Australia: The New Commons Hero
One of the surprising - and heartening - recent developments in the environmental world has been the transformation of Australia into a real commons hero. Not just in terms of signing the Kyoto Protocol, but also in taking a very active part in revealing the reality of the scandalously callous and egotistical behaviour of the Japanese whalers.
The latest result of this new position is a truly shocking video that shows the death-throes of two Minke whales, almost certainly a mother and her calf. Be warned: this is literally revolting in its capture of the slow suffering inflicted by the Japanese.
But appalling as it is, it is a valuable document in the fight against this totally senseless slaughter and the Japanese government's cynical portrayal of such butchery as "science". The Australian government and people should be proud of their work in attempting to defend this fragile commons. (Via The Times.)
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2 comments:
Australians should indeed be proud of this video footage and our government's policy of taking this to the international courts. It's a shame Greenpeace didn't have enough fuel to keep the pressure on, however with Greenpeace out the way it gave the Australian Customs ship a chance to get in and et this footage.
Greenpeace have an email protest campaign going, you can find the link on my site, where they are emailing the head of Canon who is also the head of the Japanese Business Federation. Things won't change unless the Japanese change so it isn't enough to hope the Australian government can do good, we also need to change public opinion where it counts, the boardrooms of Tokyo.
I agree that we need change within Japan, and the boardrooms are an excellent place to start. After all, I doubt somehow that the captains of industry like eating whalemeat so much as to risk losing billions of dollars of exports. And that's what's at stake: a boycott of Japanese goods by even a small fraction of the Western world would have a huge effect.
Here's the direct link to the email campaign; I've already sent mine off.
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