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China's ivory trade ends
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Eco catch-22
to build several dams on the river Moraca, which provides most of the lake’s water, leaving bird nesting sites vulnerable. The development of an ecoresort, due to be completed in 2019, is also raising concerns. Critics fear tourism will drive birds away and pollute the lake with waste water. The firm behind the resort insists it has carried out impact studies and says that some of the profits can be used to keep the area clean. A number of environmental groups started a petition in late December asking the Montenegrin government to save the lake.
WHAT’S good for the ocean could be bad for the planet. Sustainable fishing might use more fuel than vessels that just scoop up all the fish in their vicinity. Eco-label programmes designed to guide consumers focus mainly on factors such as leaving enough fish in the ocean to maintain populations. But they overlook carbon emissions. By combing through papers and catch databases, Brandi McKuin at the University of California, Merced, and her team found that tuna vessels using
60 SECONDS
more sustainable methods such as pole and line fishing consume about three to four times as much fuel to land the same catch as boats that use a large net. The researchers also compared the climate impact of tuna with that of terrestrial sources of protein, like tofu, pork and beef. Sustainably caught tuna has a larger effect than any other protein considered, except beef, for which climate warming emissions are five times those for the same weight of tuna. The energy needed to freeze fish on its way to the shops might add to its impact, says McKuin.
China’s ivory trade ends
Psychedelic help
ADAM DEAN/NEW YORK TIMES/REDUX/EYEVINE
HOW do you recover from a bad CHINA has promised to close its domestic ivory market – the world’s trip? A “psychedelics sanctuary” largest – by the end of 2017. will open in New York this month, Conservation groups hope that the the first US therapeutic facility announcement, made by the Chinese for users of psychedelic drugs. government on 30 December, will Current treatments tend to blunt demand for ivory and with it encourage users of such drugs to go cold turkey. But LSD, psilocybin the rationale for poaching elephants. “This is a tremendous victory for and other psychedelic drugs are elephants, and we applaud China not physiologically addictive, and for showing such decisive action many people who use them don’t and leadership on this issue,” says want to be cured. Instead, some Azzedine Downes, president of the seek help making sense of their experiences, which can sometimes International Fund for Animal Welfare. All processing and sales of ivory fundamentally challenge how within China will cease by the end of they see the world. the year, the government statement The sanctuary will offer said. This will see the closure of 34 support groups, workshops and registered ivory processing factories training in meditation. Staff will and 143 trading venues. Carvers include a doctor, 11 clinical psychologists, plus psychedelic researchers. Preliminary research suggests that group therapy can improve well-being, says Katherine MacLean at the Center for Optimal Living, the clinic that will host the sanctuary. But while some people may benefit from sharing experiences, others risk more trauma by recalling them, says Elias Dakwar, a clinical psychologist at Columbia University, New York. It’s important for therapists who lead group therapy sessions to be properly trained and familiar with –No longer for sale– psychedelics, he says.
will be redeployed in museums. Two more of the world’s key ivory markets are also taking action. New laws passed in the US last July prohibit almost all domestic ivory trade. Hong Kong, the other key market, announced last month that it would phase out domestic ivory trade by 2021, although a WWF feasibility study found it is possible by 2019. “Now that three of the world’s largest domestic ivory markets are being phased out, we hope other countries will follow suit,” said Lo Sze Ping, head of WWF China, in a joint statement with TRAFFIC, which monitors trade in wildlife products. TRAFFIC says that although ivory poaching peaked in 2011, 20,000 animals are still poached each year.
Ebola vaccine hope An experimental vaccine could mean we never see another major Ebola outbreak. In a trial launched in 2015, when the Ebola virus was still spreading in West Africa, 5837 people in Sierra Leone and Guinea received the vaccine. After the first 10 days, there were no Ebola cases in those vaccinated, while 23 people in the control group developed the disease (The Lancet, doi.org/bwm9).
Chinese mission trio China’s space agency has revealed plans to soft-land a probe on the far side of the moon in 2018, and to launch its first Mars probe by 2020. It also wants to send a craft to Jupiter by 2030. The missions will reveal new details of the solar system’s origins and turn China into a “space power”, the agency said.
Cheetahs’ decline Cheetahs could soon be added to the endangered list: there may only be 7100 of them left, confined to only 9 per cent of their former range (PNAS, doi.org/bwnc). In Zimbabwe, their numbers have fallen from 1200 to only 170 animals in just 16 years.
North Korea nuke claim North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has said that the country is close to developing an intercontinental ballistic missile. The claim, made in his New Year address, comes after two North Korean nuclear tests in 2016. US president-elect Donald Trump responded in a tweet that a North Korean weapon capable of reaching the US “won’t happen”.
Sugary start Children in England have already had half their recommended maximum daily sugar intake before they get to school. According to dietary data analysed by Public Health England, children consume an average of 11 grams of sugar around breakfast, largely from drinks, cereals and spreads – equivalent to eating three sugar cubes.
7 January 2017 | NewScientist | 7
Eco catch-22
to build several dams on the river Moraca, which provides most of the lake’s water, leaving bird nesting sites vulnerable. The development of an ecoresort, due to be completed in 2019, is also raising concerns. Critics fear tourism will drive birds away and pollute the lake with waste water. The firm behind the resort insists it has carried out impact studies and says that some of the profits can be used to keep the area clean. A number of environmental groups started a petition in late December asking the Montenegrin government to save the lake.
WHAT’S good for the ocean could be bad for the planet. Sustainable fishing might use more fuel than vessels that just scoop up all the fish in their vicinity. Eco-label programmes designed to guide consumers focus mainly on factors such as leaving enough fish in the ocean to maintain populations. But they overlook carbon emissions. By combing through papers and catch databases, Brandi McKuin at the University of California, Merced, and her team found that tuna vessels using
60 SECONDS
more sustainable methods such as pole and line fishing consume about three to four times as much fuel to land the same catch as boats that use a large net. The researchers also compared the climate impact of tuna with that of terrestrial sources of protein, like tofu, pork and beef. Sustainably caught tuna has a larger effect than any other protein considered, except beef, for which climate warming emissions are five times those for the same weight of tuna. The energy needed to freeze fish on its way to the shops might add to its impact, says McKuin.
China’s ivory trade ends
Psychedelic help
ADAM DEAN/NEW YORK TIMES/REDUX/EYEVINE
HOW do you recover from a bad CHINA has promised to close its domestic ivory market – the world’s trip? A “psychedelics sanctuary” largest – by the end of 2017. will open in New York this month, Conservation groups hope that the the first US therapeutic facility announcement, made by the Chinese for users of psychedelic drugs. government on 30 December, will Current treatments tend to blunt demand for ivory and with it encourage users of such drugs to go cold turkey. But LSD, psilocybin the rationale for poaching elephants. “This is a tremendous victory for and other psychedelic drugs are elephants, and we applaud China not physiologically addictive, and for showing such decisive action many people who use them don’t and leadership on this issue,” says want to be cured. Instead, some Azzedine Downes, president of the seek help making sense of their experiences, which can sometimes International Fund for Animal Welfare. All processing and sales of ivory fundamentally challenge how within China will cease by the end of they see the world. the year, the government statement The sanctuary will offer said. This will see the closure of 34 support groups, workshops and registered ivory processing factories training in meditation. Staff will and 143 trading venues. Carvers include a doctor, 11 clinical psychologists, plus psychedelic researchers. Preliminary research suggests that group therapy can improve well-being, says Katherine MacLean at the Center for Optimal Living, the clinic that will host the sanctuary. But while some people may benefit from sharing experiences, others risk more trauma by recalling them, says Elias Dakwar, a clinical psychologist at Columbia University, New York. It’s important for therapists who lead group therapy sessions to be properly trained and familiar with –No longer for sale– psychedelics, he says.
will be redeployed in museums. Two more of the world’s key ivory markets are also taking action. New laws passed in the US last July prohibit almost all domestic ivory trade. Hong Kong, the other key market, announced last month that it would phase out domestic ivory trade by 2021, although a WWF feasibility study found it is possible by 2019. “Now that three of the world’s largest domestic ivory markets are being phased out, we hope other countries will follow suit,” said Lo Sze Ping, head of WWF China, in a joint statement with TRAFFIC, which monitors trade in wildlife products. TRAFFIC says that although ivory poaching peaked in 2011, 20,000 animals are still poached each year.
Ebola vaccine hope An experimental vaccine could mean we never see another major Ebola outbreak. In a trial launched in 2015, when the Ebola virus was still spreading in West Africa, 5837 people in Sierra Leone and Guinea received the vaccine. After the first 10 days, there were no Ebola cases in those vaccinated, while 23 people in the control group developed the disease (The Lancet, doi.org/bwm9).
Chinese mission trio China’s space agency has revealed plans to soft-land a probe on the far side of the moon in 2018, and to launch its first Mars probe by 2020. It also wants to send a craft to Jupiter by 2030. The missions will reveal new details of the solar system’s origins and turn China into a “space power”, the agency said.
Cheetahs’ decline Cheetahs could soon be added to the endangered list: there may only be 7100 of them left, confined to only 9 per cent of their former range (PNAS, doi.org/bwnc). In Zimbabwe, their numbers have fallen from 1200 to only 170 animals in just 16 years.
North Korea nuke claim North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has said that the country is close to developing an intercontinental ballistic missile. The claim, made in his New Year address, comes after two North Korean nuclear tests in 2016. US president-elect Donald Trump responded in a tweet that a North Korean weapon capable of reaching the US “won’t happen”.
Sugary start Children in England have already had half their recommended maximum daily sugar intake before they get to school. According to dietary data analysed by Public Health England, children consume an average of 11 grams of sugar around breakfast, largely from drinks, cereals and spreads – equivalent to eating three sugar cubes.
7 January 2017 | NewScientist | 7