One of the things I dislike about being an environmentalist is that environmentalists really can’t improve anything. A clean, free-flowing river is a natural phenomenon, we can’t improve on it. Far from that, we are bold if we imagine returning a polluted river to its natural state. The best we can hope for that river is to make it a little less polluted, a little less impounded. We can never create a virgin forest, we can only try to hang onto the precious few we have left. We cannot resurrect a species from extinction, we can only try to save those that remain among us. And when we win a battle for the environment, it is not a victory, but only a short reprieve. A tree that is cut is cut forever, a tree saved today will only have greater value for the merchants tomorrow.
It has been more than two decades since Greenpeace first sailed out to save the whales. Greenpeace was founded as an anti-nuclear group, but in campaigning to save the whales, Greenpeace found an identity it still wears today. To save the whales, Greenpeace used the Quaker tactic of bearing witness. We traveled to the place where the injustice was being done and bore witness as the killers launched their harpoons and the ocean thrashed red with the blood of dying whales. Greenpeace activists put their bodies between the explosive harpoons and the whales, practicing Martin Luther King’s directive that activists must accept the suffering of the world on themselves so that others may be spared suffering. Through our cameras, the world joined Greenpeace to witness the plight of the whales.
Commercial whaling ended and around the world it was noted as a benchmark of our advancing civilization that we no longer hunt these gentle and intelligent creatures. But greed is a powerful motivator and no environmental battle stays won forever. Slowly, slowly in recent years, the whalers have begun to return. From Iceland, from Japan and from Norway, the whalers are killing more and more whales every year. Each year the whaling nations raise their quotas higher, each year the whalers release new reams of doctored-up statistics claiming larger and larger populations of whales – as if that mattered, as if they wanted us to see whales only as herds of swimming meat waiting for slaughter. Each year the whalers move closer to outright defiance of the conventions banning commercial whaling.
Ten days ago, ten orcas were captured alive along the Japanese coast. Five were released and five were shipped off to water parks. The people who did this said it was for “research” purposes. But at a quarter million dollars a whale, there is no doubt that it is commercial whaling. And why not, say the entrepreneurs, captive whales perform similar tricks at American water parks. They do, and it is just as wrong.
This week my phone is ringing constantly. This capture of whales has caught the attention of many. In Japan and around the world, people of like mind are bearing witness again on behalf of the whales.
So while no environmental battle is ever truly won, perhaps no environmental battle is ever truly lost. Every twenty years we look at ourselves and find another generation of hearts ready to be opened.
What Goes Around, Comes Around
One of the things I dislike about being an environmentalist is that environmentalists really can’t improve anything. A clean, free-flowing river is a natural phenomenon, we can’t improve on it. Far from that, we are bold if we imagine returning a polluted river to its natural state. The best we can hope for that river is to make it a little less polluted, a little less impounded. We can never create a virgin forest, we can only try to hang onto the precious few we have left. We cannot resurrect a species from extinction, we can only try to save those that remain among us. And when we win a battle for the environment, it is not a victory, but only a short reprieve. A tree that is cut is cut forever, a tree saved today will only have greater value for the merchants tomorrow.
It has been more than two decades since Greenpeace first sailed out to save the whales. Greenpeace was founded as an anti-nuclear group, but in campaigning to save the whales, Greenpeace found an identity it still wears today. To save the whales, Greenpeace used the Quaker tactic of bearing witness. We traveled to the place where the injustice was being done and bore witness as the killers launched their harpoons and the ocean thrashed red with the blood of dying whales. Greenpeace activists put their bodies between the explosive harpoons and the whales, practicing Martin Luther King’s directive that activists must accept the suffering of the world on themselves so that others may be spared suffering. Through our cameras, the world joined Greenpeace to witness the plight of the whales.
Commercial whaling ended and around the world it was noted as a benchmark of our advancing civilization that we no longer hunt these gentle and intelligent creatures. But greed is a powerful motivator and no environmental battle stays won forever. Slowly, slowly in recent years, the whalers have begun to return. From Iceland, from Japan and from Norway, the whalers are killing more and more whales every year. Each year the whaling nations raise their quotas higher, each year the whalers release new reams of doctored-up statistics claiming larger and larger populations of whales – as if that mattered, as if they wanted us to see whales only as herds of swimming meat waiting for slaughter. Each year the whalers move closer to outright defiance of the conventions banning commercial whaling.
Ten days ago, ten orcas were captured alive along the Japanese coast. Five were released and five were shipped off to water parks. The people who did this said it was for “research” purposes. But at a quarter million dollars a whale, there is no doubt that it is commercial whaling. And why not, say the entrepreneurs, captive whales perform similar tricks at American water parks. They do, and it is just as wrong.
This week my phone is ringing constantly. This capture of whales has caught the attention of many. In Japan and around the world, people of like mind are bearing witness again on behalf of the whales.
So while no environmental battle is ever truly won, perhaps no environmental battle is ever truly lost. Every twenty years we look at ourselves and find another generation of hearts ready to be opened.