Here’s a great campaign that has just started in Vancouver to help positively change the Chinese wedding tradition of serving shark fin soup. It’s been well documented for years now that we’re decimating the world’s shark populations mostly for their fins. It is estimated that 100 million sharks are killed for their fins annually. Experts now expect most species of sharks to be lost due to unsustainable longlining. Shark protection isn’t just about protecting the multitude of sharks species, but about protecting the oceans that ultimately sustain us. Most of us know that apex predators are essential to any healthy ecosystem. They protect against overpopulation of other species that would destroy the delicate balance needed to sustain that system.
These folks are showing how to really make changes. It’s the easiest thing in the world to point fingers and cast blame on any culture’s traditions, but doing that will only cause hard feelings, defensiveness and a complete collapse of dialogue. There’s not much hope of positive change after that. They also make a good point by saying that just banning the import of shark fins is not the way to go about this sensitive issue. The demand will still be there and will create a large black market economy. Education and, in this case, positively targeting young couples who are getting married is the perfect starting point for starting a new tradition.
Read the article and see the CBC press coverage here: http://osocio.org/message/starting_a_new_tradition/
I should probably just quit pretending that this blog is photography related and just admit that it’s a full blown environmental platform. Perhaps I should try and mix the two.
Anyway, I read an excellent article in Newsweek called Their Own Worst Enemies concerning how scientists disseminate thier findings on Global Warming and how more and more people, as a result, are deciding that the whole thing is exaggerated. I’ve railed against Climate Deniers before on this blog. I’m fully aware that calling anyone that disagrees with Climate Change stupid is perhaps not the best way to get them on your side, but I can’t help it; It feels good and serves as a way to vent all the bile that would otherwise cover me in rage goiters.
The main thrust of the article is that scientists, though brilliant, are terrible communicators, and are perceived as arrogant by the masses. The author, Sharon Begley, parallels this to the rising popularity of Creationism over Evolution in the United States. Creationists, idiots though they are (there I go again), can rip scientists apart in public forums because scientists appeal to reason, and Creationists, like Climate Deniers, appeal to emotion with great success. In that contest emotion is going to win most of the time. People, for the most part, are ruled by emotion. We have to work hard to overcome emotion to see reason even when it’s put right in front of us.
There are lots of good psychological and historical points in the article that explain peoples views (especially in the U.S.) on such issues that I hadn’t considered before.
Those who know me, know that I have a personal vendetta against Big Pharma and their pocket doctors. What was once a noble endeavour to help humanity has turned into a blatant corporate machine to bilk us out of money by the billions per year. They are accused by many scientists and doctors of inventing illnesses to fit the new drugs they’ve created (most of which have possible horrific side-effects that dwarf the original “illness”). It is the same with antibiotics.
The common view that antibiotics are a “magic bullet” against any illness is pervasive due to a combination of myth, misinformation, and marketing by Big Pharma. The reality is we’re hurting ourselves badly by downing antibiotics as a pez-like cure-all as any responsible (or competent) doctor would inform you, and which scientists have been trying to get through to us for years as they see their arsenal against bacteriums that are normally cured by antibiotics dwindle to almost nothing. Antibiotics are primarily for use against bacterial illnesses not viral ones. There is a growing list of bacteriums now that are completely drug resistant.
Personally, I think doctors who prescribe antibiotics for virus related illness, especially common ones like colds, the flu, bronchitis, etc, etc, etc… should be formally reprimanded and face some sort of fine. It’s criminal, in my view, that doctors hand out these prescriptions merely because of pressure from the patient. The fact remains that they are hurting us all by taking the lazy way as opposed to informing (and refusing) patients who demand antibiotics out of ignorance. I mean, what kind of doctor would bow to pressure from the damn patient??? Who’s the expert? Grow a spine already.
Read it all from the experts:
http://www.cdc.gov/Features/GetSmart/
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/antibiotics.html
It should come as no great shock, to those that really think about it, that we don’t have much time left with oil as a primary energy source. It’s been speculated that at current consumption rates the world has approximately 40 -50 years of oil left, and that for every four barrels of oil we consume only one is being discovered. Clearly this is unsustainable. I’m ecstatic that I will hopefully witness (if only just) the end of the world’s addiction to oil in my lifetime.
However, civilization will obviously go through a period of detoxification, just like any junkie in a rehab center. There are people already starting to implement projects to try and help mitigate the widespread effects that the loss of oil will create, assuming we don’t find a similar energy source to replace it. One such man is Rob Hopkins. You can listen to what he’s doing here (again, this from TED): http://www.ted.com/talks/rob_hopkins_transition_to_a_world_without_oil.html
Hans Rosling talks about what he’s learned over twenty years of research in poverty. This guy is pretty funny and also swallows swords. Now that’s my kinda talk. You learn and are entertained. It’s a tad long at 18 minutes, but interesting to watch.
http://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_reveals_new_insights_on_poverty.html
This is from www.ted.com (one of my favourite websites…there’s always something interesting).
It’s always staggering to me that people deny climate change. The unwashed masses with their high school equivalency diplomas clutched in raised fists always seem to be the biggest group clamoring that Climate Change is a joke, not based on science, and is just a conspiracy cooked up by those granola-eating, hemp-wearing, pot-smoking, hippy, liberal freaks.
I may have said this before, but I find it frustrating that these same people will quote as gospel anything anyone who even hints that they’re a scientist says (or a bought and paid for lapdog scientist of Big Oil) if the issue is unrelated to the environment. Actually let me change that statement. They will believe anything a scientist says as long as it doesn’t interfere with their way of life. That’s the core of it really. People don’t want to be told that the way they live is wasteful and harmful to everything that supports life on the planet; A nice mashing together of selfishness and apathy. Yep, we humans are masters of nothing if not deluding ourselves (Me included, btw).
Perhaps the problem here was the original name of the phenomena: Global Warming. So when Joe-Bob McIdiotstick steps outside on a July afternoon and it’s only 10 degrees Celsius and declares this Global Warming thing is crap, he has to realize that it’s not Municipal Warming. Global Warming is an average of temperatures from around the planet…you know, hence the word global being in the name. They’re not basing their findings on the plastic, dollar-store thermometer sitting outside your kitchen window.
Another problem is that people hear that our global temperature has risen one degree in the last 100 years. One freaking degree??? What’s the hell is the big deal? The big deal is a global variance of only a few degrees has a massive effect on conditions on our planet. Its not the difference between wearing a t-shirt or a windbreaker. For example, a global temperature of only 2 – 5 degrees cooler than what we have now existed during the last ice age. And the silly little degree warmer we have now has already caused a 40% loss of our polar ice caps which, incidentally, help moderate the earth’s temperature by reflecting a lot of sunlight back into space instead of absorbing it, thus their loss is compounding the warming effect. Oh, and perhaps some remember Hurricane Katrina. Well, we can expect much more of the same. I wouldn’t buy coastal property in south eastern or southern United States if I were you. Oh and us inlanders don’t get away from the problems either. We can expect a rise in the number and severity of tornadoes, especially in designated “Tornado Alleys” regions – all because of one degree. I wonder what will happen with another degree or two.
Anyway, before I go off on too much of rant (too late, I guess), here is a good video from TED on what actually goes into those peskily inflammatory and alarmist climate change headlines: http://www.ted.com/talks/rachel_pike_the_science_behind_a_climate_headline.html
Well, there’s awesome news this week. The slaughter of dolphins in Taiji, a western japanese town made infamous for the annual harvest, has suspended their operations. They did capture many dolphins, and are selling some to aquariums internationally, but apparently they are releasing the ones they would normally have killed and sold for meat. Who knows whether this will stop it altogether, but it’s at least a victory for now. The slaughter is not illegal, but international pressure seems to have worked.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/09/090911-hunt-video-ap.html
Glad someone made this film about the annual dolphin slaughter in Taiji, Japan. I don’t know if I can personally watch this (same with Sharkwater), because I become too enraged. I don’t see the point for me watching it since I am already aware of these atrocities. But, hopefully it brings some awareness to the unconverted.
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/08/covetech/
