Good stuff Greenpeace!
Greenpeace marked World Oceans Day yesterday by drawing attention to the problem of bottom trawling in a novel way: scaling Wellington Railway Station to hang an enormous banner reading “Time is running out… Stop deep sea destruction” and placing sculptures representing the weird and wonderful deep sea life which is destroyed by bottom trawling around the station area.
© Greenpeace / Sean Aickin
Greenpeace have been raising awareness of this terrible practice for years now, so froggy big ups to them for their hard work.
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June 10th, 2006 at 4:01 pm
It seems a shame to have no comment on uncontentious items like this one.
Good on Greenpeace!
I do appreciate the excellent work done to keep the environment in people’s thoughts …
I pay my little bit of money each year, to be a supporter, but am ashamed to say that I do little else to help!
eredwen
June 10th, 2006 at 4:07 pm
It is a shame true, but it is also human nature. We do not gaze at tranquil scenes, but an accident on the highway wreaks havoc with our priorities as we steer closer to see the disaster better.
I have no answer for you, just quiet agreement.
respectfully
BJ
June 10th, 2006 at 6:08 pm
I don’t think it’s not gazing at tranquil scenes bjchip, but a dis-connection or proper reciprocity between people and nature, people and people.
All the better to exploit with.
How to properly oppose this without becoming the thing you are opposing-(although not as pure, and thus less effective) is the real solution i think.
June 10th, 2006 at 8:41 pm
In some ways to recognize that I am inherently the VERY thing I am opposing. The contradictions are not external. Survival is not something gained at no cost, either to the environment or to other people. Consider this thermodynamic truth… ALL life exists by accelerating the conversion of energy to entropy. Living theoretically contributes to the ultimate heat-death of the universe… if that will truly happen… but the accelerated entropy is not in question. There is a price to be paid even for simple survival. It is up to me to make my living worth the impact.
Recognize the duty and you can never be overwhelmed by greed… and so never become wholly, the thing you oppose.
Always, the challenge is to spend ourselves wisely, to do the most good for future generations. That’s the moral failure of the shrub quoting “in the long run we’re all dead”… but he was not the first to say it. That shame unsurprisingly belongs to an economist - John Maynard Keynes.
Greenpeace, the Green Party… we are almost diametrically opposed to what passes for economic wisdom in most countries. We put on a pretty good show, but we haven’t really got the political muscle to do much more. We have to work hard on it and we know we may fail. Even at these stakes, there is nothing more we can bring to the table. They did well. I might have tried to arrange a helicopter to drop a net on it and destroy it… just as people got used to how nice it was… call it a symbolic environmental impact.
Sorry… I am rambling a bit. I seldom discuss things with others, partly because conversation is difficult. I have been told that the jumps are disconcerting… and that I am “real sensitive, sort of like a sledgehammer”
I feel more at home when there is someone in need of hammering in front of me. It certainly seems to be a frequent feature of MY environment.
respectfully
BJ
June 10th, 2006 at 9:02 pm
Even:
“How to properly oppose this without becoming the thing you are opposing … is the real solution i think.”
That strikes a chord with me! It sums up a lot of what Greenpeace activists (and Greens) do well much of the time.
Well said!
June 10th, 2006 at 9:55 pm
BJ: “We put on a pretty good show, but we haven’t really got the political muscle to do much more. We have to work hard on it and we know we may fail.”
“Failure” is a relative term. Greens may not have “the political muscle” … yet.
As time goes by more and more people begin to recognise that what Greens have been saying is coming to pass. Other political parties are already adopting, as their ownof course, ideas put forward by the Greens. (These same ideas they derided a few years ago.) Of course, Green behaviour and the desire to reach our goals prohibit us from saying “We told you so! Nah, nah na-nah nah!”
“There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come” (Victor Hugo) … and the Green knowhow will be there to lead/guide/help.
… and Yes! you do “hammer” well … and get pulled up for it …
(”You can take the boy out of New York, but you can’t necessarily take NY out of the boy” ?)
With respect!
eredwen
June 11th, 2006 at 1:12 am
Thank you Eredwin. What i mean could not be said better than this……
“Jesus said, “The Father’s kingdom is like a person who has [good] seed. His enemy came during the night and sowed weeds among the good seed. The person did not let the workers pull up the weeds, but said to them, ‘No, otherwise you might go to pull up the weeds and pull up the wheat along with them.’ For on the day of the harvest the weeds will be conspicuous, and will be pulled up and burned.”
June 11th, 2006 at 10:40 pm
Brutal.
June 11th, 2006 at 10:42 pm
late as this may be to comment;
BJ, never fear to jump in while the conversation is warming up! Lately I’ve been a bit busy to add comments, but I find it refreshingto see your contributions, usually because your knowledge helps to fill the factual vacuum I own on some topics….
Jumping back to the thread leader, good on GP for this act of abseiling activism; I have seen some amazing pictures from a young friend who has travelled the oceans, looking for the detritus of ocean trawlers. The destruction of fragile environments was appalling, and put me off fish meals.
We have taken our surrounding oceans for granted here in NZ, might be about time to recognise that we have not stewarded our resources as well as those who pre-existed European contact did (and as their descendants strive to do.)
June 12th, 2006 at 2:16 pm
My favourite question to ask a Greenpeace activist:
Why should I care about [insert current campaign], and what can I do about it that will make a major difference?
The answer is usually a shrug.
June 12th, 2006 at 4:09 pm
Michael
making a “major difference”, in any aspect of life, is way out of your league I’m afraid…at least with your current attitude
To make a minor difference, how about (for starters)
*voting with an understanding of parties’ environmental policies
*being informative to others about environmental issues
*putting time and effort into understanding such, so that your voting and conversations are intelligent
And why should you care? Presumably you require a self-interested reason… how about “it’ll make you happier”
June 12th, 2006 at 6:57 pm
Michael
“Individually, we are one drop … together, we are an ocean.”
Ryunosuke Satoro
(I copied that quote from Greenpeace website 11-01-2006)
Individual humans do not generally make a “major difference” … and those credited with doing so have needed the help of (many) others.
Perhaps the “shrugs” you encountered were in recognition of that fact?
The shrugger(s) deciding that it was better to move on and spend time enlisting people who understand the need for, and value of, cooperative effort … and the urgency of that need if we are to mitigate the damage caused by Homo sapiens on the biosphere of this planet.
Please think about it!
eredwen
June 15th, 2006 at 8:19 pm
Tom - “It’ll make ME feel better” isn’t a reason to care about bottom trawling - come up with some relevance to my life.
Eredwen - You miss the point, as I think the whole Green Movement does. You have to be realistic about the audience you talk too. I can’t change the environment on the planet - talk to me about that and my eyes will just glaze over. All I can do is help in my living space - talk to me about that and you might engage me.
And when my little corner of planet is better I’ll have done more for the environment than you will have. Worrying about an American SUV Driver might seem noble, but it achieves nothing.
June 15th, 2006 at 11:32 pm
Michael - I’m delighted to be told by you that : ” … All I can do is help in my living space … And when my little corner of planet is better I’ll have done more for the environment than you will have.”
However, I don’t agree with your conclusion that : ” You miss the point, as I think the whole Green Movement does.”
You and I may see things differently and choose to act in different ways. “The whole Green Movement” is not a homogenous body working in unison … there are many different groups and many individuals with some similar ideas. The important thing is that we all recognise the need to do something to mitigate the very heavy “footprint” our species is inflicting upon this Planet.
eredwen
June 17th, 2006 at 12:10 am
If Greenpeace had spent that morning advising what species of fish to avoid buying to prevent bottom trawling instead of trying to guilt me into condemning and supporting a ban - without telling me why or how - on it I might have been able to do something about it. (If no-one buys bottom-trawled fish then it will stop.)
Signing petitions and holding protests draws attention to a problem but I’m more interested in being part of a solution. Greenpeace achieved nothing in front of the railway station that morning apart from absolving their environmental conscience.