Guest essay by Eric Worrall
The Guardian reports that Japan this year killed more than 300 whales, for “research” purposes. Australia and New Zealand are criticised for not attempting to prevent whaling in the Australian whale sanctuary. But the whale slaughter has hardly raised a flicker of attention in Australia. Aussie green groups are obsessed with CO2.
According to The Guardian;
Japan admits to killing more than 300 whales in Southern Ocean
…
Four ships were sent to the Antarctic region over a period of 115 days from 1 December last year and killed 333 minke whales.
…
The Australian government in December described Japan’s decision to resume whaling over the summer as “deeply disappointing” and insisted it raised concerns at the highest level of the Japanese government.
It had said it would consider sending a customs patrol vessel to the Southern Ocean and explore options for legal action.
But the conservation group Sea Shepherd in February said the Japanese fleet had faced little or no scrutiny over the summer and Australia and New Zealand seemed unwilling to send a ship to intercept them.
Sea Shepherd Australia’s managing director, Jeff Hansen, said: “Once again false promises from the Australian and New Zealand governments have resulted in whales being killed illegally in the Australian Whale Sanctuary.
“The majority of Australians wanted the Australian government to send a vessel to oppose the slaughter. They did not.”
The Australian Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson said the government had turned its back on Japan’s “sickening” illegal activity.
“Not in 40 years has an Australian government done so little to prevent whaling on our watch and in our waters,” he said.
The Australian government recently provided a billion dollars for renewables startups, but Australia can’t or won’t provide a few million dollars, to outfit an official expedition to the Antarctic Ocean, to prevent thinly disguised commercial whale hunting in the Australian controlled whale “sanctuary”.
If greens focussed on real issues, like preventing the outrageous ongoing slaughter of these gentle giants, instead of frittering away their time and capital, trying to reduce emissions of a harmless trace gas, there might be a lot less whale blood in the world’s oceans.
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Trump’s plans are alos all but equal to Bernie’s
New Zealand and Australia have been taking this seriously. The problem is that all international legal mechanisms have been exhausted. Japan actually lost the case which NZ and Australia brought against its scientific whaling program, which was ruled to be unscientific and consequently in breach of the international whaling ban. Japan has now chosen to ignore that ruling.
Sea Shepherd want NZ and Australia to send their navies to confront the Japanese whaling ships and physically block them from harvesting whales. Sea Shepherd are completely bonkers. There is no way the responsible governments of NZ and Australia are going to risk a military confrontation with Japan over whales. Nor should they.
The Japanese view whales as akin to cows, which is not an unreasonable point of view, as evidence of their sentience is rather lacking. International condemnation of whaling has in the past been excessively strident and emotional and has verged on an accusation that the Japanese are engaging in murder or worse, the deliberate genocide of an intelligent species. This has been taken as an insult and affront to the Japanese people.
Consequently there are now issues of national pride involved, which is why the Japanese government supports the whaling fleet. Personally I think confronting Japan over this is the wrong approach.
Thanks Ian, agree.
Canberra had admitted from about 2006 (from memory) that claims in southern ocean and Antarctica were not going to be recognized.
The boofheads in Greenpeace/Sea Shepard still want to try to stir the foreign relations pot to divide relations and coerce policy in a dangerous and counterproductive way. As you point out, it has no hope of working.
I remember that conceited Bono visiting Australia about a decade back and directly requesting (in the media, btw) to speak with John Howard, apparently to try to convert him to Bono’s pet topics and politics. Howard’s reply was a classic. When asked about the request for a meeting with Bono, by a reporter, Howard’s first response was the look of, ‘wtf’? Followed by the terse remark (paraphrased), “The Government of the Commonwealth of Australia does not take advice from pop stars”.
And that was the end of Bono’s global political grandstanding routines.
That’s an appropriate stance for mature governments to take to Greenpeace’s endless stirring and contrived accusations, and media muck-raking on this topic.
The hypocrisy in the article and these comments are outstanding. Just a bunch of emotional blather over perceived harm, which is no different than the typical green emotional appeals. The science says whale hunting is a sustainable activity. This is used to continue a cultural tradition.
The science does not indicate says human fossil fuel use is going to destroy the planet, the emotional blathering has put great pressure society to discontinued their use, the consequences to the poor be damned.
In the contest between real environmentalism versus CAGW, the latter wins every time. One save the environment, the other imposes a totalitarian socialist State on everyone. A far more attractive outcome to these proponents. All of whom imagine themselves as some sort of elite Platonic leader, rather than simpletons doing the will of corporate and political party puppet masters. Follow the money.
I would want more information. Which species of whales were taken and how many of each? Some species have now completely recovered in some areas to pre-whaling numbers. Depending on how many were taken of which species, this could be completely benign to the population as a whole. Also people should take a some things into consideration. Whale meat is extremely high in iron and the Japanese traditional diet is very low in iron without it. Whale meat has been a primary source of iron in the Japanese diet for thousands of years. Humans have been taking whales, albeit in less efficient means than a modern commercial whaling ship, for thousands of years. Many whale species are no longer considered threatened as their numbers have rebounded. I would want to know more information before I simply react to “over 300 whales taken”. This might be a huge nothingburger that is being blown out of proportion because “whales”.
Anyone who does not see anything wrong with killing whales, I would request that you each identify yourselves as such and please include your contact information.
I will see amount getting each of you a new moral compass…no charge.
You are welcome.
I wish I could say I am not really bothered by some of the views expressed here, and not just on the subject of whales…but I cannot.
I have substantially less respect for some of the commenters above than i had when I woke up this morning.
Alternatively, you could drop the bluster and explain what you believe is immoral about killing to eat, whales. I’m actually interested to see what you think is important or different about whales, and allegedly immoral about their hunting and death, or human consumption? Proceed.
Menicholas,if a comment were posted here saying “anyone who does not see anything wrong with polluting the atmosphere with carbon (sic),I would request that you each identifiy yourselves as such…I will see about getting each of you a new moral compass,blah, blah, blah…” followed by some smug drivel about loosing respect for people who don’t share your opinion (as if it mattered in the slightest), your instinctive first reaction would rightly be to marvel at the conceit behind such a statement, followed by an invitation to go forth and multiply.
Do you see why, in my humble opinion (as much as I understand it doesn’t matter) some of the commenters above have substantially less credibility than I imagined them to posses before I awoke this morning?
Where is “Green Peace” when you really need them?
I would like to hear what Dr. Patrick Moore has to say about this (former founder of Green Peace)…
Yes. He talks a lot of sense, here’s an example. https://youtu.be/qD-2Z1Q9V4I Greenpeace always were a pretty limp force when it came to saving Whales. You’re better off with Sea Shepherd.
Hey! Look at that beautiful kettle calling out the pot for being black…
Just like any weather can be blamed on global warming, it seems any political problem can be blamed on “the greens”… bravo…
It’s becoming more and more obvious why this site and its comment section is attracting more and more right wing lunatics… that’s unfortunate.
Ah well…
Using the Opportunity Cost arguement is IMHO one of the best ways to battle climate change wasteful spending. How many roads, schools, hospitals aren’t being built. How many whales aren’t being saved because we are misallocating resources to climate nonsense.
@ATeoK
You may want to consider that what you think is an insult is actually a description. If you are being stupid, do you want to know so you can be less stupid?
I am often told I am wrong. I go back and check. I so hate being wrong. It would be stupid of me to not learn from being wrong.
It was suggested that ‘new moral compass’ could be provided to some of us. I so hate being immoral. So I went back and checked. There appears to a reasonable difference of opinion.
I think mice are cute and am not surprised when field mice take up residence in the house in the fall. I was surprised when the rattle snake came looking for warm food.
It is my job to set the mouse trap. Cute disease carrying vermin. A friend told me a brand of bath soap that mice did not like the smell of so I put the soap where mice come into the house. No more mice where I do not want them.
Morality is subjective, but I think my moral compass is doing fine.
“Kit,
You are either a lying troll, or a sick excuse for a human being.
Go be hateful somewhere else.
And Happy Easter…may God bless your soul and the love of Jesus enter your life.”
Not that is ironic. I am always skeptical of moral compass dealers.