Mickey Z

Cool Observer

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Humans vs. Oceans, Part II

Stand a whale upright and it could reach the height of a 10-story building. Its heart is bigger than your hybrid compact. You and 49 of your closest friends could stand comfortably on its tongue. Unfortunately, since 5000 B.C., humans have seen fit to hunt these magnificent marine mammals. The results, predictably, have been disastrous for whales and the ocean. Greenpeace reports: “The blue whales of the Antarctic are at less than 1 percent of their original abundance, despite 40 years of complete protection.”

(If you’d like it spelled out in graphic detail, watch this video)

P.S. Don’t fall for the oft-repeated myths, e.g. whaling is cultural, whale populations are rising, whales are destructive to the food chain, etc.

As the author Farley Mowatt once said: “Whales never needed a technology.” Unfortunately for whales, they got stuck on a planet with a species that thinks it does.

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Happy Birthday to my wife, Michele (Nov. 26)