By hook, crook, bribery, and other means of 'coercion', there's a very dubious and disgusting proposal being pushed to 'legalise' whaling.

Note that there is still a world-wide ban on whaling because all whale species are still at a small fraction of their numbers from before industrialised whaling.

See: WHALES UNDER THREAT!

One click is all that is needed to see and to make a small difference.


If we can't stop the unnecessary extinction of such a large species such as whales, perhaps we all should just simply all roll over and die.

Regards,
Martin

---

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By hook, crook, bribery, and other means of 'coercion', there's a very dubious and disgusting proposal being pushed to 'legalise' whaling.

Note that there is still a world-wide ban on whaling because all whale species are still at a small fraction of their numbers from before industrialised whaling.

See: WHALES UNDER THREAT!

One click is all that is needed to see and to make a small difference.


If we can't stop the unnecessary extinction of such a large species such as whales, perhaps we all should just simply all roll over and die.

Hopefully a few readers have looked and a few clicks have been added before the IWC try to peddle their corruption...


It's our only one planet.

Regards,
Martin

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as of 7 am central time they need less than 5000 signatures

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In a rich man's house there is no place to spit but his face.
Diogenes Of Sinope

as of 7 am central time they need less than 5000 signatures

That's good and it looks like they've now gone beyond the original target. Great stuff for all less than 24 hours.

The IWC are likely meeting now. A few more signatures would not go amiss and would add weight that the whole world is watching...


Regards,
Martin

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This planet is so much better without the human civilization.

Signed, and forwarded to 10 others.

---

- Luke.

By hook, crook, bribery, and other means of 'coercion', there's a very dubious and disgusting proposal being pushed to 'legalise' whaling.

Note that there is still a world-wide ban on whaling because all whale species are still at a small fraction of their numbers from before industrialised whaling.

See: WHALES UNDER THREAT!

One click is all that is needed to see and to make a small difference.


If we can't stop the unnecessary extinction of such a large species such as whales, perhaps we all should just simply all roll over and die.

Hopefully a few readers have looked and a few clicks have been added before the IWC try to peddle their corruption...

So far, the count is only a few thousand off from 1/4 million! And counting.

Hopefully, there will be enough people to say a BIG YES to keeping whales as a species alive on this planet. Despite the best butchering efforts of the Japanese...


It's our only one planet.

Regards,
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
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By hook, crook, bribery, and other means of 'coercion', there's a very dubious and disgusting proposal being pushed to 'legalise' whaling.

Note that there is still a world-wide ban on whaling because all whale species are still at a small fraction of their numbers from before industrialised whaling.

See: WHALES UNDER THREAT!

One click is all that is needed to see and to make a small difference.


If we can't stop the unnecessary extinction of such a large species such as whales, perhaps we all should just simply all roll over and die.

Hopefully a few readers have looked and a few clicks have been added before the IWC try to peddle their corruption...

Well... Japan indeed does appear to be taking the piss out of the rest of the world!


Commercial whaling may continue for 10 years: IWC

Japan, Norway and Iceland could continue commercial whaling for another decade, despite a global ban, under a proposal released Thursday by the International Whaling Commission


Australia opposes IWC whaling compromise

... Garrett said Australia would carefully examine the deal, which will be voted on at a June meeting in Morocco, but noted that it seemed to fall short of one Canberra could accept.

"We will be considering all our options, diplomatic and legal, in the period ahead," he said in a statement.

"As we have made very clear in the past, those options include international legal action to end Japanese so-called 'scientific' whaling."

The IWC has argued the package, which has the cautious support of the United States, was a delicate set of balances that would save thousands of whales.

But many environmentalists strongly oppose the proposal, arguing that it would end a 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling in all but name and risked reviving a dwindling industry in whale meat.


Whaling commission proposes permission to hunt under strict quotas

First legal commercial whaling in nearly 25 years moves a step closer with 'compromise' between nations such as Japan and US

... New Zealand foreign minister Murray McCully said the IWC's proposal does not deliver what New Zealand wants – that it must be significantly better than the status quo and meet the country's commitment to end whaling in the southern ocean.

"The catch limits proposed in the southern ocean are unrealistic. The proposal to include (endangered) fin whales in the southern ocean is inflammatory. New Zealanders will not accept this," he said in a statement. ...


So... The Japanese are rushing to 'legalise' their whale hunt in whale sanctuaries before international court action is taken against them...


The Avaaz petition looks to have reached the 1/4 million mark and is still creeping upwards. Thanks to all who took the time to look.

Looks like the battles continue.


It's our only one planet.

Regards,
Martin

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I signed it Martin, but I don't know how much help it will be. :(

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Reality Internet Personality

I've also signed it, for what it's worth...

I've also signed it, for what it's worth...

Thanks all.

It all helps.

The more people become aware and care, and the more the Japanese become aware that people care, the more that the more human of the Japanese will be swayed to abandon their selfish stupidity.

Japan is looking rather isolated on this issue and also so for the threatened demise and extinction of tuna.

I'm sure things will develop further.

There's already two court cases in Japan that are causing great embarrassment to the Japanese: The Greenpeace Tokyo Two and now the case building for Captain Pete Bethune of the Ady Gil that was rammed-and-sunk by the Japanese.


Sea Shepherd will certainly return and I'm sure the Japanese will realise that each year the Japanese stupidity will get ever more expensive.

Operation No Compromise: Defending the Integrity of the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary

Sea Shepherd Ships Will Return to Antarctica in 2010/2011


Just how many international laws can Japan hope to break and ignore before they get torpedoed, nuked, or simply brought to book?


The Avaaz petition is still running strong.

Thanks to all. People can make a positive difference.

Regards,
Martin

---

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Well... That's it! As was suspected...

It's all just a Japanese game of corruption. The extinction of whales and the extinction of tuna are just an 'unfortunate' 'aside'...

Japan Times: Whaling whoppers debunked

WHALING IN JAPAN: Power, Politics and Diplomacy, by Jun Morikawa. Hurst and Company, 2009, 169 pp., £15.99 (paperback)

Ever wonder why landlocked nations such as Mali, Mongolia and Laos with no tradition of whaling are members of the International Whaling Commission (IWC)? According to Jun Morikawa, the Japanese government sponsors the membership of third-world countries in the IWC to boost support for Japan's pro-whaling initiatives. This vote-buying, however, ...

... Whaling, he argues, is partly about budgets and discretionary authority, but even more so about the creation of amakudari (sinecures for retired bureaucrats). The Ministry of Agriculture, Forests and Fisheries (MAFF) actively cultivates a whaling lobby in the Diet to ensure continued appropriations. ...

... Japan's whale-eating culture was also very limited in scope and, according to Morikawa, is "an invented tradition, only lasting 20 years from the end of WWII to the early 1960s." During the U.S. occupation, whale meat became part of the national school lunch program, explaining why Japan's aging baby boomers evince a nostalgic nationalism over the issue. ...


So... Whaling is just a golden retirement plan for a few favoured Japanese bureaucrats!


Utterly DISGUSTING!

Martin


ps: It's still possible to show your vote of disgust:

WHALES UNDER THREAT!


.

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Greenpeace, Sea Shepherd criticize commercial whaling resumption proposal

The current compromise deal being negotiated behind closed doors would halve the current quotas by Japan, Norway and Iceland and disallow new countries from whaling; ... Further changes are possible and the proposal must win the approval of three-quarters of the members of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) at its annual meeting in Agadir, Morocco, in late June 2010.

[...]

Philip Radford, executive director of Greenpeace USA took the opportunity to raise whaling at an Earth day function at the White House to put some pressure on President Obama, "What is your plan to change your administration's position?" he informally asked, "Look," said the president, "I love whales. I will do what I can to protect them." But the President failed to articulate any change in the administration's negotiating position in the IWC.

Sir Geoffrey Palmer, former prime minister of New Zealand and chairman of the IWC went further and said “The IWC is a mess. It’s a dysfunctional international organization. I think this is probably the last chance the IWC has to cure itself.”

Australian Environment Minister Peter Garrett said Australia will not support the proposal. "We'll look at the IWC statement carefully but on face value it falls very well short of any outcome that Australia could ever accept...

New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully has also blasted the IWC proposal as unacceptable to New Zealand and a backward step in the process to find a diplomatic solution...

Conservation organisations have rejected the deal being negotiated out of hand.


Well... Can the uproar overcome the Japanese corruption and the Japanese sabotage of the IWC?


It's our only planet.

Regards,
Martin

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And the brazen crassness of the Japanese rumbles on:

A Whale of an Exception

Last week, as people across the globe celebrated Earth Day, Japan, Iceland, and Norway made a quiet bid to legalize commercial whaling. The three countries have long skirted an International Whaling Commission (IWC) moratorium on commercial whaling by invoking various loopholes...

[...]

Even in economic terms, whaling may not be worth it. No matter how tasty their meat, the animals may be more economically valuable when allowed to live. The International Fund for Animal Welfare reported in 2009 that whale watching has grown dramatically: "more than 13 million people took whale watching tours last year in 119 countries worldwide, generating ticket fees and tourism expenditures of more than US$2.1 billion during 2008."


You can't have a multi-billion dollar whale watching industry when they've been hunted out by a few-million dollars Japanese whalers...


It's our only planet.

Still UTTERLY DISGUSTED with the Japanese whalers and Japanese bureaucrats!
Martin

---

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BUMP AGAIN...

And your message is?

You one of the stay-at-home couch potatoes 'safely' hiding on your side of the TV screen?

Or do you have something (on-topic) useful to say?

You're always very welcome to start your own thread for your view of the TV...

Regards,
Martin

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Looks like a small number of the Japanese are poisoning themselves:

Dolphin meat causing dangerous mercury levels in Japanese diners

Tests show residents of town depicted in documentary The Cove have levels of metal well above national average

[...]

Mercury poisoning is a sensitive topic in Japan, where a disorder now called Minamata Disease was linked to a chemical company that dumped tonnes of mercury compounds on a southern island.

The disease causes spasms, sensory loss and limb malformations in newborns and can be fatal.


So what of the poisoning effects on the whales and dolphins? And where has the mercury poisoning come from in the first place?...


Disgusted!
Martin

---

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mercury poisoning is from mining and industrial waste that gets into rivers streams and eventually the oceans. the higher on the food chain an animal is the greater the concentrations of mercury and other trace(piosonous) metals can be found

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In a rich man's house there is no place to spit but his face.
Diogenes Of Sinope

Apart from the "barbarity" of bleeding and drowning to death for over half an hour and sometimes much more, if this article doesn't highlight a good reason to care, then we may as well all roll over and die now and let other creatures have a better chance:

Seaacide is Brainless - Commentary by Captain Paul Watson

... What struck me were two statements in the above story:

First

Taiji council chief Katsutoshi Mihara saying:

"This may seem nonchalant, but I have absolutely no concerns, and I want to be able keep my lifestyle."

Second

World Health Organization Dr. Joanna Tempowski:

"At some point in the future they might start to show health effects."

And we saw what those effects are in Minamata, Japan with genetic defects, mental retardation, and brain tissue degeneration.

But hey, Mihara does not want anything to get in the way of his “lifestyle.”

If this is not an indictment on the insanity of culture within human society, I don’t know what is.

Self-destructiveness within the psychology of human beings is of course prevalent. We see it all the time, smokers, excessive drinking, drug abuse, unhealthy eating habits etc.

The same mentality held by smokers could be used to explain the suicidal behavior of dolphin and whale eaters.

But, what strikes me in all of the debate over mercury is the effect it is having on two innocent parties.

The first are the children who are literally force-fed mercury contaminated meat in school lunch programs or by their parents. The second group is not even mentioned: Just what the hell is all that mercury doing to the dolphins and the whales?

With children, I once told Faeroes Prime Minister Atli Dam that forcing their children to eat pilot whale flesh was forcing them to eat poison, and thus was child abuse.

The Prime Minister responded by saying, “What we do with our children is our business, it is none of your business.”

To which I answered, “Child abuse, I believe, is everyone’s business.”

[...]

The work has revealed damage to fetal neural development, high blood pressure, and impaired immunity in children, as well as increased rates of Parkinson's disease, circulatory problems and possibly infertility in adults. The Faeroes data renewed concerns about low-level mercury exposures elsewhere.

The medical officers note that it wasn't the Faroese who created the pollution. But "these results have already led to tightened restrictions on pollution worldwide. We must therefore also ourselves acknowledge the consequences." ...


It's our only world!

Disgusting as some aspects are.

Martin


ps: For those that might have missed it, the article title looks to be a pun on the song title to the black comedy TV hit series M*A*S*H

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At least some people care:


Proposed new rules for whale hunting are coming under fire

San Luis Obispo County [California] residents are joining other Californians in a protest rally out of the pages of history on May 23 in Morro Bay. The catch-cry of the environmental movement in the 1970s, “Save the whales,” will echo across the coast in a grassroots action to halt the future expansion of whale hunting.

“If you care about these wonderful, magnificent creatures—and you should—it’s important to go to the rally and give Obama a message,” said Sara Wan of the Western Alliance for Nature, one of the groups helping organize the protest.


Hellbastard Posts "Sea Shepherd" Music Video

Hellbastard has posted a music video online for the song "Sea Shepherd," which is off their "Eco-War" EP. The video clip can be viewed below. Hellbastard also commented on the video: "This is a music band video, it is all about getting stuck into the MAN. There is no preaching here, it is simple to understand. We don't have to fucking kill whales in this day and age."


Perhaps we do need to send a Hellraiser to sort out certain Japanese bureaucrats...

It's our only world.

UTTERLY DISGUSTED with the Japanese whalers and Japanese bureaucrats!

Martin

---

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The start of a sea change?


Uncertainty Buffets Japan’s Whaling Fleet

... Yet, local residents are breaking long-held taboos to speak out against the government-run Antarctic hunts, which they say invite international criticism that threatens the much more limited coastal hunts by people in this traditional whaling town.

“The research whaling in the Antarctic is not about protecting culture,” said Ichio Ishimori, a city councilman in Ishinomaki, of which Ayukawahama is a part.

The Japanese government is facing renewed pressures at home and abroad to drastically scale back its so-called research whaling. Yet, Tokyo seems paralyzed by the same combination of nationalist passions and entrenched bureaucratic interests that have previously blocked any action to limit the three-decade-old whaling program. ...


It's our only world.

UTTERLY DISGUSTED with the Japanese whalers and Japanese bureaucrats!

Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
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The start of a sea change?


Uncertainty Buffets Japan’s Whaling Fleet

... Yet, local residents are breaking long-held taboos to speak out against the government-run Antarctic hunts, which they say invite international criticism that threatens the much more limited coastal hunts by people in this traditional whaling town.

“The research whaling in the Antarctic is not about protecting culture,” said Ichio Ishimori, a city councilman in Ishinomaki, of which Ayukawahama is a part.

The Japanese government is facing renewed pressures at home and abroad to drastically scale back its so-called research whaling. Yet, Tokyo seems paralyzed by the same combination of nationalist passions and entrenched bureaucratic interests that have previously blocked any action to limit the three-decade-old whaling program. ...

There's further very thoughtful articles and discussion:


Is Japan Seeing Internal Shift on Whaling?

From one of the comments:

... Although Japan is a democracy, people in Japan do not speak out against the government as much as they do in the US. Culturally, confrontation is something to be avoided as much as possible. In addition, the government is often not so responsive.

A recent example is the proposed Kyoto aquarium - about which Hiroko Tabuchi wrote in the NYTimes on May 7. There was an unusual amount of citizen protest against this aquarium, yet the local government has accepted the plan for the company Orix to build a dolphin pool in the middle of Japan's most historic city. Citizen protest is still continuing and hopefully the aquarium will not be built. But for building of the aquarium to proceed would be the norm - and would exemplify the kind of situation that generally dissuades activism. ... how unusual it was for there to be protest - and how much that signifies about the Kyoto citizen's commitment against cetacean captivity.


And another opportunity for positive action:

Stop Whale Hunting



It's our only world.

UTTERLY DISGUSTED with the Japanese whalers and Japanese bureaucrats!

Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
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The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)