China
Threatened biodiversity + Huawei CEO's wake-up call
Dear reader,
There are no longer dugongs in China. In a study published Wednesday, Researchers declared the marine mammal, also known as the fork-tailed manatee or sea pig, extinct – only three people surveyed from coastal communities in China said they had seen a dugong in the past five years. The fork-tailed manatee, native to saltwater, had inspired numerous myths and stories about sirens and mermaids in China, like its relatives in other oceans. And this despite its rather inelegant appearance, which resembles a floating potato. According to researchers, precisely this ponderous progress has doomed the dugongs: Overfishing and ship accidents have now led to their extinction in China.
The fate of the dugongs shows an obvious problem of our time: The mass extinction of animal and plant species caused by humanity's expansion. The People's Republic wanted to take action against the extinction of species and made big promises, not least at the biodiversity conference in Kunming. However, as Ning Wang analyzes, there are massive problems with implementation. China's foreign projects, in particular, contribute little to the preservation of biodiversity – on the contrary. The prospects for an agreement on globally valid targets at the COP Biodiversity Conference in December are anything but rosy.
Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei does not have a rosy view of the future either. In a memo that initially was not intended for the public, he prepares his employees for tough years ahead. For Huawei, it is no longer about expansion, but only about "survival," he wrote. In China's social networks, Ren apparently hit a nerve, as Fabian Kretschmer reports – in the comment section, displeasure about the current economic situation in the People's Republic was apparent. Our author took a closer look at the Huawei CEO's wake-up call.
