Makin' Waves

Is the sun to blame or not?

My anti-global warming boss brought this article in the Telegraph to my attention: The truth about global warming - it's the Sun that's to blame and then I found this article reporting the same scientific research: Greenhouse Gases, Not Solar Activity, Cause of Global Warming.

It's news from a couple of years ago but having only just come across it I felt the urge to blog this HUGE contradiction within the media regarding climate change. I wonder how many times this happens?

Posted by wavemaker at 12:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (10) | TrackBacks (1)

Many fish are caught by dragging nets, the size of football fields, over seamounts that are home to many deep sea species.

On my way home from work today I saw some men sitting out in the sun on the side of the road. A sign next to them told me what they were selling but I already knew what it was because they were sitting on top of two big white coolers - well that can only mean one thing! FRESH LOCAL FISH FOR SALE! I love these guys that go out with their little boats and fishing rods and come back with fresh fish for us landlubbers. Apart from catching too many black groupers in the past most of the local fishermen here are pretty good with regards to the environment. Bermuda banned the use of fish pots a while ago and now there are strict regulations on which fish and how many fish can be caught and what size they are allowed to catch. We need better fisheries law enforcement here but compared to other countries our fish stocks are doing well. Mahi mahi, wahoo, yellow fin tuna, amber jack and bonita are just some of the fish species that are still abundant in our waters and caught by local fishermen.

I feel so lucky to be able to have fresh locally caught fish in Bermuda yet every time I go out to eat or walk into a supermarket I am appalled by the amount of imported seafood on offer.

I have been meaning to do something about this for some time and made a small start today by writing a letter to my local supermarket. It is one of the island's largest. I intend to send a similar letter round to all of the supermarkets, restaurants and hotels here.

Here's the letter I just wrote:

Dear Sir/ Madame,

I love your store in Devonshire and am a regular customer. Your stock of environmentally friendly and organic products is wonderful and I am always telling my family and friends to go to your store for that very reason. I only wish that every grocery store in Bermuda would offer similar products.

I would like to make one request though and that is for you to re-consider what species of fish you sell at your fish counter and in your freezer section. There is rarely any local fish at your store and I find this very disappointing since Bermuda has plenty of fish to offer her residents and most of the fish caught here are not under threat from overfishing (yellow fin tuna, wahoo, mahi mahi, and jacks are just some of the species that are abundant in our waters). My main concern with imported fish is the lack of environmental responsibility of the large fishing industries. Atlantic cod, swordfish, shrimp (from tropical waters), Atlantic salmon (wild or farmed), snapper, grouper and scallops are all species that are at risk from overfishing and/or involve environmental degradation (large amounts of by-catch or destruction of deep sea life on the ocean floor). It should be illegal to fish for many of these species but unfortunately, national and international regulations are often inadequate and the management of these fisheries is far from being sustainable. Humans are literally devouring the oceans.

I would like to urge Lindo's to offer more locally caught fish and to ensure that the fish you import and sell is from environmentally friendly sources. There are many online seafood guides. Here are some of them:

www.seafoodchoices.com
www.fishonline.org
www.seafood.audubon.org
www.mbayaq.org/cr/seafoodwatch.asp

I look forward to seeing a different selection of fish at Lindo's soon.

Kind Regards
Lisa Vickers

--------------------------

I sent an e.mail out to everyone I know locally and asked them to do the same thing. If you want to make a difference for the oceans in your country why not start writing to some of your major supermarket and restaurant chains and ask them to offer environmentally friendly seafood and then ask everyone you know to write similar e.mails.

You can also ask your government to protect deep sea life

I noticed a recent BBC News article about overfishing. You can read it here

Lisa.

Posted by wavemaker at 06:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

I am suddenly feeling patriotic

Today I am very proud to be British. I just heard from Captain Paul Watson of the "Sea Shepherd Conservation Society that Britain is pushing ahead with a ban on the sale of seal pelts and intends to encourage the rest of Europe to do the same. This is great news! I am going to celebrate by drinking a cup of British tea in my Union Jack mug and may even start humming the national anthem soon (I have to hum it since I don't know the words!).

Paul Watson also said "The way to shut this obscene slaughter down is with economic pressure. We need to boycott everything Canadian, especially Canadian seafood products and tourism to Canada, and we need to shut down the markets worldwide."

I'm doing alright for seafood but I need to make sure I look at the lables on products more and make sure they are not Canadian. I think I am guilty of having recently purchased some organic Canadian maple syrup. Dang! I don't think we have any other kind of maple syrup here in Bermuda. Looks like I will have to give up pancakes then but that's not much of a sacrifice considering millions of lives are at stake here!

To find out more about the Canadian seal slaughter and how you can help click on the links above.

This year 335,000 harp seals were killed in Canada during a hunt that finished last week.

There is a discussion including Paul Watson, about this topic over on the Envirolink forum.

Posted by wavemaker at 05:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

A taste of what's to come?

Ah man, I recently found out that Nestlé is probably buying Heinz's Linda McCartney range of foods. This depresses me more than the fact that they just bought the Body Shop since I'm not all that fussed about The Body Shop anyway but the possibility that Heinz is now selling out to Nestlé has thrown me into a state of panic. Will I soon have to boycott my beloved Heinz Baked Beans? These are like a staple food at my house (I usually try to buy the organic version). What will I put with my veggie burgers and mashed potato now?

It's bad enough already since I am limited in the food I consume because I try to be an ethical consumer. For example - I wont eat veggie burgers made by Bocca (produced by Kraft, which is owned by Phillip Morris - now known as "Altria"!). It seems that all of the smaller food producers are getting bought up by a few big companies. Everything is either made by Nestlé, Kraft or Unilever these days. Thank Gaia for farmers' markets!

If you want to find out who the worst corporations are check out www.badcorp.org.

Want to be an ethical consumer? Find out where your nearest Farmers' Market is and buy as much (preferably organic) produce from there as possible. It's much better to buy locally, from the growers than to buy stuff that has travelled thousands of miles from supermarket chains.

Posted by wavemaker at 07:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

My local dive shop was washed completely into the sea by a hurricane in 2003

I heard on the radio this morning that the oceanic currents going accross the Atlantic have already heated up to over 80 degrees Fahrenheit. This means that we can expect hurricanes before the usual start of the season on June 1st. How many more news bulletins like this do we have to hear before countries like the USA actually start doing something about global warming. Apparently George "Yee Hah, I'm Prezident!" Bush seems to think that humans will invent some kind of technology to deal with the catastrophic effects that a warmer planet is sure to bring. However, unless they can raise all of their coastal cities by several meters then I don't really see how they can resist climate change.

Bermudians are very concerned about hurricanes this year since our island has only just recovered from a direct hit by a category 3 hurricane in 2003 but the damage we incurred here was nothing compared to that suffered from Hurricane Katrina. It looks like the East Coast of North America and the Caribbean islands are in for another terrible summer like last year although some scientists think this season will be weaker. I dread to think what will happen to our little blip in the ocean if it should get hit by a category 5 hurricane and the chances of this happening are looking more and more likely every year.

Entire houses on the seafront in Bermuda were washed away but the people who owned them have just rebuilt them or purchased property elsewhere and are probably driving around in SUVs completely oblivious to the direct link between their own lifestyle and the huge waves that tore apart their waterfront properties.

Be better than Bush and do something to STOP CLIMATE CHANGE

There is a new movie coming out soon about the climate crisis called "An Inconvenient Truth" on May 24th. Looks very good.

More Actions You Can Take:

Find out what you can do through Friends of the Earth
Take the the World Wildlife Fund (UK) actions
See what you can do through the David Suzuki Foundation
Stop Climate Chaos - the largest British coalition against climate change
Australian? Take Action Here!
Say Yes to Wind!

Posted by wavemaker at 07:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Canis domesticus- a species not thought to go extinct anytime soon thanks to the huge amount of global funding spent on it!

The IUCN recently released the 2006 Red List of Threatened Species. The ongoing decline of global biodiversity is shocking. We know that climate change, habitat destruction and invasive species are the top three causes of biodiversity loss but we are not doing enough in the places that need help the most.

It is impossible to preserve everything and the importance of biodiversity hotspots has been recognised yet many environmentalists tend to focus effort mainly on their own small corners of the world. In Bermuda for example, all of our environmental charities and NGOs are only concerned with the limited amount of local biodiversity here yet we are the third richest country in the world.

Developed countries usually have fairly good conservation laws and habitat protection compared to developing countries. Unfortunately most of the world's species are in the tropics and mainly in countries that can't afford to focus much attention on conservation because they have so many other problems. Additionally, they rely more heavily on their natural resources than developed countries need to.

I think some effort that is currently spent conserving small parts of developed countries in temperate regions (that have less biodiversity and low endemism) should be diverted to countries in the tropics that have greater biodiversity and a greater number of species facing extinction. Thousands of species and entire habitats in South America, South-East Asia and Africa are suffering from lack of efforts to protect them while people in Europe for example are quite happy to fund NGOs that focus on protecting a few native birds.

It is shame that people in developed countries usually spend more money protecting their limited wildlife close to home than they are willing to spend in order to protect a lot more biota further away. Conservation funds need to be prioritised so that biodiversity hot spots receive the most attention. There are many NGOs that spend money on international projects in very important areas but I'm sure if you compare the amount of funds raised by NGOs in Europe you would find that most of the cash goes towards local conservation.

I would like to see a lot more funds spent on initiatives like the the Alliance for Zero Extinction and the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF) although it is interesting to note that the latter conservation initiative is partly funded by the government of Japan (a government that refuses to cease the "scientific" slaughter of endangered whales and has no qualms about the destruction of blue fin tuna populations) and the World Bank (which, together with the IMF, is mostly responsible for ongoing poverty in Africa).

According to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) developing country Parties should be given financial assistance by developed country Parties and I'd like to know just how much the developed countries are meeting these agreed requirements. However, the point I am making here is more about the private funding of environmental conservation and how the average person acts to preserve global biodiversity.

I think we all need to think AND act more globally.

Today's post is based on some thoughts I posted to the Envirolink discussion forum

Posted by wavemaker at 05:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

I have been thinking about Chernobyl a lot since the 20th anniversary passed in April. I just can't believe that Prime Minister Yuri Yekhanurov, of the Ukraine, has told his people not to fear nuclear power but to embrace it because "God gave us uranium". How completely insane! There is absolutely no way to know that Chernobyl will not happen again. This was the world's worst nuclear accident, which killed over 93,000 people and has left thousands more living in nightmares. It's clear to me that nuclear power is not the answer to global warming and is simply not worth the risk. I wish EVERYONE could see this!

Tell the UN to stop promoting nuclear power and also sign the million against nuclear petition.

Posted by wavemaker at 10:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)