mangalore port is not from Indian forests…they are the imports from East Malaysia. But one should worry about the Iron Ore/ Granite being exported from the same port!
@ all
please note that for all you know this campaign of Greenpeace would have been sponsored by Unilever itself to bring down the price of Indonesian Oil Palm!!! (many years ago the same lobby brought down the price of palm oil by labelling it as inedible- still in the US palm oil is not considered edible, thanks to sunflower oil lobby)
30 April 2008 at 11:35 am
@ E Raviraja Gowda T V
You made a good point. But we are talking about Greenpeace here. Doubt there is the admin would be corrupt at all. The price wouldn’t come down.
@ alok
I singed the open letter to them, and also put sent a more personal e-mail. Surprisingly they replied in 3 days. I pretty sure its hurting their sales. just spread the word.
2 May 2008 at 10:16 am
Use shikkakai and aritha, it cleans well, even though it may not lather as well as soap