The cashmere industry is threatening snow leopards

The rising global demand for cheap cashmere isn't just turning Mongolia into a dust bowl. It is also threatening the existence of the snow leopard on three fronts: by pushing out the saiga antelope that the leopards eat, by destroying snow leopard habitat, and through retaliatory and pre-emptive attacks by goat herders on snow leopards. Sad! Cashmere is soft, it's true, but it's not worth this kind of environmental cost.

Image courtesy Flickr/renedrivers