global briefs

Cold Comfort

Hazardous Pollutants Found in Mount Everest Snow

Manmade perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) used in water-repellant outdoor gear and linked to birth defects, high cholesterol and increased risk of kidney and testicular cancer have been detected in snow at the top of Mount Everest, posing a risk for daniel prudek/AdobeStock.com trekkers, climbers and residents that drink the water. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry suggests that exposure to high levels of PFAS may suppress the immune system and increase the risk of getting COVID-19.

The PFAS discovery was reported by Kimberley Miner, a research assistant professor at the University of Maine Climate Change Institute, who along with 20 co-authors published a paper, “Deposition of PFAS ‘forever chemicals’ on Mt. Everest,” in the online journal Science of the Total Environment. The PFAS pollution shows that people unknowingly shed these chemicals. Some companies that make outdoor gear are phasing them out, while others cite “technical challenges” in delaying such implementation.

Fishy Business

Saving Coral Reefs Worldwide

The International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI) has urged governments to take action to save the planet’s remaining coral reefs and their attendant fish populations, because collective human impacts are leaving fewer places untouched, with only 15 percent of the pyvovarova yevheniia/Unsplash.com daniel prudek/AdobeStock.com Earth’s land mass formally protected and global biodiversity declining at an unprecedented rate. To that end, a new online data platform, MERMAID (DataMermaid.org) helps scientists and management officials collect, organize and disseminate data on reef fish biomass and diversity, as well as the cover of hard corals, fleshy algae and other benthic groups—all identified by ICRI as key indicators of coral reef health, integrity and function.

The newly published 5th Global Biodiversity Outlook and other sources endorsed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services clearly indicate that governments are failing to meet existing global targets for biodiversity and that critical ecosystems like coral reefs will be altered to the point that the biodiversity they harbor, and the services they provide, will be irreparably damaged. Currently, only 2.5 percent of the world’s reefs are being actively protected.

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Buzz Kill

Honey Bees Have a Dirty Secret

Although honey bees symbolize prosperity, sustainability and environmentalism, and are vital to farmers, they also have a distressing effect on the environment— destabilizing natural ecosystems by competing with native bees. Thousands of beekeeping hobbyists and campaigns to save the bees provide honey bees much more media coverage than native pollinators. High densities of honey bee colonies increase competition with the native pollinators for forage, putting even more pressure on the wild species that are already in decline. Honey bees are extremely general foragers and monopolize floral resources, leading to exploitative competition where one species uses up a resource, not leaving enough to go around.

Sheila Colla, an assistant professor and conservation biologist at Toronto’s York University, tells Scientific American, “Beekeeping is for people; it’s not a conservation practice. People mistakenly think keeping honey bees, or helping honey bees, is somehow helping the native bees, which are at risk of extinction. The focus on neonics [pesticide] and honey bees has taken a ton of resources away from conserving wild pollinators from their most important threats.”