Green Options

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On Friday, the International Whaling Commission’s annual meeting came to a close with a whimper. This year’s gathering was held in Chile, and the meeting’s chairperson, United States delegate William Hogarth, made a gutsy and stupid decision. Hogarth wanted to avoid confrontations at this year’s meeting, with the hope of creating good will among countries. He pontificated that this good will could be used to find solutions in the future (not now). Translation: he pleaded for member countries not to vote on or discuss important issues that concern whales. Based on what happened (or more accurately, did not happen), the meeting was very unsuccessful.

Starting things off with a bang, Chile declared a permanent ban on whaling on the opening day of the International Whaling Commission’s annual meeting. The Pacific Ocean-bordering country is playing host to the conference, where tensions are running high. One goal of the conference is to get enough countries to vote affirmatively to create a new whale sanctuary in the South Atlantic Ocean. But this plan might be stymied by the meeting’s own chair person.

In an effort to build consensus, the chair person of the conference urged for there to be little debate and no voting at the meeting this year. The goal is to “pay it forward,” and use any additional good will that is created this year at next year’s meeting with the hope that more can be accomplished. Many environmentalists find the chairman’s plan to be intolerable, as they claim that Japan is using “scientific research” as an excuse to hunt approximately 1,000 whales each year. But Japan isn’t the only country ignoring a 1986 ban on commercial whaling that was agreed upon by the commission.

Scientific research is a tough business, and it is always tough to find the right evidence for your research. Gaining access to archaeological sites, genetic testing in animals, evidentiary samples; it’s a tough gig. So when a scientific endeavor falls short, it’s always sad.

Usually.

“Are you Russian?” asked a middle-aged Korean man hopefully to an American English teacher. Translation: are you a prostitute?

“Are you Japanese?” she retorted. And that was that.

It’s the best rebuff I’ve heard to the bevy of Korean men who equate blonde hair with instant gratification. But why did it repel him with such shear efficiency? Or, put another way, what’s so bad about being called Japanese?

Let’s not try and talk about this as breaking news, for many people have already seen the horrific pictures. But the fact is that this is huge news, and I’m going to take a quick look at just what it is, what it means, and why.

However if you haven’t turned on a TV or computer over the past little while, I’ll run it down for you. Photos released by the Australian Customs [...]

It’s true, lemons often turn into lemonade. It happened to me, and I gotta tell the story.

It’s summer in the Antarctic Ocean and many whale species have migrated to the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary, an important feeding ground. One would think that in an internationally recognized sanctuary at the ends of the Earth, these whales would be safe from the boating, fish netting, noise pollution, and other man-made hazards.

However, Japanese whaling fleets have already left harbor to hunt the whales for meat in this sanctuary as they have done increasingly since 1997 in defiance of international bans on whaling.

Each year, Japanese whalers slaughter more and more whales. This year, the Japanese whaling industry has vowed to kill the greatest number of whales yet, about 1000 in all. These numbers will be made up of near-threatened Minke whales and 50 endangered Fin whales.

But this year, they will not be alone on the rough seas against the Japanese whalers. Australia’s new government is joining Greenpeace in saying “enough is enough.” As Josh Hill writes, this pressure is already beginning to bear fruits. Japan has agreed to suspend–at least for the moment—its plans to kill an additional 50 threatened humpback whales.

Australia is sending ships usually reserved for tracking down marine poachers to monitor the whaling vessels. That’s not all. There will also be eyes in the sky as an Australian surveillance plane record the whaler’s every action from above. This is all just part of a larger effort that Foreign Minister, Stephen Smith, hopes will help put an end to Japan’s horrible whale hunt once and for all.