Palm oil plantations, charcoal, and a flea circus

Published: Nov. 23, 2010, 3:14 p.m.

b'Does your shopping basket contain chocolate, biscuits and shampoo? If it does, you may be unwittingly contributing to the destruction of the some of the world\'s pristine rainforests. Manufacturers now use palm oil in a huge range of products, because it\'s so cheap. But virgin rainforest in some of the planet\'s last wildernesses is being destroyed at a dizzying pace to make way for palm oil plantations to keep up with our voracious appetites for the products the stuff is in. Richard Hollingham meets Tim Cockerill, who\'s just come back from Borneo, to find out how the plantations affect the... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists'