Oh No, Not Again

One of the unpalatable things about being an environmentalist (there are others) is that no victory ever stays won. An ancient tree cut down stays cut; a species driven to extinction is gone for good. The tree saved, however, has been saved for a day only. A species preserved is preserved for now and the effort to keep it preserved starts early tomorrow morning.

Surely, there must be one battle the greens have won, one cause so clearly right that by the twenty-first century, people across the globe would agree this piece of the planet is worth protecting. You might think that, but you’d be wrong.

The whales are once again in danger.

After a more than decade-long battle, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) voted in 1986 to end commercial whale hunting. While that was a “win” for the environment (see above caveats), the IWC allows “research” whaling. Japan engages in such “research” whaling, on the order of 1,000 dead whales every year. Odd thing is all that “research,” all those dead whales and no published results from the Japanese “researchers.” Kinda makes you think it’s all bogus. Norway and Iceland engage in commercial whaling, essentially giving the finger to the IWC and the rest of the civilized world. (Those Japanese, so polite, wrap the finger they give us in a faux white lab coat.)

OK, that’s all bad enough, but now Japan – and whatever allies it can muster – are petitioning the IWC, promising to suspend its “research” whaling if the IWC will bless commercial whaling by Japan, Iceland and Norway. The gimmick is that supposedly the three countries will accept low quotas, so that if the IWC lets them all kill whales commercially (in the case of Japan) and under supervision (in the case of Iceland and Norway), then fewer whales will die than are currently dying under a regime of bogus “research” and outlaw whaling.

It’s easy enough to see where all this leads. No one is trying to be subtle here. The idea is to get the IWC to once again condone commercial whaling, then put the crews to the IWC to raise the quotas.

This is just crap, right? There’s no way the nations of the IWC will let these jokers get away with this, right? Not unless they have a heavy-hitter nation making the case for them, right? They do have a heavy-hitter nation on their side – the United States of America.

Earlier this month, Japan, Iceland and Norway presented their proposal at a meeting in Florida, with the support of nations like the US and New Zealand.

It’s worth remembering that a tall, skinny fellow named Barack Obama – back in 2008, when he was asking us all to do him a BIG favor – said, “As president, I will ensure that the U.S. provides leadership in enforcing international wildlife protection agreements, including strengthening the international moratorium on commercial whaling. Allowing Japan to continue commercial whaling is unacceptable.”

Whale advocates of my acquaintance, who know this issue much better than I do, are willing – for now – to cut President Obama some slack on this (great and gentle sea creatures that they are). They say they doubt this is his actual position. They say that the US delegate to the IWC – Monica Medina – has apparently gone off the rails and taken it upon herself to support this despicable position.

So let’s give Mr. Obama the benefit of the doubt and say he’s out of the loop on this whale thing. (He does have a rather full plate.) The final decision on this screwball commercial whaling petition won’t come until the IWC annual meeting in June (the Florida meeting was just a prep). Here’s what you can do about it. Click here, scroll to the bottom of the page and send a message to the president that you do not want a resumption of commercial whaling. You’ll be joining 35,000 of my closest friends who have already gotten the attention of the White House’s Council on Environmental Quality. My friends met with them this morning and they’re wavering. I figure another 35,000 messages will do the trick.

I thank you and the whales thank you.

© Mark Floegel, 2010

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