Are We Killing Our Oceans….or Killing Ourselves?

In New Zealand at the beginning of 2013 there was a  massive wash up of dead Snapper (popular eating fish) onto one of the beaches which, in, not only my opinion, but others, has come from trawling nets ..... legal or illegal I do not condone trawling.  Here's the link:  Dead Fish   you can imagine how this horrified N.Z.ers as well as global sea lovers.

Are people just plain thick?  Can't they foresee that if this continues there won't be any fish.  It's well known that trawlers have increased the time they're at sea because it takes longer to catch the required amount.  Also illegal trawling is increasing as fish are being depleted from legal parts.

Not long after I heard about this I read the book "Killer Fish: How Eating Aquatic Life Endangers Your Health " which certainly opened my eyes to the health risks people take when they consume fish.  More so with farmed fish.

Researchers analyzed samples of farmed Atlantic salmon from different areas - Here's one of the findings that astounded me taken from the book:

"Total PCB concentrations in the farmed salmon were significantly higher than those in the wild Alaskan chinook samples. Organically farmed Norwegian salmon had the highest concentrations of PCBs; their TEQ [toxic equivalent] values are in the higher range of those reported in farmed salmon from around the world."
Well, you could blow me down with a feather….Organically farmed????? - that's outrageous.

But, of course, fish farms, like the meat industry, are over populated.  Fish are crammed into areas which become breeding grounds for viruses. 

With further research I discovered that a recent Harvard study (May 21, 2012) shows that toxic mercury is accumulating in the Arctic - source: Harvard News
"Mercury is considered a persistent bioaccumulative toxin because it remains in the environment without breaking down; as it travels up the food chain, from plankton to fish, to marine mammals and humans, it becomes more concentrated and more dangerous."

And, guess what, we are to blame for most of the mercury.  In itself mercury really isn't that bad at all.  It happens naturally, but in low levels.  However, about half of the mercury released into the atmosphere comes from human activities e.g. burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil and natural gas, with contributions from waste incineration, mining and other industrial activities.

And so we come to pollution:

This is just the plastic, I'm not going to show pictures of sea animals and fish which have been entangled, injured or died from our complete indifference!

The amount of plastic floating in the Pacific Gyre - a massive swirling vortex of rubbish - has increased 100-fold in the past four decades.  Plastic is the bane of our existence.  Not only is it on land, but the effect it has on the ocean and the fish is simply outrageous.

People think that the oceans have unlimited inertia, but nano-particles of plastic are getting into marine life and the food chain which is affecting fish fertility rates, this, in turn, affects food security and coastal populations. Pollution is having a huge impact on the oceans.

Fish ingest an estimated 12,000 to 24,000 tons of plastic per year in the Pacific Ocean, according to research from the University of California San Diego Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
It's time we stopped treating our oceans as trash bins and started taking responsibility.

Our beautiful, forgiving and generous oceans are simply going to die if we don't stop over fishing and polluting them….they have enough to deal with already with climate change, let's not add to their burden……………maybe the "killer fish" is a way of payback.

Are We Really That Short-Sighted?

Recently there has been t.v. advertising on the wonderful "new" Red Krill Oil supplement pills that have more omega 3 than normal fish oil tablets.  It it contains an antioxidant called astaxanthin. O.k. so it's good for you but here again is just another pillaging of our seas in order to make money.
Flax oil is a wonderful source of omega 3 (actually better than fish oil) read more here so why do we have to keep finding "new and wonderful" animal, or in this case, fish, products when we don't really need to???

Now normally I'd let this one go with just another "why don't you just leave the sea alone" comment at the t.v.  But then last night I watched a program about "Ocean Giants" and that's when the blood really started to boil.

According to the program the blue whale which lives off the coast of Sri Lanka feed on red krill which, due to climate change, is being depleted.  This got me wondering.

So onto the internet this morning to discover that the krill for the pills is harvested from the cold waters off Antarctica and other icy waters. That's not all I found out.  The ongoing harvesting of krill could be threatening the food source of seals, penguins and whales. 
Pretty much what I had concluded.  Read the rest of the article here   

 

What amazed me was the fact that this article was written in December 2008….that's 4 years ago - damn, how many years will it take.  Oh, that's right - it's all about money.

The Blue Whale is just starting to increase in population after being decimated by whaling - hey, why not just take their food….that'll stop them!!!

Who Really Holds the Power???

I happened to see a video showing that Henry Ford made a car from hemp plastic which also was fueled by hemp (see video below) and it got me thinking about this amazing product…why was it outlawed? 
The simple answer….those with the money - hold the power which, of course, we already know.

The main troublemaker was a company called DuPont.  According to Wikipedia DuPont (a chemical company) was founded in 1802.  O.k. so the operative word here is "chemical".

So you've got DuPont (who has a lot to lose with hemp as competition) making chemicals for the wood pulp paper mills as well as nylon, chemical pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers …. all in direct competition to hemp.  Along comes William Randolph Hearst (owner of the largest newspaper chain) backed by the Mellon Bank who invests in DuPont.  See where this is going?

"At the same time, a machine was developed that was to hemp what the cotton gin was to cotton: it allowed hemp's long, tough fiber to be mass processed efficiently and economically for the first time. Popular Mechanics, in February 1937, predicted hemp would be the world's first "Billion Dollar Crop" that would support thousands of jobs and provide a vast array of consumer products from dynamite to plastics."
To quote my source: http://www.sdearthtimes.com/et0199/et0199s11.html

No, no, no … can't have that - so began the slander of cannabis which, of course, didn't mention that marijuana was hemp. Again, those with the money had the power and, unfortunately the hemp industry didn't catch on soon enough so it was goodnight to all the wonderful, sustainable, eco-friendly hemp products.

Now I can't actually find why Ford (who never intended cars to use gasoline) made the switch to petroleum, but I'm assuming that it was because growing hemp became illegal.  Also the many bills proposing a National energy program that made use of the vast agricultural resource (for fuel production) were wiped out by smear campaigns by…guess who - yup, petrol companies.

The book The Emperor Wears No Clothes…should be a mandatory read regardless of your views on cannabis.  If politicians, law enforcement, senate, congress also read it I'd begin to believe that there were educated people running governments rather than money/power hungry companies. Here's a challenge to educate yourself:  http://thevegetariancenter.com/recommended-reading.php

Getting back to my original question - So Who Holds the Power?  Unfortunately Ford was just way ahead of his time with his hemp car, but he certainly had the environmental vision - so I'll leave the last words to him.

Why use up the forests which were centuries in the making and the mines which required ages to lay down, if we can get the equivalent of forest and mineral products in the annual growth of the hemp fields? — Henry Ford

Money Rules

It's all about the money.  Let's face it, doesn't matter what it is - if you've got the money you've got the power (more's the pity). 

I came across this today Meat Industry Advertising and if you don't want to click through and read the whole article - the picture really says it all.  The difference in money spent on promoting meat is whopping (those are the red dots) compared to the little green dots? yes, you guessed right - that's the vegetarian or meat industry reform.

But, guess what - most of the red dots represent just estimated advertising whereas the green dots represent the total budge of the organization.  It's really no wonder that it's hard to get the vegetarian/animal rights message across.

I came across this article yesterday (Do We Have The Language Needed To Grant Dolphins Non-Human Rights?)  and I got quite riled up over it.  The more I thought about it the more I got …. well, not angry, but just - can't think of the word.  Which is really what the article is about - finding the right word for a  "specific word that encapsulates the relationship of you're-an-individual-as-I-am-even-though-we-are-different-species."

Now I'm not thinking about the "word" - what got me about the story is that we are even looking at giving "rights" to dolphins.  And before you jump down on me let me explain where I'm coming from.

We have human rights - and look how we manage that.  It's abysmal - we can't even get that right, so how is anyone going to think that by applying cetacean rights that anything is going to change the fact that dolphins and whales will still be abused.

And, speaking of rights, what about the rights of cows and pigs ….. yes, yes, I know, the article is saying that dolphins are highly intelligent therefore should be given rights.  Well it is also known that pigs are intelligent as are elephants and apes - and who says that cows and sheep are not?  So, what about their "rights".  They may not be as intelligent as dolphins, but there are lots of humans I could put on their intellectual level! and yet we give them "rights".

My point is that we should not be so concerned about the word "rights" be it to an individual or a species (including human), but we should be doing what is right to all living creatures.  Then comes the argument that what I might believe is right may not be in sync with what you think is right

I don't have an issue with humans who eat animal foods for survival (e.g. A country like Mongolia cannot grow anything so needs to live on meat) just as I don't have an issue with dolphins and lions etc who hunt for fish/meat in order to survive.  What I have an issue with is the blatant abusive farming activities that are practiced in order to quench the "desire" for meat - not the "need".  I mean - you don't see dolphins fish farming……mind you, if we keep depleting the ocean of fish life……well, dolphins are intelligent aren't they.

I'm getting off my soap box now.

What to do About Global Hunger

Reading a short blog this morning about global hunger and the fact that the less meat we eat the more people we can feed got me thinking.

I've always been a big believer in going to the top.  Let's face it when you need to get results it's always sometimes quicker and easier just to go to the top man rather than working your way through the chain of command.

It's like that for food.  Why not cut out the middle man?  Why go through the food chain for nutrition?  Why not go directly to the source?

Are you with me here?  Let me explain.  The grain that grows has all the nutrients needed - the meat industry feeds that grain to the animals then in turn feeds it to the humans….so, cut out the meat and get to the primary source (the grain) and get the pure nutrients.

Extrapolate this out.  Not only do you need land to grow the grain, but you need it also to farm the animals.  Cut out the "middle man" i.e. the farmed animals and you have more land to grow crops = more food to feed the hungry.

It's really quite simple math……but here's the rub - money.  The meat industry, unfortunately, just doesn't see it that way - it would appear that personal gain comes way above the gains of the planet.  So it's up to us.  By choosing to have at least one meat free day a week you will make a difference.  Try to make it a completely animal free day (vegan) like no dairy products or eggs and you will make that one small step towards doing something about world hunger.

Brilliant Book:

So, Do You Like Mushrooms?

I have just read the most interesting little book called "Mushrooms For Health and Longevity" and, to say that I was amazed at the medicinal properties of these fungi would be an understatement.

It's pretty common knowledge that mushrooms are good for you....let's face it, you're pretty safe to assume that anything in the fruit or veggie department has to have some goodness, so why not mushrooms. 

But I really had no idea how much these insignificant, brown/white/sometimes off white/sometimes dirty weird looking things could pack such a major punch in the health and well-being stakes.

Did you know that there is a variety of mushroom that contains the highest amount of vitamin D of all edible natural foods?  No?  Neither did I.