Environment & Climate

The war in Ukraine has caused food prices to shoot up as global markets anticipate a loss of wheat and maize exports from one of the world’s largest producers of these crops. But Europe and the U.S. could more than compensate for the loss of Ukraine’s exports by diverting crops destined to be made into biofuels into food production instead.

Scientists have been raising growing concerns for decades over the use of toxic “forever chemicals,” so called because their strong molecular bonds can take hundreds of years to completely break down in the environment. Widely used in consumer products such as cookware and clothing, these substances are turning up everywhere from drinking water to our bloodstream. And now researchers are warning of yet another—and so far underrecognized—source of these troubling toxins: common pesticides.

In February, a crowd gathered around Mexico City’s Lake Xochimilco to witness the release of endemic salamanders called axolotls, culturally revered amphibians at risk of extinction because of the lake’s pollution. After a ritual ceremony, mayors from different wards of the city dropped six bred-in-captivity axolotl into the lake as a statement of commitment to preserve the species and its habitat. 

Those who do not see wolves as sacred, or at least as kindred spirits in many ways worthy of respect and equal consideration, must step out of themselves and the confines of anthropocentrism. Then we may save the wolves from extinction along with the salvation of our own humanity.