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Ocean Armageddon

June 26, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Dr. Steve Best’s spot-on, thought-provoking blog post, “Climate Armageddon: How the World’s Weather Could Quickly Run Amok,” prompted this, my reply:

The bad part is that it doesn’t take a perfect storm and domino effects to make the planet uninhabitable for today’s earthlings.  It takes just a small fraction of that.  While some may suggest that THIS scientist is spewing doom and gloom, it’s an apt and fair assessment.

Consider the recent weather, the extremes that caused people to stop using “Global Warming” and call it Climate Change.  These seemingly capricious swings are already making this planet uninhabitable for those in flood and drought areas, in places of extreme heat or cold, and creating radical changes in places like Greenland as the ice melts.  In science-fiction worlds, we see human ingenuity compensating.  In that speculative fiction universe, mankind develops new ways to live within the harsher climate.  But that’s only for the rich.  The everyman, the villager, the lower class (even in urban areas) doesn’t possess the resources to have such housing, transportation, etc.  It’s great to say “Well, we’ll just live in air conditioning, as they do in Dubai.”  But Dubai has the money (from oil, how ironic) to pay for those comforts.  The upper mucky-muck in the UAE doesn’t even pay for electricity.  What will the everyman do?  He will suffer, and he will die, and his wife and children with him.

Perhaps this is Gaia’s way of ridding herself of an annoyingly destructive parasite, a plague of vermin that she recognizes as a threat to her well-being.  In the bigger picture, it is of no consequence to her what life form inhabits this rock as it spins and zooms through space.  Quite the contrary, our clever monkey brains have made us that very parasite in just a couple centuries — not even the blink of a god’s eye.  Gaia may not care if she is inhabited by the current creatures or the new beings which spring up able to thrive in the new climate(s).  But wouldn’t WE (and our fellow Earthlings) be better off to stave off that climate change NOW?

I think and believe it to be true that we are flying headfirst towards a precipice, a point beyond which we cannot recover.  If we and the current Earthling species are to survive, we MUST put the brakes on.  We MUST cease use of all combustion processes (as they are ALL inherently destructive and toxic) and stop spewing noxious chemicals into the air and water — and we’ve got to do so sooner, or there will be no Later for us.  This does not mean returning to living in cabins and dying of easy  cured diseases, as some reactionaries would attempt to claim.   We took a wrong turn at the combustion engine.  We just need to go back that far and replace the energy generation with PASSIVE electronic harvests of energy.  The forces of solar, wind and tide, combined with more energy-efficient devices AND a more responsible stewardship over ourselves, can easily provide us all with everything we need.

The time is now.  If we are to survive, instead of causing the end of nearly all life as we know it on this beautiful, wonderful world, we MUST recognize our place AMONGST the species of the earth, toss away the Judeo-Christian “thou shalt have Dominion over them” presumptions, and live in ways that are harmonious with the rest of the planet.  In short, it’s time we grew up… and if we do not, we will not survive this adolescence, and we’ll take every other living being, the dogs, cats, wolves, eagles, hawks, falcons, gorillas, orangutans, dolphins, whales — all the innocent creatures great and small will suffer our fate along with us.  Do we REALLY need to feel powerful that bad, to reassure ourselves that we are in control, at so horrible a price?

Filed Under: Activism, Editorial, Friends, Global Warming Tagged With: , , ,

A Human Issue

January 7, 2012 by 3 Comments

It is often said that the killing of dolphins in Taiji and whales in Antarctic waters is a matter for the Japanese to handle.  Similarly, the Danes say that the people of the Faroe Islands must decide to stop killing pilot “whales” (which are actually large dolphins).  These may seem apt excuses, and may even seem to make sense, given a perfunctory glance.  But such boundaries and distinctions are artificial, man-made, and ultimately invalid.

This is the amazing transformation performed by whaling

Whaling turns this majestic being into this corpse, and they don't even need the meat.

The killing of dolphins and whales is not a matter of national sovereignty, any more than human rights are a state-by-state issue.  This is a HUMAN behavior; humans are doing these killings, so it is up to we humans to police ourselves, regardless of what nationality those humans may give themselves.  Wherever such slaughters may be happening, it is up to fellow humans to stop it.

Just as we oppose slavery, torture and murders put upon fellow humans, we must fight against slavery, torture and killings done by fellow humans.  Similarly, it is incumbent upon us, it is our obligation, to stop humans from polluting and destroying the oceans, no matter where they may be while doing so.

When China’s manufacturing pours toxic chemicals into the rivers that eventually dump those chemicals into the sea, we have permitted it by not stopping it.  In fact, we have endorsed it (a little at a time) by buying those products made in that filthy fashion.  We may not like having such a responsibility thrust upon us, but the plain truth is that when we do not  do everything within our power to stop it, we become culpable as well.

If someone were to set up a floating base in the middle of the Pacific, far from any nation’s boundaries, and begin pouring acid into the waters there, would we allow it?  Do we allow humans to develop or discharge nuclear weapons as we please?  There is ample precedent; we have both the right and obligation to control ourselves, our fellow humans.  Our destruction of the oceans’ waters and her inhabitants is not a national issue.  It is a human issue, and it is up to us to fight it — tooth and nail — wherever it may occur.

Filed Under: Activism, Editorial Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Where Have All The Whalers Gone?

December 26, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Seriously. As late as the 1970′s, Australia and the United States were amongst the whaling nations. After even the International Whaling Commission (IWC), which is a pro-whaling organization, called for a moratorium on killing whales, nearly all nations stopped the activity.

Picture of whaling in times past

Back when it was harder to kill a whale, we weren't as much of a threat to them... or ourselves.

Why? What changed? We became to clever, too capable of killing. Where once it was a dangerous and courageous act to go out into the oceans in pursuit of a whale, perhaps kill one or two, men developed power boats and explosive-charged harpoons fired from 50-caliber guns… and the whale populations went from millions to a few hundred thousand in half a century.

Her Deepness, Dr. Sylvia Earle, describes the scenario in her book, “The World Is Blue (How our fate and the oceans’ are one).”  After millions of years of being the apex predator, the supreme beings of the sea, along comes man, figures out how to make things (fuel and gunpowder) explode, and throws off the entire natural order of things in the ocean by invading their world, by killing off beings as smart and long-lived as we are, as though they were a prey species.

Today there are still a few commercial whaling nations.  Japan, the Faroe Islands, Greenland, Iceland, Canada, Indonesia, Norway and Russia all still defy the IWC moratorium. There are still some whales being killed with permit by indigenous people in the U.S. as well. And amongst those nations is the concern “What will happen to us, to our whalers, if we no longer kill dolphins and whales?” Well, where have all the whalers gone from the other whaling nations?

The slack was quickly picked up by other more harmonious maritime occupations. Taiji’s fishermen might actually go catch fish, for example. Or take people out on whale-watching tours. Or transport goods. The argument is vapid. What did all the railroad workers do when airplanes caught on? What did the plantation owners do once slavery was outlawed? They found other jobs, and other ways. Though we humans tend to fear change, we can and do adapt. If we stop killing whales (and perhaps ONLY if we stop killing whales) life will go on.

Is that hyperbole?  No, it’s not.  Taking out an apex predator has far-reaching and profound impacts on the rest of the living beings around them.  Without their natural predators, prey populations first balloon, then starve down to dangerously low numbers.  Everything that eats those fish, squid, and plankton are likewise affected — us included.  Our fate is inextricably linked to that of the ocean and her inhabitants.

Where have all the whalers gone?  Gone to other jobs, every one… and the world is a far better place for it.  Now we need to stop the rest of the killing, so that the natural order of things, so that natural balances can return.  We can take from the ocean, but we cannot strip and rape it as we have been doing, running roughshod over it with reckless abandon.  The ocean cannot survive that… nor can we.

To get a better understanding of the ways in which our fate is linked to that of the ocean without making a carbon footprint, download a copy of Dr. Sylvia Earle’s “The World Is Blue.”   If you prefer a hard copy, you can click here to order that instead.  By following either link, Protect The Ocean gains a small percentage from the sale, and you gain a much larger perspective of the world!

Whaling and Whale Protection – Two more very worthwhile  recommendations:

and

Filed Under: Editorial, Marine Preservation, Sea Life Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,
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