Our World and Everything in It

Wonder what’s been going on behind the scenes on Capital Hill while the campaign takes over the news? I have. I don’t trust them. While the campaign smoke screen is up a lot has been transpiring, or rather conspiring against wildlife and the environment in an effort to get us away from foreign oil.  How will the Saudis like that? Is that why we’re supplying guns and ammo to them,  because we’re weaning them off?  Anyway, here is a sample of the urgent e-mails I’ve been getting from many environmental groups because our dubious administration is at work again.

I belong to Care2.com, a wonderful website of over 8 million members who care passionately about something, kids, people’s rights, animal welfare, the environment, etc. I got an e-mail to petition none other than Dirk Kempthorne, Secy. of the Interior, again. The same guy that is angling to kill off the entire wolf species in Idaho, and possibly Wyoming by aerial hunting, snares, etc. It seems we haven’t done enough to polar bears, now Kempthorne’s positioned to allow drilling for oil in the middle of their habitat too. Here is what the petition states: “At a time when the polar bear’s future is literally on thin ice, it’s no time to add insult to injury by drilling in their fragile Arctic habitat. But it could happen. Alaska’s Chukchi and Beaufort Seas - also known as the Polar Bear Seas - could be opened to drilling as early as February.” Better start pressuring Kempthorne, or join Care2.com and sign the petition, and many others on their website for a better world. This is almost a done deal. It doesn’t look like Kempthorne’s going to add the polar bear to the endangered list.

The Wilderness Society posted an e-mail that states: “A draft environmental impact statement to be released next week by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) will pave the way for 110,000 acres of wildlife habitat within the Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to be traded to the native-owned Doyon Corporation for oil and gas development. Under the proposed deal, Doyon also would obtain 97,000 acres in subsurface rights within the Refuge. Doyon would turn over approximately 150,000 acres of corporation land to the Refuge in the proposed exchange.” Sounds OK? Not so much. As the USFWS well knows, “Oil and gas development are not compatible with the purposes of the refuge—something that USFWS itself has acknowledged in the past. Development poses a threat to water quality, fish and wildlife habitat, subsistence cultures, and the wilderness and recreational values of the refuge and its adjacent public lands.”

A Clean Water Action e-mail stated: “Polluter attacks on the Clean Water Act continue. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is accepting public comments until January 21 on a policy that will determine which rivers, lakes, streams and wetlands are fully protected.” This maneuvering by “[t]he Bush Administration has sought to limit Clean Water Act protections through direct attacks on the law, by misinterpreting Supreme Court decisions and through a series of “No Protection” instructions to the federal and state bureaucrats.” But the e-mail asserts, “Congress is considering legislation to clarify that the Clean Water Act is meant to protect all water bodies. But the e-mail asserts, “Congress is considering legislation to clarify that the Clean Water Act is meant to protect all water bodies. In the meantime, we have to stop these backdoor attacks on the laws that protect our water quality.” This is a good link to take you right to the EPA site.

The only good e-mail I received is that the Greenpeace boat, the Esperanza, caught up with the Japanese whalers and is chasing them around the Southern Ocean. You might want to donate to any or all of these charitable organizations. We have no idea the sacrifice these people make to protect things we cherish like our national parks and rivers, lakes, wildlife, and environment. People like you and me are up all hours, in bad parts of the world, arguing/fighting with foreign countries sometimes, in adverse conditions for what they believe in. Imagine boarding a ship, leaving loved ones, to chase and confront another ship in frigid seas and rotten conditions out of passion for the cause. And we take them for granted. These organizations of everyday citizens are the “THEY” we all have spoken about when we say: “Oh well, THEY will do something about it,” or “I’m not worried, THEY will come up with something.” But THEY not only need monetary support, if THEY ask for people to write to congress or the Queen, please do it. It costs nothing but the time you’re spending goofing around on your pc anyway. And every voice behind these people shows those in charge that it is a force of many, many more people than THEY that are out there actually doing the job. God Bless THEM.
 
To write to Kempthorne about drilling in polar bear habitat: http://www.doi.gov/contact.html. Read more about Kempthorne ignoring senators, fishing industry, petitions, etc., http://www.wilderness.org/NewsRoom/Release/20080102.cfm

To join Care2.com and sign many petitions about many causes and meet a network of 8 million worldwide who care: http://www.care2.com/.

For more about the Alaskan Land Swap: http://www.wilderness.org/Library/Magazine/Summer2007/yukonflats.cfm.

For more about the Clean Water Act: http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/2155/t/203/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=22196.

A few blogs ago I wrote about setting an example as far as being humane to animals before we point fingers at other countries that dolphin hunt, seal hunt, whale hunt, and kill tigers, elephants, and apes.  Someone retorted about other countries, which was exactly what I made a point about NOT doing. After all, isn’t that one of the first things we teach siblings, not to point fingers elsewhere?

Anyway after the same commenter digressed to this being the best country in the world, the idea of being a good example was kind of lost in conversation. But it is important, and I am resurrecting the notion. Being good examples for all types of humanitarian efforts would give us much better leverage for persuading other governments to give up inhumane hunts like the renewed Japanese whale hunt.

An example of what I am talking about jumped off the “Verbatim” page of Time Magazine’s December 3rd issue. This Japanese whale-meat butcher in the whaling port of Shimonoseki, the home of Japan’s largest whaling expedition in decades, remarked about the inhumanity of it all: ‘”How is eating whale different from eating pigs or cows?”‘ See my point?

We’ll never get anywhere asking other countries not to seal, whale, or dolphin hunt when we slaughter and treat animals inhumanely ourselves. It looks like pollution may halt hunts like these before conscience even comes into play. The Japanese plan on hunting 50 endangered pin whales and 50 threatened humpback whales, along with others, totaling 1000. Trouble is, just like the dolphin meat from the barbaric Japanese dolphin hunt, the whale meat is more than likely poison, tainted by chemical toxins. Many of the larger species of fish and mammals in the ocean are contaminated. A current study by: “Norwegian scientists found that killer whales - or orcas, as they are sometimes known - have overtaken polar bears at the head of the toxic table” according to a BBC article. It said: “No other arctic mammals have ingested such a high concentration of hazardous man-made chemicals.” I was a little amazed at what was found in the blubber, traces of pesticide, flame retardant, and PCB’s. The WWF or World Wildlife Foundation says, “The Arctic has become a chemical sink.”

But are the Japanese worried? Why should they be? An opinion poll done last year by the Nippon Research Centre found that 95% percent of Japanese never or rarely ate whale meat. So why the hunt? Like I stated in another blog, this hunt is being done under the guise of research. The odd thing is another study found that, “65% of Japanese students agreed with the view that scientific research on whales should only use non-lethal methods.”

All the bad international press about this whale hunt embarrasses Japan’s leadership. Japanese don’t eat the meat. A majority of Japanese college students do not advocate the killing of a species in order to study it. And the meat is more than likely poisoned. But the hunt goes on? Sounds like other countries have the same problem as we do where a majority of voices go unheard, and unheeded.
 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4520104.stm
http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/news/fearing-us-reaction-japanese

 I just blogged about Japan’s dolphin hunt, and now I see Japan is setting out to hunt protected hump back whales for the first time in decades? What’s up with that? Well, Japan has permits to kill at least 50 for research.  Let that be a lesson to everyone that just because we read something is endangered or protected doesn’t mean it’s reality. Humans are the biggest predators of everything I think, many under the guise of science.

The  Japanese research project wants the dead whales to open them up to look at their reproductive organs, and how everything works basically. Let’s think of it as post mortem exploratory surgery. What I want to know is what good this is going to do? Don’t we know about the internal workings of whales here so that we can just send it to the Japanese?

Environmentalists think the Japanese are doing this because they want to keep the hunting alive while they keep pressuring the IWC, International Whaling Commission, to lift the commercial whaling moratorium. I have to agree. It’s not about research. The Japanese never explained why cutting open 50 humpbacks is going to benefit anything. It seems one whale would suffice for that. Why not collect an already dead beached whale if they are just going to cut it up to see what’s inside? And what about the over 900 Antarctic Minke whales they plan on harpooning? Of course the meat is sold afterward as the research permits allow. Scientific research whaling—baloney, or should I say whaloney.

Greenpeace already has a large ship tailing another really large Japanese ship the “Nisshin Maru” that has set out to the slaughter. Talk about overkill. This Japanese ship looked military at over 8000 tons. It doesn’t bode well for the friendly humpbacks. These are the critters tourists watch off the coast of Hawaii Jan.-March.  They should remain protected like everything else because quite frankly we’re hurting their environment so much already with pollution; it’s criminal to hunt them too. I think the meat should be tested for mercury poisoning like dolphin meat. Ruin the market for it, and watch how quickly the Japanese don’t want to do any more research. This may be the only deterrent to hunting large marine life like whales, dolphins, or sharks.

But Japan misses its tradition of whaling. Too bad. Japan moves its auto industry into a green future. Japan is progressive about everything including a prototype of a giant green city meant to exist in the Sea of Japan, but wants to hold onto the archaic tradition of whaling? Japan needs to move on.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071117/ap_on_re_as/japan_hunting_humpbacks.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/11/19/japan.whaling.ap/index.html?section=cnn_latest.

http://news.search.yahoo.com/search/news;_ylt=A0WTTku7MkJHA4IAsBTQtDMD;_

 ylu=X3oDMTA3Nzc4ZmdoBHNlYwNyZWw-?p=greenpeace+whales&rs=1.

That story made the news last week but the event happened in August. Four bottlenose (Flipper) dolphins encircled an injured surfer after a shark attack, bringing him to shore. It’s not the first time dolphins have saved a human. An article stated that dolphins protecting humans goes back to ancient Greece. I told you that to ask you this.

Why are we allowing dolphin hunts by a small Japanese village? Dolphins have been friends with humans for centuries and we knowingly allow their slaughter? And this is not about relations with Japan. There are Japanese that want the slaughter banned also. One of the key reasons, and the Japanese government knows this, is that the dolphin meat is contaminated with high levels of mercury.

The Japanese retested the dolphin meat themselves and were surprised.

The other reason this event should not be such a big problem to stop is because it is an isolated event. It happens in a cove outside of a small fishing village in Japan called “Taiji.”  Notoriety is building about these fisherman chasing dolphins into a cove where they are trapped by nets in the thousands. Some 20,000 human friendly dolphins are caught and slaughtered. I didn’t want to read about it. There is a video of it on “You Tube.” I guess the poor little guys aren’t always dead when…

So this event happens in one small fishing village, not as a custom throughout Japan, and there are Japanese that want it stopped also. The meat is poison, and the Japanese government knows about it. It only a matter of time you might say, meanwhile, Flipper is being stripped alive.

This should not be a big problem to fix. This should be about a few talks with Japanese officials urging them to prohibit killing dolphins by a few of their citizens. The argument is there is no market for poison fish anyway. The fisherman should not only be in trouble for killing dolphins this way, but selling mercury tainted meat. Besides, knowing what we know about dolphins, this is as cannibalistic as eating bushmeat. Let me go one step further in adding that the levels of mercury in our friends the dolphins is about as rotten a deal as killing them outright. So we that pollute are no better. And for those that don’t think man pollutes enough to cause change on earth, how did those dolphins get saturated with mercury?

Our congress people will not move on this unless we make it known that we want it stopped. The world needs to realize better policy concerning the creatures of earth that are threatened by our pollution. Write your congress people about getting Japan on board to prohibit Taiji from killing dolphins.

Read about what I read about at: http://www.savejapandolphins.org/weblog.html

The dolphin rescue story: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21689083/