Seas And Oceans Being 'Emptied of Fish,' Nature Fund Warns

BOGOTA — The World Wildlife Fund has sounded the alarm across the planet's sea and oceans. "In just one generation, human activity has seriously harmed the ocean by catching fish faster than they can reproduce, while destroying their feeding zones," the director general of World Wildlife Fund International Marco Lambertini declared, as the WWF publishes its Living Blue Planet report.

El Espectador reports on the view from Latin America, with findings of a stark fall in all marine life numbers — with reductions of up to 75% for some species — since the 1970s. "The pressure on our seas is unprecedented" in Latin America, the regional head of WWF, Roberto Troya, told El Espectador. In addition to overfishing, climate change is both warming and acidifying the seas, leading to their destruction as living habitats.

Photo: ePi.Longo

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Economy

economy

Globalization Takes A New Turn, Away From China

China is still a manufacturing juggernaut and a growing power, but companies are looking for alternatives as Chinese labor costs continue to rise — as do geopolitical tensions with Beijing.

Photo of a woman working at a motorbike factory in China's Yunnan Province.

A woman works at a motorbike factory in China's Yunnan Province.

Jiang Wenyao/Xinhua via ZUMA Wire

Pierre Haski

-Analysis-

PARIS — What were the representatives of dozens of large American companies doing in Vietnam these past few days?

A few days earlier, a delegation of foreign company chiefs currently based in China were being welcomed by business and government leaders in Mexico.

Then there was Foxconn, Apple's Taiwanese subcontractor, which signed an investment deal in the Indian state of Telangana, enabling the creation of 100,000 jobs. You read that right: 100,000 jobs.

What these three examples have in common is the frantic search for production sites — other than China!

For the past quarter century, China has borne the crown of the "world's factory," manufacturing the parts and products that the rest of the planet needs. Billionaire Jack Ma's Alibaba.com platform is based on this principle: if you are a manufacturer and you are looking for cheap ball bearings, or if you are looking for the cheapest way to produce socks or computers, Alibaba will provide you with a solution among the jungle of factories in Shenzhen or Dongguan, in southern China.

All of this is still not over, but the ebb is well underway.