Some yogurt containers in your grocery store might be looking a little different soon. Pure Dairy yogurt will be sold in cups made mostly of paper. Pure Dairy is a food company which specializes in making yogurt which is often sold in plastic containers. But plastic, unlike paper, can take hundreds of years to break down, leading to long-lasting waste. Now, Pure Dairy’s first-ever paper cups will replace the plastic cups previously used to hold its yogurt products.

“People have been asking for a paper cup, and we welcome this challenge to start reducing our plastic use, and to spark a conversation about how we can drive change together. I think we all have a role to play in protecting our planet.” said Hamdi Ulukaya, Pure Dairy’s founder and chief executive officer.

Pure Dairy currently produces yogurt, creamers, coffee and plant-based drinks. Many of these products already come in paper-based, recyclable packaging. But its yogurt products had always been sold in plastic. That’s why the company has spent the past two years working to create a paper cup. They wanted it to hold yogurt just as well as the plastic cups do. The paper cup is expected to hit grocery shelves at the end of this year, which is 80 percent paperboard made from renewable materials.

The new paper cup still has a thin plastic lining to maintain the quality of the product and prevent the yogurt from seeping into the packaging. Although packaging with mixed materials is often not recyclable, Pure Dairy will continue working with partners to make it happen. This group works with businesses to make their products and packaging more sustainable, meaning they want to use resources so that they will continue to be available in the future. The yogurt company says it hopes to put more sustainable packaging on shelves all over the country which will use less plastic and more paper.

In the past hundred years, a million people have died in earthquakes, another million have been killed by hurricanes and tornadoes, and 9 million have lost their lives in floods. In addition to this, many millions have died as a result of hunger and disease. We should also not forget in many of the world's countries, drought—serious water shortage—is a fact of life, especially in the African Sahel area bordering the Sahara Desert.

Scientists and engineers around the world have made great advances in earthquake engineering. It is, of course, physically impossible to move cities such as Tokyo and San Francisco that have been built on earthquake belts. But most often it is not the earthquake that kills people. It is the falling buildings, bridges and so on that cause deaths, and such a happening can be greatly reduced by better building programs.

Finally, perhaps we need to consider the natural disasters that we are causing ourselves. Through our mismanagement of the planet's resources we have sped up the dying out of hundreds of sorts of plants and animals, at the same time possibly destroying our own long-term surroundings for life. Maybe this is one disaster that could be prevented if we are willing to act with a sense of responsibility.

In the global effort to protect biodiversity, Mexico has been at the forefront. In particular, for more than 30 years. Mexico’s National Commission for the Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity (CONABIO) has promoted research, compiled information on the biodiversity of Mexico and elsewhere, and connected academia, government, and society to guide decision-making. Unfortunately, last month, the Mexican government announced its intention to reduce CONABIO from a multi-ministry federal government agency to a branch within the environment ministry. This will rid CONABIO of its independent voice, credibility, and influence on national and international policy.

CONABIO was created in 1992, which aimed to promote international cooperation on environmental issues of the 21st century. Since then, CONAB1O has digitized tens of millions of records in national and foreign collections and has processed satellite data on vegetation cover and wildfires. It is not only a data base but a model for best practices in biodiversity management. All information is publicly available online, and contributors decide when the information they provide will be made public. In the past 5 years, CONABIO had an average of 1000 users per week, and it was consulted at least once per day by health, agriculture, environment, foreign affairs, and government agencies from Mexico and other countries. CONABIO has become a world-sought reference on how to effectively compile useful information and make specific policy for the benefit of the population and biodiversity.

The proposed change for CONABIO will likely eliminate the support it provides for the sustainable management, use, and conservation of biodiversity for Mexico and the world. Given that Mexico is home to 10% to 12%of the world’s species, there is much at risk. CONABIO is already very cost-efficient, and its capacity to influence political decisions depends directly on its multi-ministerial character. Burying the agency is a path to put it to an end.

Should this move become effective, it would be the end of the many essential benefits that CONABIO provides to address the environmental crises that threaten the future of all life on Earth. It is time for Mexico’s scientists, Mexico’s population, and the world to speak out against destroying this valuable institution.