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Unilever, makers of Dove, has recently released a video aimed at promoting children’s self-esteem by illuminating how the beauty industry targets girl’s body images. The goal of the Dove Self Esteem Fund is to change “the current, narrow definition of beauty.” As much as I agree with this goal, there is a downside. Unilever imports palm oil from Indonesia, where rainforests and tropical peatlands are destroyed. According to It’s the Only One We Have:
- Indonesia is the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world, in large part due to the destruction of its forests at the hands of the palm oil industry.
- Unilever is buying palm oil from suppliers who destroy Indonesia’s rainforests. Unilever is the biggest user of palm oil in the world and chair of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), so it has huge clout in how palm oil is made.
Here is Greenpeace’s video response:
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Certainly beauty, self-esteem, and environmental preservation can go hand in hand!
Awesome post! Thank you for bringing this to our attention.
How appalling!
I gave up using soap and shampoo years ago, and began to wash in water only. (It took about two weeks for my body oils etc to adjust, and ever since I have shiny hair, very little need for any face/body creams, oils etc, and body odor is no problem!)
Why do we humans think of ourselves and our money and our “wants” as more important than Nature?
(When we finally wipe ourselves out, “Nature” won’t make such an evolutionary mistake again!)
Soy bean, corn, rapeseed, sunflower and wheat are the first and the biggest destroyer of forest land…. So please not to use it’s product (vegetable oil, ethanol, burger, bread (all brand)….. so it is fair…..
I am a hearing science teacher for Deaf and Hard of Hearing students. I have been teaching my students about the Amazon Rainforest. It is such a tragedy seeing over 200,000 acres of Rainforest being “burned and slashed” everyday. It is estimated that in fifty more years we will not have the Rainforest any longer. The Raniforest is called the “lungs of our planet!” As my students say, “What can we do about it!! Why are we just sitting here???” I agree with them. We hear more about the oil spill and the tsunami and how Americans and Japanese are devastated by these events. However we never hear about South American natives being removed, dislocated and losing their homes. The Deaf culture would like to speak for a silent manmade disaster! I know, because I know Deaf culture, that the world of Deaf stick together like blood relatives. If you would give them a platform to denounce this issue you will attract the eyes of the world. IF we could all work together we could end this future devastation. I would like to know why we are just sitting idly and watching this take place.