Daily Quick Read - July 8, 2019

North Atlantic Right Whales on the Brink

There are more people working to save North Atlantic right whales than there are members of this species in the ocean.  Climate change has resulted in placing these giants in dangerous waters.

Sadly, the unprecedented loss of at least 26 endangered North Atlantic right whales since April of 2017 has caused considerable alarm as these deaths comprise over 4% of the entire species of which only an estimated 450 remain. In human terms, a similar loss would mean the deaths of more than 304 million people in a matter of weeks – that would be approximately 94% of the entire US population.

Check with WDC, Whale and Dolphin Conservation, for ways to help.

Recycle or Else

China is getting serious about recycling and it’s about time.  The recycling rate in China is even worse than the US rate.  So, companies and individuals face real consequence if they fail to follow the rules.

Shanghai’s residents are reeling from the mandatory trash-sorting rules their city just adopted as China works toward beefing up its recycling rates.Starting Monday (July 1), individuals and businesses in China’s financial capital who fail to separate trash correctly face fines and even a lower social credit rating (link in Chinese) that could make it hard to get a bank loan. The city disposes of more than nine million metric tons (10 million tons) of trash annually.

Cows and Greenhouse Gas – Yikes!

Industrial agriculture, with an emphasis on animal agriculture, is the largest source of greenhouse gas emission on the planet.

"If cattle and dairy cows were a country, they would have more greenhouse gas emissions than the entire EU 28," said [Steven] Chu, who recently assumed the presidency of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Rare Earth Elements Not So Rare Just Dangerous

The extraction of rare earth elements which are critical to the production of high technology products is not only a low-tech process, it is an environmentally disastrous one.

Beginning in the 1990s, rare earth mining took off in this region, located in Southeast China about 300 miles north of Hong Kong. As China began to produce more smartphones, wind turbines, electric vehicles, and other high-tech products requiring rare earth elements, the mining intensified. But the removal of these elements from the earth’s crust, using a mix of water and chemicals, caused extensive water and soil pollution.

Plastic Debris Killing Sharks and Rays Globally
Not a surprise that all the plastic trash we dump into the oceans is bad for the creatures who live there. Two key take-aways from this report – the vast majority of entanglements are with fishing gear and that a comprehensive process to report these events is needed to assess the global impact.

More than a thousand sharks and rays have become entangled in jettisoned fishing gear and plastic debris, a new study has found. The researchers behind the study warn that the plastic trapping the sharks and rays may cause starvation and suffocation.