Endangered species: the bigger picture

article and photo by Sebastian Bush

Somatochlora Hineana, a common species of dragonfly, is endangered. With less than 30,000 left, the situation is becoming dire.

Inkwell interviewed tropical biologist and environment policy expert Cristián Samper, president and CEO of the Wildlife Conservation Society, to find out more. The Wildlife Conservation Society is an international NGO whose mission is to save wildlife by conserving the world’s largest wild places. Samper was previously director of the Smithsonian’s Museum of Natural History.

One of the main theories behind mass extinction is climate change. Another significant factor to extinction is cows. According to Samper, creating grasslands for cows eats up into natural spaces, therefore hurting species. In addition, the resulting methane from all of the cows can worsen the production of greenhouse gasses.

How bad is it really?

In past history there have been five major extinctions: the Ordovician Mass Extinction, Devonian Mass Extinction, Permian Mass Extinction, Triassic-Jurassic Mass Extinction and Cretaceous-Tertiary Mass Extinction. When asked whether he thought we were in the sixth extinction, Samper replied, “Many people think we are. The rate of extinction is faster now than at any other point in human history.”

According to the World Wildlife Foundation’s website, the populations of mammals, birds, fish, reptiles and amphibians have seen a 60% decline in just over 40 years. Samper also emphasized the decline in species. “A UN report (based on the IPBES) predicts that as many as one million species will be threatened,” he said. To put that in perspective, that is almost one in ten species on the globe.

Why should we care?

One of those species in question is the tiger. “We estimate there used to be almost 100,000 tigers in the world a hundred years ago, Samper said. “There are now less than four thousand.” He also mentioned frogs. “The largest number of endangered species are frogs. There are six hundred species of frog, and almost half of them are threatened.”

Right now, it may seem inconsequential, but many endangered species impact

indigenous people. “Many of these species are species that are critical for livelihoods [of] many indigenous communities that depend on animals,” Samper said. Indigenous people rely on animals for food, clothing and much more.

How can we help?

According to Samper, eating fewer endangered animals is the biggest way to help. Although many of us rarely consume threatened species, according to a 2019 article from The Guardian, many species are being eaten to death.

One example is the pangolin, which the Guardian article claims is “the world’s most trafficked wild mammal.” According to the article, more than a million pangolins are thought to have been killed for food and medicine since 2000. All eight species are now endangered.

According to Samper, another way to help is to support local organizations like the Point Defiance Zoo and national and international organizations like the Wildlife Conservation Society and World Wildlife Fund.

Governments Incentivize Sustainability by Abby Givens

and Uganda in 2018. “Kenya is the most strict in the world,” said Eguiguren. According to Eguiguren, a person will be fined $40,000 or sentenced to four years in prison if they use a plastic bag.

Making bags out of large plastic banners at Pinta Vida, a community service group in Maputo, Mozambique, supports women with HIV/AIDS. Photo by Andres Eguiguren from the Global Issues Service Summitt in 2011.

While plastic bags are not banned in China, in Yu’s home city of Nanjing, consumers are required to buy plastic bags at grocery stores. As a result of that government effort, Yu said, “I normally don’t see that many plastic bags...if people decide to buy a plastic bag, people tend to stuff a lot of things [in the bag].”

Of the many actors on the global stage working to address climate change, governments have some of the most influence. Inkwell interviewed two Upper School teachers who have lived and worked internationally about these efforts. Andres Eguiguren, Upper School for Boys Global Politics teacher, spoke of efforts in Eastern Africa and Japan, and Luna Yu, Upper School for Girls Chinese teacher, spoke about China’s sustainability efforts.

Eguiguren characterized East African governments’ main efforts to incentivize sustainability as “punitive.” Specifically, he cited banning consumer goods like plastic bags. Rwanda banned them in 2008, Kenya in 2017, Tanzania in 2017,

The effectiveness of government efforts surrounding sustainability must also take into account social norms and their citizens' priorities. Yu said that since China is still a developing country, in the past and in present-day rural areas, people “just worry about bringing food to their table.” In big cities, where people tend to be more affluent, Yu said people are more cognizant of sustainability issues.

In East Africa, Eguiguren noted that the environmental footprint is very small in comparison to developed countries like the United States, yet they are still very aware of the pollution in their area, such as the plastic bags on their beaches that get into the ocean. “Almost by default, they’re going to be more into reusing, recycling... redeveloping things,” he said. He also mentioned youth conventions that focus on the environment. “I would say that the youth in Africa are aware of these issues,” he said.

In Japan, a developed country, the culture surrounding waste is dominated by the idea of mottainai, which Eguiguren defined as “it would be a waste to throw something away.” This manifests itself particularly in cities like Tokyo in which Eguiguren says people simply give away things they no longer need rather than throwing them away. In the city “you never see trash,” there’s “no trash cans anywhere... the culture is you take your trash home.” Yet, in Japanese stores, Eguiguren said, “everything... is heavily packaged... every single cookie will be individually wrapped.”

It is this excessive packaging that likely contributes to Japan being second only to the United States in being the largest generators of plastic packaging waste per capita, according to Eguiguren. Yet despite this, Japan accounts for a relatively small amount of leaked single-use plastics in the environment. This can largely be attributed to their sophisticated waste collection system. Different days are designated for different types of waste. For example, big pots and pans could be assigned the first Monday of the month. And it is only on that assigned day, according to Eguiguren, that that certain good will be picked up.

Similarly, in China, there is a rather complex waste categorization process. “Starting in summer 2019, Shanghai had

this very strict regulation for... waste categorization,” Yu said. There is an app to reference so people put their waste in the right place, and there is personnel at waste dropoff locations that advise and monitor. According to Yu, if waste isn’t disposed of properly, people will be fined.

But complex waste disposal systems also have their drawbacks. According to Eguiguren, “If someone has an old TV or washing machine and they can’t be bothered to pay [to recycle it], they’ll go to a little forest area and chuck it.”

This brings into question the effectiveness of government programs and policies that are put in place with the intent of making the city more sustainable.

Reducing and managing plastic waste is only one part of the equation when it comes to making a country more sustainable. Carbon emissions are a huge problem, and Japan’s Kei cars are addressing it. The Kei car is boxy and fuelefficient with its small engine. Because of their energy efficiency, the government has provided tax breaks as well as lower mandatory inspection prices, incentivizing consumers to purchase them. That lower cost has made them very popular, according to Eguiguren. “There are more Kei cars on the streets than regular-sized cars,” he said. This popularity has remained even after some of those tax breaks were pulled away in 2014. In China, a large producer of carbon emissions is coal plants. Yu’s husband is from an area in China with many coal production factories. In conversation with his parents, she learned that the government closed several coal factories in the past two to three years. “They can feel a significant change in terms of the air over the past two years,” she said.

While not all government efforts described by Eguiguren and Yu can be characterized as incentivization, they are nevertheless actions governments are taking to reduce their negative environmental impact, some to significant effect.

Purses and bags made out of plastic bags at Chikumbuso in Lusaka. Photo by Andres Eguiguren from the Global Issues Service Summit in 2010 in Zambia.