The earth and the animals will be so much better off when humans are history.
2
Let's not confuse a particular economic system, capitalism, based on profits not human needs, with "humanity" when seeking the causes of environmental destruction.
3
A virus, morbillivirus, related to measles. A natural epidemic? Most likely. Are heavy metals and climate change contributing? No way to know. Do natural infectious disease epidemics occur? Yes, commonly, history is full of examples, people, animals, and plants, though to my knowledge the first I have personally heard of involving dolphins. Not truly a political story.
1
In one 18 month period, (2013-5) Delaware responded to 100 dolphins that washed ashore dead from morbillivirus. It's a natural occurring disease (resembling measles) in marine mammals, which is transmitted by mere aspiration/respiration in groups that travel together, such as dolphins. Often times, the cycle of a new transmission is every 16-18 years when a generation of dolphins haven't developed an immunity. However, given the facts that oceans worldwide are now contaminated with many man-made chemicals, the immune systems of the marine mammals is severely compromised, as in this instance. The disease had spread up to Humpback whales in the last several years. NOAA declared an UME (unusual mortality event) in both instances, but theres's nothing unusual with anthropogenic narcissim, and using waterways as chemical disposal sites. A very cruel fate, for our fellow ocean travelers.
5
We all know the subtext of this article: America will well on its way to becoming like Brazil, Russia, China, India, or any of the other rapaciously wealthy and under-regulated states on earth: Dumping heavy metals and spoil in the water, watching the flora and fauna die, wondering "how could this happen?" Mix in an unhealthy American disregard for animal life as somehow subordinate to the aims of mankind, and you get irreparable devastation. This is the future which laissez faire capitalists have been dreaming of since the 1980s, and it's now upon us.
5
We read this- write a comment. And then nothing gets done. Nothing ever gets done and we are watching the ship sink before our eyes. We can demand progress now- instead we’ve fallen into a state of complacency where we’ve forgotten that if we can all work together then we can move mountains- instead we choose to apathetically state at screens thinking nothing can be done as the current White House administration seeks to roll back emissions standards on cars.
We can do something. We choose instead to think we’ve got no power- when always the power rested with us and our ability to come together to stand for what’s most valued to us as a whole.
4
Brazil pumps raw human sewage into the Atlantic. What could be affecting the dolphins?
2
To save the ecosystem of our planet no superhuman effort is required, just a human effort from everyone.
1
Just so devastating to read this. I give up. There is no way to stop the destruction of the soil, water, atmosphere now. It’s spiraling out of control. Population will continue to rise, forcing more growth and greed. Nothing seems fun to me anymore- everything has a negative effect on the planet, everything we buy has some awful consequence on the environment. Everything we eat, drink, the impact of our our cars, planes etc. ugh. Plastic water bottles, acres of poor animals waiting for slaughter, oceans depleted and poisoned! Anything that would help us get better like great public transport, solar panels on everything, conservation practices, SACRIFICE, population control, minimalism, veganism, would cost too much add too many taxes and humans are too lazy to change anyway, etc. seriously we are heading into Soylent Green territory in not too many years.
1
One of the 1st thing to know about Brazil is that the Government is very effective at passing all sorts of rules, regulations and laws towards companies. It is a regulatory haven (or nightmare, you choose). In fact, Brazil has one of the best and most advanced Environmental Law in the world. Therefore, although these companies make for an easy target when blaming environmental degradation, I would “bet” the culprit is actually untreated, raw, human sewage that is released in the bay, and not industrial pollution. The local and state government are in charge of local sewage treatment plants, but because of widespread and “structural” corruption, these plants are never built or are always underutilized.
This is the current situation with Guanabara Bay in Rio de Janeiro city. Millions of gallons of untreated sewage are discharged at it daily. Industrial pollution discharge at its waters has actually being resolved since the 90s.
4
Why do we think it okay to sacrifice other living creatures for the sake of human "progress". We need to have a serious talk about population control, but actually I think we are already doomed. What a wonderful world this would be without us.
9
Fortunately "WE" don't. "WE" just have to watch. "WE" do need population control. Already started it with my family and children.
I think the destructive instincts of the human species are just unstoppable. Maybe, the sooner we go extinct, the better for the entire planet.
7
Don't eat endangered fish like tuna.
Beware of eating seafood in general. Especially sashimi and sushi.
Much of it comes from highly contaminated waters.
1
Not only do humans bring suffering to other humans through countless means of violence, we also destroy other species without a second thought. So much of all of this so-called progress -- not just Brazil but globally -- is just extended destruction, and those diseased, dead, or suffering dolphins are a mirror into human nature.
Real estate developers, most 1%ers, most politicians, all climate changer deniers = all future residents of Dante's 9th circle. Can't happen fast enough.
4
Wow, what a mystery, I wonder what killed them. People and overpopulation are destroying our planet. No scientific or engineering miracle is going to save the planet we love, other than a wholesale commitment to negative population growth and reducing our gluttonous consumption. What's worse, over recent years, this decline seems to be accelerating. Insects are dying off everywhere; large mammals as well. And yet, we continue to be baby- and consumption- crazy, even couching this stupidity in religious fervor. When will humanity realize that to save itself it has to shrink, both in numbers and appetite?
8
Human's could not have inherited a more beautiful planet, nor could we have treated our planet and the myriad other creatures who share it with us more unkindly.
7
Another sad example of the inability of our species to make sacrifices in the most basic of ways to protect living creatures on this planet. Why is it so hard to accept slightly lower short term profit margins to gain longer term species and planetary survival? Greed is a uniquely human trait not found in the wildlife we destroy. We are poor stewards indeed.
10
It 50 years the worlds oceans will be contaminated beyond repair. It's a sad day for everyone.
14
The late U. Utah Phillips had this to say: "The earth is not dying, it's being killed. And those doing the killing have names and addresses."
1
R.I.P. Flipper. May pure waters await those forced to endure the tribulation.
3
Imagine earth without humans. I'm sure it is the dream of most species.
30
And yet, in our hubris, we dare call ourselves "Homo sapiens" - "Wise"? Hardly. Even cockroaches don't dirty their own nests to the point of self-destruction.
Pulls on the Heartstrings/
3
This is such a tragedy!! The greediness of a country has put these beautiful marine creatures in a death sentence!!! All the pollution from the industrial complex is killing them!! Hopefully some can be saved, why must man ruin everything by the greediness for money!!!
4
Why? Because we're the most destructive and only SELF-destructive ever to have disgraced the planet.
The article suggests linkage between the dolphin die out and industrial pollution however does not provide any results of water test data of the Bazil Sepetiba Bay over time. One would assume that routine testing of the water is done and if so, you could see an acceleration of pollutants across time to help substantiate the claim. To say that industrialization has had no effect is naive. However, in the supposed age of 'Big Data', geographic water quality data is very difficult to obtain and aggregate into meaningful trends even in the US. It's not too hard to understand why.
1
Nothing I've ever smelled stunk as badly as the bay in Rio de Janeiro — but water anywhere near any brazilian town or city is filled with untreated sewage.
I know the country well and I've followed the news in portuguese for years now.
There's a very strange dynamic in Brazil - the nation has some of the most strident and knowledgable ecologists and environmentalists in the world. The universities there are pioneers in reforestation and environmental science. The good guys in Brazil are passionate, smart, model citizens of the world — and they're completely ignored by business and government. Brazil was an empire and the general population either takes orders be imperial decree or completely ignores them as they see fit. The poor education and raw authoritarianism, their past heritage simply doesn't accommodate effective group action.
Exclusively punitive systems (dictatorships) only function when authority is feared - no other motivation seems comprehensible and so with the environment as with everything else all the progressive talk leads to no one at all getting on board to take action.
This is where the Republicans would take us. Only a hand full of rich families calling the shots, the military in the street, and the environment stripped away.
Still I applaud the Brazilians for impeaching or sending their politicians to prison — if only we could too.
31
It is hard for me to understand how the "leadership" class of the world can continue to pursue capitalism with its corollaries, exploitation and extrapolation, when the results are devastating the planet. How hard is it to grasp that a living planet is required to have an economy? That dolphins are not only beautiful intelligent creatures, but that we need them? That we - the humans - will be our own ultimate victims? Is the dominant class so addicted to its power that is it willing to kill itself and everyone else with it? It appears so - an example of unbridled insanity. May it change, and soon. Blessings to our lost dolphins.
24
Currently the entire Atlantic Right whale population is on the verge of extinction here on the east coast. Hundreds of dolphins have washed ashore dying or dead along the shores of Cape Cod, (especially in Wellfleet), over the past decade and nobody knows why. This is happening all over the world. Our oceans are in peril.
36
This was heartbreaking to read. Dolphins are highly intelligent mammals and the fact that our institutional and moral system does not treat them (as well as many other species) with more moral and legal standing will probably be seen by future generations as one among our more egregious failures.
If you are curious about just how intelligent and curious dolphins are, check out the work of a really interesting NGO working with wild dolphins called dolphin-dance.org. The vidoes are mesmerizing at the very least.
22
Since they are so intelligent, It is even more tragic, they must
know what is going on with the pollution. I am wondering if they are
trying to find some clean water somewhere, before they all perish.
Is there any place where lethal pollution will not kill them all? I wish
we humans could help them find it. And for the whales too. How horrid
it is to belong to a species as we do, whose members who think
nothing of destroying the earth and it's creatures for some power
and blood money.
3
I agree wholeheartedly. A reminder to everyone what our cows and pigs and sheep and chickens go through every day on feedlots around the world. Just image. “Do unto others.....”
RECOMMENDED READING: "The Water Will Come," by Jeff Goodell (author of "Big Coal"), Little, Brown & Co., 2017. Focus on climate change and the rising seas, endangering coastal cities worldwide. (One bit of good news: Mar-a-Lago will soon be underwater.)
Mr. Goodell writes that, back about 14,500 years ago there were an estimated 3 MILLION people on the planet. Today, some 7.5 BILLION and growing. This fact is key to ALL our problems. Will we ever do anything constructive on this front?
The human being is the only animal on earth that is evil. All other creatures on this earth do nothing to deliberately destroy their environment but live together in balance with nature. Unbridled Capitalism will surely destroy the earth and every living thing in it except maybe the cockroaches!
25
The top predator in nearly every ecosystem on Earth is Homo Sapiens. If the dolphins are dying in Sepetiba Bay, that means that the fish they eat are poisonous, and so on down the food chain to the pollution in the water itself.
Unless we change our culture and stop poisoning the environment, we will eventually be forced to consume the pollution that we create, and high quality food will become unaffordable for all but the very wealthy. How long can we skirt the laws of nature?
22
Is this what "progress" looks like? It doesn't have to. It's why we need regulation. I grew up in the industrial midwest. For decades the foundries and chemical companies dumped their toxic waste in the lakes, essentially killing them. Many gave the excuse that they "didn't know any better." Well, now we do know better and developing countries need to pay attention to how they allow their economies to develop before greed and corruption destroys everything.
12
mankind is mankind's own worst enemy
20
Sometimes large cetacea die-offs happen if they mistakenly beach themselves.
This die off, adjacent to a heavily used port, points to human impacts to the local environment. Sadly people from home nations (e.g. - China, Brazil, etc.) need to demand environmental protections similar to what exists in America before their air. water and soil is made less dangerous.
With a global economy that has not regulated ties to labor and environmental conditions, this is all too common. "Poor" nations take on dirty industries for fast cash and disregard impacts to their environment and citizenry.
Future free trade agreements need equivalency issues regarding labor and environmental issues included in any negotiated exchange of goods and services. Otherwise wastes and dirty industries will migrate to poor nations that have little or no protections in place.
5
This piece might be expanded to put this particular effect of pollution pouring into the Atlantic in the context of more widespread pollution from Brazil into international waters including the agricultural runoff feeding the vast blankets of sargasso weed plaguing Caribbean beaches for many years now. Everywhere, poisoning our nest.
10
Hopefully the fantasy of Brazil, bikinis, pristine beaches, people dancing the samba will finally give way to reality. A reality that includes the racism toward Brazil's Black population. As well as the endemic corruption of every aspect of life.
8
Human beings -- with their eternal desire for MORE -- are killing everything else on the planet, plain and simple.
18
Too many humans on this planet. And so many of them are suffering from the disease, no vaccine available, Greed on Steroids.
8
What happens when Earth has finally had enough of humans? It is extremely doubtful that the Great Flood is history, but our actions could very well make it prophecy.
8
Brazil is too corrupt to do anything about pollution and too corrupt to care.
Good luck to the dolphins.
12
‘‘Nothing is going to change until they kill every last wild animal on this planet.’’
-Joy Williams
3
Ah, we humans. We are a stupid, miserable species. No interest in doing the right things when a little more profit is to be made for the Big Boss. We're smart so that's not the problem. We could figure out how to have both business and a good (probably never pristine) environment. But it would cost money to not damage the environment and so the Big Boss says, 'No way' and that's that.
Brazil today. America tomorrow. I wonder how long it will take before the Cuyahoga starts burning again?
13
Tragic. Not just the suffering of those dolphins, but the suffering underneath our complicity.
28
Pollution destroys the diversity and balance of the various microbes in the water, including virus. Their immune systems which are also made up of an enormous microbial symbiotic balance are way off.
13
"We suggest our clients not swim in this beach,” he said. “The water could be better treated.”
Unfortunately dolphins don't have that option. We're poisoning them. It's no better than what Putin did to the former spies. It's animal cruelty, pure and simple, and should not be tolerated for any reason.
50
The alarm bells were already going off four years ago when pollution threatened the 2016 Summer Olympics in Brazil due to raw sewage flowing into Rio's surrounding waters.
Too late now for the dolphins.
40
Right and instead of spending on sewage treatment plants the government spent on stadiums. It's like children are in charge.
14
This is so disheartening and sad.
12
When you allow corporations to pollute, you will reap only death. Take a close look at those dolphins; they are a mirror to our future.
22
We're destroying our planet with pollution.
Disgusting.
Tragic.
13
And once they are gone, there's no getting these creatures back, ever.
13
Today short term profits trump the environment. This is a worldwide epidemic.
34
Go ahead. Kill them all. Leave nothing alive. That's the motto of successive governments all over the world the past 50 years. This world is turning into a cesspool for the sake of avarice and greed.
42
"What a piece of work is man, how noble in reason etc. etc. blah blah blah!!"
8
There's no mystery to this: when surrounded by filthy air, chemicals, and water plus the stress of large shippers and manufacturers, the poor dolphins' immune systems are non-functional.
Let's hope no scientists believe a vaccine is the answer.
Disease goes away when healthy immune systems, supported by ample space to live, plus clean air, food and water, can block invaders
16
I have been to Brazil and it is absolutely astonishing to see for oneself just how polluted the waters are around Brazil. No wonder dolphins are dying.
I did not go swimming in any bays or ocean around Brazil not even to wade.
What a sad story!
20
I don't think you a vaccine is likely to be proposed. The cost of developing one for such a small population would be prohibitive, and delivering it to enough of the population to achieve herd immunity seems implausible.
Analyzing the virus might still be important, though. It is possible, as you and the article suggest, that these deaths resulted from a typical virus strain unchecked by damaged immune systems. Mass deaths from common viruses are more commonly the result of a new virus strain jumping between species or of gene transfer from a different virus.
My guess is that this outbreak resulted at least in part from a newly deadly morbillivirus strain that the dolphin population acquired when they were forced to feed on a different type of prey. That would be an even worse sign for the environment, since it would suggest collapse of at least one large population of fish previously eaten by these dolphins.
SIV was widespread in chimps (and mangabees) for tens of thousands of years. The human HIV pandemic only took root when we destroyed primate habitats en masse and exponentially expanded the number of humans hunting primate "bush meat".
5
Had occasion to spend over a month in Rio on business over the course of spring and summer 1978. Stayed in the Rio Sheraton on the beach (Ipanema). Gorgeous beyond description... who could resist a dip?
In truth, although there was significant human traffic ON the beach, I eventually noted (too late) that very few people were actually IN the water. Most folks restricted their water contact to the really nice hotel pools above.
I -- unfortunately -- took the dip, swimming out to the great rock just off the beach. By the next morning, and for two days thereafter, I was deathly ill in bed. Found out later from a friend (Cornell Hotel School alum) on senior staff at the hotel that all the waters in and around Rio were super-polluted, despite their incredible beauty. What I got was standard for visitors taking the waters.
At the time, the city's raw sewage was drained untreated into the Atlantic. The disease potential (actually, not potential -- a sure thing) can only have gotten exponentially worse in the 40 years since.
13
Brazil's war on the environment is probably THE most important war being fought and lost on the planet today.
13
I truly teared up reading this. Know hope?
No hope.
18
Caring for our environment starts at home. The Brazilian government needs to wake up to what it's doing -- such a beautiful, abundant country. Here in the U.S., the White House is busily rolling back environmental restrictions that will allow big polluters to go back to dumping waste in our waters, and now scaling back emissions standards for vehicles. Greed is alive and well, and we're on track to repeat history. You can't fix stupid, but (in some countries at least) you can vote it out of office.
44
I spent half my childhood in my grandparents' house in the one of the tiny beaches close to this port. Back them, we could catch clams and small lobsters for dinner in the shallow water. This article doesn't begin to address the environmental destruction that has happened in the last 30 years.
76
One of the few species that always seem to be happy and smiling! Heartbreaking.
24
If you want to see, feel and smell real pollution, just go to Rio or Sao Paulo. Environmentalists ignore the issues in Brazil, while castigating the U.S. regularly for creating a mere fraction of the same pollution.
23
In general, the U.S. gets more criticism because it is a developed country and has the resources to control pollution but lacks the political will to do so.
12
John, NY and California are fighting this environmental malaise along with non profits. The youth are educated to be stewards. Google is also involved with monitoring. Obama's EPA forced Mayor Bloomberg to erect 3 sewage treatment plants in Jamaica Bay. Now perhaps the tidal grass will grow and slow down the ocean's creep. Not all of the US lacks the political will. Microbeads from cosmetics and sunscreen which kills algae is banned in many NY municipalities. Plastic bags often ingested by large sea life and ocean floor nets are too. EDF has brought sustainability in fishing quotas in the eastern seaboard and the carribean. Chile and PR are clean environment loving countries. Brazil is a bad actor and who is funding this development? I hope not the World Bank.
Sorry, that's very unfair. Brazilian environmentalists do not ignore the issues - in Rio, São Paulo, the Amazon or anywhere else. You could say the issues, and the politics, are pretty overwhelming, though.
1
Humans better learn to coexist with other species fast. Our planet is dying.
65
Life is dying, and it will continue to. Human beings will become extinct, as they deserve. Despite our self-importance, and the incredible mess we will leave behind in passing, our entire existence -- beginning to end -- is less than nothing to the planet.
Man, first cousin of the chimpanzee, the image of God. Some God. Who exactly do we think we're kidding?
2