At the United Nations Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (etc.), the US and other countries are advocating that…

1)… six species sf sharks, including hammerheads, be added to the list of endangered animals whose trade is monitored but not banned.

China opposes the measure because the Chinese are addicted to shark fin soup, even though sharks are consequently disappearing from the world’s oceans.

2) …trade in bluefin tuna be temporarily banned to allow stocks of the fish, which have declined by some 90% largely due to voracious overfishing by the Japanese, to regenerate.

Japan has said it will not honor such a cessation, which is insane, because if the fish is so important to Japanese culture, wouldn’t you want to try to save it?

3) the ban on trade in ivory (elephant tusks) be extended until 2027. As the Times reports, “Affluent buyers of ivory carvings in China, Japan and Thailand have driven the market in poaching…abetted by Asian gangs operating in Africa.”

(ProBama aside: We’re also pushing to ban trade in polar bear products—that means you, Canada!—which would never in a million George W. Bush years have happened.)

We certainly have our own environmental issues  here in the US, but on these ones, we’re right, and the nations of Asia have to evolve—or else the animals that we love to appreciate and they love to swallow won’t be around much longer.