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Sushi — Or Not Sushi? That Is the Question

Thursday, March 4th, 2010

By David L. Brown

How can we tell when a species is endangered? One clue is when people are willing to pay an arm and a leg to eat the unfortunate few remaining members.

tuna-sushiRecently a 511 lb. northern bluefin tuna, one of the most sought-after fish in the world for sushi, was sold at Tokyo’s Tuskiji fish market for $175,000. By that afternoon, customers at Kyubey, a nearby star-rated restaurant, were chowing down on the tuna’s fatty belly meat. The story was reported by Scientific American on-line, here.

The idea that a single fish could be worth $342.50 a pound is astonishing, especially considering the number of people on Earth who go to bed hungry each night. It is a fact that many struggle to survive on as little as a dollar a day. For one of those unfortunate individuals, (should they become immortal) $175,000 could equal their income for 480 years, or about 20 generations. Or, conversely, it would be equal to the income of 480 impoverished people for an entire year. Just one fish.

There is growing evidence that the norhern bluefin may be in danger of extinction. The SciAm article reported on a move toward banning harvest of the increasingly rare fish, one of the top predator species of the ocean. Only the northern bluefin would be affected, not the Pacific and southern varieties—but it appears the northern bluefin is the one most loved by diners, especially in Japan which imports 80 percent of the bluefin catch in the Atlantic and Mediterranean.

Markets and the effects of greed and avarice are more powerful than nature, common sense, and human self-preservation all added together, at least for the time being, so with demand for bluefin sushi so high that it can support stratospheric prices it seems likely that protecting the fish will be difficult or impossible. One problem is that even experts have difficulty telling the difference between the three varieties of bluefin (although sushi eaters apparently can, or at least believe they can).

Listing as an endangered species does not necessarily have much effect. The demand for rhinoceros horns for dagger handles among Arabs and potions among aging Chinese and Vietnamese has forced many rhino species to the very edge of extinction. Modern-day poachers hunt rhinos with AK-47s and sometimes from helicopters, quickly removing the horns with chainsaws and leaving the bodies to rot. The market for rhino horns has continued to thrive even though several major rhino varieties have been  placed on the world endangered species list (CITES) and even China banned the sale of rhino horn 17 years ago.

In a similar way, it seems likely that greedy fishers, fish mongers, and restaurant operators will find ways around a bluefin tuna ban. After all, the mindset of our present world economy seems to be that money is the root of everything that is good and the environment be damned. The plundering of nature will continue apace as long as humans have a yen (or dollar, euro or pound) for rare delicacies from the sea.

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Posted in Diversity Loss, Environmental Activism, Extinction, Ocean Depletion | Comments Off

“Climate Porn” Producers Put on Notice in UK

Sunday, August 6th, 2006

by Val Germann

For many years this writer has been a member of a small group of academic types who meet on a semi-regular basis to have a refreshment or two and discuss the kinds of things that academic types discuss. Several years ago I asked this group to guess who would in the end be blamed for things like Global Warming and Climate Change. They picked up on it quickly and someone answered: “The environmentalists!” And I said, “You got it!”

Fast-forward to an article that appeared on the SPACE DAILY website the other day, reporting that a “think tank” in England was starting the very process I was speaking of years ago: blaming environmentalists for the disasters now becoming more apparent every day. Take a look at this lead paragraph:

Alarmism about global warmin iin Britain is tantamount to “climate porn” as it arouses people without encouraging them to take action, a leading think tank claimed on Thursday.

Oh, yes, this “alarmism” is the problem, allright, and not the millions of dollars (and pounds) spent by the fossil fuel mavens in their decades-long attempt to make the whole issue go away. The public couldn’t have been getting some “confusion” from that, could they? Apparently not since fossil-fuel propaganda is not mentioned in the SPACE DAILY piece. Let’s get some more flavor:

“We suspect that one reason why we spend so much time dwelling on the problem is because it is secretly thrilling, like watching porn or a large car crash,” Simon Retallack, IPPR head of climate change, told AFP.

Well, I suppose that could be true. But it also could be true that the issue is actually IMPORTANT, and that millions upon millions of people, or even all people, everywhere, have a VITAL interest in it, and that is why some people “spend so much time dwelling on the problem.”

While it certainly is true that this last idea could be viewed as “alarmist” is some circles, it would explain a lot, wouldln’t it?

View the entire SPACE DAILY article (originating with the Agence France-Press) here.

Posted in Climate Change, Environmental Activism, Essays and Opinion | 1 Comment »

Germany Reneges on Kyoto Emissions Pledge

Friday, July 7th, 2006

By David L. Brown

We have written recently about the fact that some Kyoto Treaty signators may be cheating on their reported emissions of greenhouse gas (GHG), bringing the entire program into doubt. Of particular concern is that sales of carbon permits (“pollution rights”) could result in massive fraud (see the article “The Kyoto Treaty: Scandal in the Making?” posted Saturday, June 24).

My earlier article referred to a piece in New Scientist which quoted independent reports from two researchers in Europe, one Italian and one British, who concluded that many countries were understating their GHG emissions. Particular violaters were France and Britain, but the article also mentioned a curious fact that I didn’t comment upon in my earlier analysis. It was that just as the scientists were preparing to issue their objective reports on actual vs. reported emissions, Germany suddenly revised its emissions estimates sharply upward.

Now, in what seems to us to be a stunning development, Germany has reversed itself on its commitments to emissions reductions. Here is an excerpt from a news report titled “Germany Slams Brakes on Emissions Targets,” appearing yesterday in New Scientist:

Europe’s efforts to meet its Kyoto protocol targets for greenhouse gas emissions are heading for trouble after Germany, the driving force behind the continent’s emissions reductions for the past 15 years, slammed on the brakes.

Since 1990, Germany has cut its emissions by 17.5 per cent, more than any other country in the European Union. Its Kyoto target is a 21 per cent cut, but on 28 June the environment ministry revealed that it would only require a further 0.6 per cent cut from its major industrial emitters between now and 2010. To make matters worse, it exempted new power plants from any limits until 2022. The government says it will make up the difference by encouraging German motorists, who are now allowed to drive on some highways at unlimited speeds, to drive more slowly.

The announcement came as European nations submitted their proposed emissions targets under the EU’s carbon trading scheme. These “pollution permits” cover roughly half of most countries’ emissions, but exclude cars.

The article doesn’t seem to include the discrepancies uncovered by the recent studies, and which dimmed the previously glowing pictures that were being projected by European participants in the Kyoto protocols. The article continued to say:

(more…)

Posted in Age of Oil, Climate Change, Environmental Activism, Essays and Opinion, Pollution | 1 Comment »

Second-Law Blowback Scorching Hong Kong

Sunday, June 18th, 2006

by Val Germann

China’s booming ecomomy has meant an economic revival for Hong Kong, a city much damaged by the Asian implosion of the late 1990s. Today, by almost any measure, things are looking up for the former British colony. But “by almost any measure” is not quite the same thing as “by ANY measure,” is it? No, it is not, and Hong Kong has some serious doubts about its long-term future, as is clearly shown by the quote below, from the Asia Times Online website:

According to study released this month, the city’s choking air quality is costing Hong Kong 1,600 lives and nearly US$258 million in health-care costs and lost productivity each year. The study – carried out by a team of experts from the University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Chinese University and think-tank Civic Exchange – found that Hong Kong’s air pollutants exceeded World Health Organization standards by 200%.

What is the source for all this bad air? Well, some of it is due to Hong Kong’s truck and auto fleet, and some by other city pollution sources. But the REAL problem lies elsewhere:

Ironically, the most urgent threat to Hong Kong’s competitiveness – the city’s increasingly foul air – is intimately tied to the phenomenal growth on the mainland, particularly in the Pearl River Delta in neighboring Guangdong province. This is where more than 70,000 largely unregulated Hong Kong-invested factories belch poisonous pollutants into the air on a daily basis.

(more…)

Posted in Economics, Environmental Activism, Politics, Pollution | Comments Off

China’s “Miracle” Brings Second-Law Payback

Wednesday, June 14th, 2006

by Val Germann

The breakneck speed of China’s economic “development” is continuing to visit Second-Law effects on the Land of the Middle Kingdom. It’s enough to bring a crocodile tear to the eye of this child of the 1950′s, who remembers Tom Lehrer’s song about a California future in which everything is fine, “as long as you don’t drink the water, or breath the air.” China is just about there, now.

Here’s a quote from an article appearing yesterday on THE INDEPENDENT‘s website:

Sometimes the smog enveloping Beijing is dry and tinged with yellow; on other days it’s a misty kind of soup. In the early summer there are the sandstorms which whip up dust bearing poisonous particles.

All three kinds of pollution leave you with sore eyes, feeling a bit chesty, and prone to all kinds of infections, from cold sores to flu.

Yes, indeed, the air and water in China give a whole new meaning to the idea of unhealthy:

The World Bank, which says 16 of the world’s 20 most polluted cities are in China, estimates that 400,000 people here die a year from air pollution-related illnesses.

Of course, that’s not very many funerals when the total population is over ONE BILLION, but it gets some attention here at Star Phoenix Base. To paraphrase the late Illinois Senator Everett Dirkson (my father’s mother went to grade school with him!): “A hundred thousand here, a hundred thousand there, and pretty soon you’re talking about real numbers!” Yes, you are, and in response to all this bad air and water, China seems to have a budding, if late-arriving, environmental movement:

People all over the country have rioted and held demonstrations over pollution damaging their crops in the countryside and affecting children’s health. Smog is a much bigger issue among Chinese people than democracy, internet freedom, censorship or the right to worship. Breathing comes first.

Ordinarily, yes, breathing WOULD come first. But breathing doesn’t generate any foreign exchange, and therein lies the problem.

Read THE INDEPENDENT’s article here.

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Posted in Conservation Issues, Desertification and Soil Loss, Disease and Pandemics, Economics, Environmental Activism, Fossil Fuels, Pollution | 1 Comment »

An Agricultural Classic: Topsoil & Civilization

Monday, June 12th, 2006

RETRO REVIEW

Editor’s Note: This is the first in a series of book reviews of previously published and out-of-print works of particular interest to Star Phoenix Base. These reviews will be filed under the appropriate subjects, and also in a separate “Retro Reviews” category to create a valuable archive of information about historical ideas, predictions, and opinions relating to the future of the Earth.

by Val Germann

TOPSOIL & CIVILIZATION; By Vernon Gill Carter and Tom Dale; University of Oklahoma Press (1955 & 1974), 292pp.; out of print.

This astonishing book is long out of print and seems to have attained collectible status on the Amazon Books website. Checking there the other day, in hopes of finding some inexpensive copies I could recommend to my readers here at Star Phoenix Base, I found only three copies available, all at a very high price. This is most unfortunate because Topsoil & Civilization speaks to our time most forcefully, most forcefully indeed.

The heart of the book is a country by country survey of the Earth, documenting the planet-wide destruction of soils and soil productivity, which makes for chapter after chapter of very sad reading indeed. The impetus for this research was the U.S. dust bowl of the 1930s, an ecological disaster that saw whole states get up and blow away. Author Carter was an official of the National Wildlife Federation and Tom Dale worked for the U.S. Soil Conservation Service. They both saw, up close and personal, the results of bad agricultural practices and poor land management, neither of which have since disappeared from the world scene.

That is, the poster child for destructive agriculture these days has to be that marvel of “development,” China. The dust storms there are so bad now that the plumes can reach all the way across the Pacific and yellow the sunsets over the American midwest. In the capital city of Bejing the residents have to wear masks for weeks on end, to protect themselves from the dust. That’s what “progress” can mean if your top people do not take care of the nation’s land.

So, as you can see, the work of authors Carter and Dale is right “up to the minute” in its relevance to Anno Domini 2006. And speaking of AD, or CE, let’s begin a more detailed discussion of this book with the ancient city of Antioch, in Syria, where St. Paul first preached the Gospel and the title “Christian” was first used.

Antioch was at that time the third largest city in the entire Roman world, behind only Alexandria (in Egypt) and Rome itself. As late as 360 CE, Antioch boasted 200,000 inhabitants, “not including children and slaves,” according to the Christian bishop St. John Chrysostom.

The city was fed by a hinterland of more than 200 square miles and was a trade center through its nearby port, Seleucia, on the Mediterranean fifteen miles away down the Orontes river. Antioch’s main street was more than four miles in length and had ornate covered walkways on both sides, lighted at night.

The city had running water supplied to many of its houses, along with indoor plumbing. For several hundred years it was a jewel of Western Civilization, surviving even a massive earthquake in 115 CE. But it could not survive the destruction of its hinterland and was to become lost to history for more than a millennium, before being dug up again in the 19th century.

So, what happened to the hinterland of Antioch, to the two hundred square miles that supported, in luxury, so large a population for so long? Below is a quote from the 1810 diary of one of the first Europeans to visit the area since ancient times, John Burckhardt. He is writing about the Plains of Antioch and the ruins of some of the area’s ancient towns:

The neighbourbood of these towns, at least for five miles round, presents nothing but an uneven plain, thickly covered with barren rocks, which rise to the height of two or three feet above the surface. A few herbs grow in the fissures of the rocks, which are scarcely sufficient to keep from starving half a dozen horses, the property of the present miserable inhabitants.

This was an area that had sustained more than 200 towns and villages, in style, at the same time it was supplying grain, meat and wine to Antioch. And therein lies the tale: the land was over-exploited, mined, and little by little lost its ability to provide sustenance. In the late 1930s, following the Dust Bowl in our Great Plains, U.S. agriculture officials visited the place and the authors of Topsoil & Civilization report what they found:

“An area of about a million acres exhibits soil erosion at its worst. Here are the ruins of villages and market towns resting on a skeleton rock of limestone hills, from which 3 to 6 feet of soil have been swept off.”

That “swept off” soil was blown by the wind or washed down stream, down to Antioch itself and to its harbor. Carter and Dale reported that the archeologists who rediscovered Antioch were working more than 20 feet below ground level, and a similar situation existed at the site of Seleucia, by then miles from the sea and under many feet of detritus. They both were dead cities — and had been for more than a thousand years.

A few days ago I wrote here on Star Phoenix Base about the loss of topsoil in Missouri, about a plot of unbroken prairie I had seen thirty years ago. That plot was elevated more than a foot above the surrounding eroded terrain. Yes, it’s happening here, today, just as it happened in ancient Syria. And we are on the verge of creating our own “dead city,” the city of New Orleans, being slowly killed by bad land management as surely as was Antioch.

(more…)

Posted in Age of Oil, Agriculture Issues, Book Reviews, Conservation Issues, Desertification and Soil Loss, Economics, Environmental Activism, Resource Depletion, Retro Reviews | Comments Off

The Ethanol Delusion: There Is No Free Lunch

Tuesday, May 30th, 2006

By David L. Brown

Star Phoenix Base has commented in depth on the fact that ethanol—whether made from corn, switchgrass, or another farm crop—is not a good answer to our nation’s oil dependence. There are many reasons for this, which we have covered in the following postings (you can find them by searching the site archives):

  1. Switchgrass…Energy Source of the Future? Not!
  2. Ethanol and the Second Law
  3. A Glorious Delusion: Turning Topsoil to Fuel
  4. Sending More Pork to the Farm?
  5. Nation’s Soils to Lose Big as Ethanol Ramps Up

Now we are disturbed to read of a new movement aimed at putting pressure on government and oil companies to vastly increase the use of ethanol as a substitute for gasoline. The issue is introduced by actor and environmental activist Robert Redford in a guest essay he wrote for CNN.com (Read it here). Redford refers to a variety of alternative energy programs, but then focuses on one with which we cannot agree—ethanol.

Star Phoenix Base is as concerned as anyone can be about the energy crisis facing our nation, but the reality of agricultural science and economics cannot support a major move to ethanol as an “easy answer” to these problems. And yet, that is exactly what the movement Redford supports is advocating.

The program is sponsored by a group of politically activist organizations including the ultra-left moveon.org. As Redford describes the ethanol initiative in his CNN article:

Recently, a dynamic new campaign launched to seize and grow these opportunities and break our energy dependence. It’s called KickTheOilHabit.org, and it has the backing of a diverse coalition of organizations. Its first action was to challenge oil companies to double the number of renewable fuel pumps at their stations within the year and pledge to offer E85 ethanol fuel at half of all gas stations within the decade.

As the organization states, E85 fuel is now available at only 600 stations, and there are 170,000 total stations in the U.S. That means they are advocating increasing the number of statons that offer this alternative fuel from 600 to 85,000. That is an enormous increase of 142 times the present level. It would be wonderful if this new alternative to oil could help us throw off our dependence on OPEC. But, we cannot, and for a simple reason: The U.S. already is using 15 percent of our corn crop to produce ethanol, most of which is used in 10 percent gasohol blends rather than the 85 percent blend the group advocates.

(more…)

Posted in Age of Oil, Agriculture Issues, Energy Technology, Environmental Activism, Resource Depletion | Comments Off

Animal Rights Activists—Unhinged Threat to Science

Sunday, May 14th, 2006

By David L. Brown
It seems that animal rights activists will go to any extreme to publicize their often bizarre demands. The destruction of important medical experiments that could save human lives. The “freeing” of domestic animals which are left frightened, starving and dying in the wild. Threatening the lives of animal researchers and their families … these are among the actions of the radical animal rights movement.

I recently heard about how some protesters “freed” some pets from an animal pound where they contended the animals would be euthanized. The bodies of the animals were later found in a nearby dumpster. Apparently the activists were more interested in the publicity than in the welfare of the pets they “freed.”

In England, where animal rights activists seem to be particularly demented, a family that raises guinea pigs for use in important medical research has been hounded and threatened for years. In a final act of total insanity, protesters dug up the body of a family member and held it for more than two years to blackmail the Hall family.Four of the unhinged activists were arrested and given prison sentences. Here is the lede, as reported by BBC.com:

Four animal rights activists have been jailed for waging a campaign of terror against a family which included digging up a grandmother’s grave. The Hall family were targeted for six years by activists who aimed to stop them breeding guinea pigs for research.

Jon Ablewhite, 36, of Manchester, Kerry Whitburn, 36, and John Smith, 39, both of the West Mids, were jailed for 12 years for conspiracy to blackmail.

Josephine Mayo, 38, of Birmingham, was jailed for four years.

They targeted David Hall and Partners, a family business which ran the breeding programme at a farm in Newchurch, Staffordshire.

The campaign included protests outside Darley Oaks Farm, a burglary in which 600 guinea pigs were freed and threats to family members, friends and employees. Read it all.

It is hard to imagine what motivates these unbalanced, criminal individuals as they threaten and destroy the lives and facilities of animal researchers and farmers. Without animal research, advances in modern medicine would be hopelessly handicapped. The use of domestic animals as sources of food is their only reason for existence, and there is no natural “freedom” in which they are suited to survive. For these creatures, bred and managed by humankind, the “freedom” demanded by animal rights activists would mean extinction.

Thanks to the unhinged loonies of the animal rights movement, we live in a very strange world indeed. Let’s hope more of these environmental terrorists end up in prison cells.

Posted in Environmental Activism, Ethical Issues | Comments Off

Nuclear Power—An Opportunity Lost

Sunday, May 14th, 2006

By David L. Brown

As the world nears a dangerous period when supplies of oil and gas appear to be peaking, many nations are taking a new look at nuclear power. In his 2006 State of the Union Address, President Bush called for a renewal of nuclear power plant construction in the U.S. Other places, too, are thinking twice about the kneejerk reaction to halt nuclear development after the Three Mile Island and Chernobyl events.

The sad truth is that at the very time nations banned construction of nuclear plants, new and safer designs were just becoming available. The problems arose with older models—the Chernobyl plants were particularly primitive. Three Mile Island did not result in any significant danger to the public and should have been viewed as evidence that nuclear power could be relatively safe. Atomic power technology was at the threshold of a new era of safer, more efficient plants that would have helped reduce both carbon emissions and the reliance on fossil fuels. If continued, a large proportion of the world’s electricity needs today could be coming from clean nuclear plants.

But fear and political expediency brought development to a halt in most places. A major force driving the decisions by national governments to stop nuclear power projects has been the pressure from so-called “Greens,” activists who seem to be against anything and everything that is required for the continuance of humanity and the world economy.
Some countries did not turn away from nuclear power, and surprisingly one of those in the forefront of renewed develoopment of nuclear power is Ukraine, home of Chernobyl. Even there, Greens are providing the primary stumbling block but their efforts are not succeeding in holding back planned re-nuclearization. Here is the lede from an article on developments in Ukraine from Germany’s Spiegel Online (English Site):

The Chernobyl disaster rattled the trust of Ukrainians in atomic power. But after a natural-gas showdown with Russia last winter, the nation is flirting with going nuclear again. Kiev wants to build 14 new reactors.

A Wednesday protest against nuclear power by Ukrainian green party activists in Kiev.
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AFP
A Wednesday protest against nuclear power by Ukrainian green party activists in Kiev

The explosion of reactor no. 4 in Chernobyl, Ukraine, in the early morning of April 26, 1986, is still the biggest civilian nuclear catastrophe the world has ever seen. Huge swaths of Europe were blanketed with radiation; helpless officials at the disaster site sent an unknown number of emergency personnel to their deaths. The calamity was a shock for the entire world — Ukrainians especially. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, both the populace and the parliament of the newly independent Ukraine leaned against continuing with nuclear power and at the start of the 1990s, the parliament passed a moratorium on it, and no further reactors were to be built.But the memory of Chernobyl faded, as did awareness of the dangers and popular fear. Two new-model reactor blocks in Chmelnitzki and Rowno — about 80-percent complete in the ’90s — were recently finished despite the moratorium, and fired up two years ago. Old scruples vanished. A small, politically-insignificant group of Greens called for a nuclear phase-out this year before parliamentary elections in March — with no success. In the meantime, four still-active plants with 15 reactor blocks supply about half of Ukraine’s domestically-produced electricity. Read the rest.

Green activists who oppose nuclear power must be torn between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, because the main alternatives to nuclear power are pollution and CO2 producing fossil fuel plants. Even sustainable and clean energy projects such as wind power are all too often opposed by environmental activists on the grounds that they might harm wildlife, or merely because they are unsightly. In fact, it is a tragedy that the world has let a quarter century pass by with little effort toward developing sustainable nuclear power. Since the 1970s we have been able to build safe, clean, breeder reactors that produce their own fuel, the perfect answer to our planet’s energy needs. (more…)

Posted in Age of Oil, Energy Technology, Environmental Activism, Essays and Opinion, Fossil Fuels, Nuclear Power | Comments Off

Winds of Change for Electricity Generation

Friday, May 12th, 2006

By David L. Brown

Development of wind generated electricity is picking up as the cost of gas and oil continue to remain at historically high levels. The Associated Press today reports on plans for a new wind farm in Texas. Here is the lede:

SOUTH PADRE ISLAND, Texas (AP) — Texas officials announced plans Thursday for the nation’s largest offshore wind farm, consisting of as many as 170 windmills in the Gulf of Mexico.

Houston-based Superior Renewable Energy will build and operate the project, which will be situated within about 10 miles of Padre Island. It is expected to cost $1 billion to $2 billion and should be ready in five years.

Its 400-foot turbines would generate a total of 500 megawatts of electricity, or enough energy for 125,000 homes. Read the whole thing.

The costs quoted in this article represent an investment of $8,000 to $16,000 per home that would be served by the facility. Pro-rated over a 20 year period the investment alone would cost between $33 and $66 a month per housing unit, while providing energy from a renewable source and releasing little if any pollution or GHG (greenhouse gas) into the atmosphere.

Projects such as this one may create a conundrum for some environmentalists. Always ready to find a negative spin to put in every story, the AP suggested the spinning blades could “kill countless rare birds that migrate through the area,” and CNN.com headlined the story “Massive Wind Farm May Endanger Birds.” (We won’t even comment on the oxymoron combination of “countless” and “rare.”) There seems to be little evidence that wind farms in other areas result in massive bird killings, and perhaps our feathered friends are smart enough not to fly into the spinning blades like Kamikazi pilots. (more…)

Posted in Age of Oil, Energy Technology, Environmental Activism, Wind and Hydro Power | Comments Off

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