My contempt for the human race grows every day. We share an ancestor with orangutan apes. We are going out of our way to destroy them. They could go extinct in our lifetimes.

This is from http://www.orangutan.com/threats-to-orangutans/

A crisis exists for orangutans.

While exact orangutan population counts are always a challenge – various estimates put current counts at between 50,000-65,000 orangutans left in the wild – we do know with certainty that 2,000 to 3,000 orangutans are killed every year.

At this rate of loss, many experts believe orangutans could be extinct in the wild in less than 50 years.

Never before has their very existence been threatened so severely. Economic crisis combined with natural disasters and human abuse of the forest are pushing one of humankind’s closest cousins to extinction.

The main threats in today to the survival of orangutans

Loss of habitat through deforestation

Palm oil plantations

Illegal hunting

Illegal pet trade

Orangutans have lost well over 80% of their habitat in the last 20 years, and an estimated one-third of the wild population died during the fires of 1997-98.

As shocking as the rapid loss of rainforests has been over these past few decades, nothing compares to the amount of land being bulldozed by palm oil plantations in the 21st century. Each palm plantation that destroys thousands of hectares in pursuit of massive profits also takes with it the lives of many orangutans. Recent headlines reported how one palm oil firm hunted down orangutans while expanding their cash crop production. Meanwhile, governmental mandates, meant to protect the land and the animals, disappear faster than do the trees.

In short, if things don’t change soon, if the main threats to orangutans – palm oil, deforestation, poaching and hunting – are not addressed in a serious, urgent and sustained manner, wild orangutans will be gone from this earth.