Sunscreen: Good for Your Skin, Bad for Reefs?
By Jenny Williams

As if coral didn't have enough to worry about - global warming, pollution and excess UV radiation now threaten 60 percent of the world's reef systems - there's a new menace on the block, and it fits in your pocket: sunscreen.

According to recent studies, some of the UV filtering ingredients in sunscreen have been proven to cause bleaching in the algae that lives on coral, thus killing the entire structure. The same harmful compounds (including 4-methylbenzylidene camphor, or 4-MBC, and octocrylene, or OC) can also get absorbed by fish and may accumulate over time.

Sejal Choksi, program director for environmental watchdog group Baykeeper, told the San Francisco Chronicle "[almost] 80 percent of our water in the U.S. shows trace amounts of chemicals from personal care products, which could be sunscreens, lotions, colognes or medications."

The UN World Trade Organization estimates that 78 million tourists - swimmers, snorkelers, divers and others - visit coral reefs each year, releasing between 4,000 to 6,000 tons of sunscreen into the water. Several marine reserves in Mexico - Xel-Ha and Xcaret - have banned the use of sunscreens that use oils and chemical ingredients.

The issue puts travelers in a difficult position: slathering on sunscreen wards off skin cancer but contributes to the destruction of critical environmental diversity. Natural sunscreens present a good alternative: the nonprofit Environmental Working Group maintains a list of health and beauty products that use only natural ingredients - no chemical additives. You can find them online at www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/wordsearch.php?query=sunscreen.

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New Report Says Thai Temple Misleads Visitors, Abuses Tigers
By Jenny Williams

Despite its isolated location along the Thai-Burmese border, Wat Pa Luangta Bua Yannasampanno Forest Monastery (the "Tiger Temple") attracts up to 800 visitors daily. For 300 baht apiece (approximately nine U.S. dollars), tourists can pose for pictures with tigers and Buddhist monks. The temple - which has been featured on Animal Planet and Slate - claims to promote conservation of the endangered species and to uphold "the sanctity of compassion and kindness to all living creatures."

However, according to a June 20 report by UK-based organization Care for the Wild International, all is not Wat it seems.

The CWI report, based on information collected over three years, states that the temple has engaged in illegal trade and breeding activities; provided inadequate shelter and veterinary care for the captive animals; physically abused tigers in their care; and put tourists at risk during photo sessions with the tigers. The temple dismisses accusations of illegal trade and emphasizes the importance of their activities in the tiger's conservation.

Certainly, the tiger is in dire straits. In the last century, the number of wild tigers has plummeted from 100,000 to 4,000. Three out of nine tiger subspecies - the Bali, Caspian and Javan tigers - have become extinct, with the South China tiger not far behind. In Thailand, where the Tiger Temple operates, there are between 250 and 500 tigers in the wild.

Demand for tiger meat, skin, and parts (often used in traditional Chinese medicine) has made poaching an "urgent, immediate threat," according to World Bank Group President Robert Zoellick. The World Bank, along with Harrison Ford's nonprofit Conservation International and a handful of other environmental groups, recently announced a new initiative to protect and preserve tigers and their habitats.

Despite the brewing controversy, staff of the Tiger Temple told National Geographic of plans to expand facilities to create the world's largest tiger sanctuary, where the next generation of tigers could be taught how to survive in the wild. Experts point out that "no tigers raised in captivity have ever been successfully reintroduced into the wild."

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