Daily Talk Forum
  • Advertise
  • Search
  • Member List
  • Calendar
Hello There, Guest! Login Register
Daily Talk Forum › General Discussions › Current Affairs, News and Politics v
« Previous 1 ... 165 166 167 168 169 ... 172 Next »

Swing In Favour Of Lifting Whaling Ban



Post Reply 
 
Thread Rating:
  • 0 Votes - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
Threaded Mode | Linear Mode
Swing In Favour Of Lifting Whaling Ban
forwardone Offline
Gold Member
*****
Gold Members

Posts: 6,705
Joined: May 2006
Reputation: 15
Post: #1
Swing In Favour Of Lifting Whaling Ban

In the fourth of the Star Trek movies, an alien craft visits Earth in the hope of an intergalactic singsong with the whales. The alien song is pretty loud, and gets louder as the ship waits impatiently for a response from the whales - a response that never arrives, because the whales have been hunted to extinction, probably for scientific purposes, by a few members of the global community.

The rest of the plot is no less far-fetched, involving time travel, kidnapping whales and William Shatner trying to act like a man 40 years younger. Surprisingly, this one garnered no Oscars.

The point about the movie is it is almost a prediction of what may happen soon if certain nations in the International Whaling Commission (IWC) are successful in their bid to resume commercial whaling. As of June 19, it was touch and go. According to the country tabling the motion (St Kitts and Nevis): "The moratorium, which was clearly intended as a temporary measure, is no longer necessary."

A funny thing: the IWC's 70 members include many countries that have no coastline or any obvious maritime links, such as Austria, Luxembourg, and Mongolia. One hopes that these countries, with no need to carry out whaling, would block any attempts by more powerful countries, such as Japan, to resume it.

Japan is already whaling on a small scale for "scientific testing" (whale meat taste-testing in expensive sushi bars, perhaps). It has been suggested that the richer members of the IWC are buying votes of many of the poorer members, who do not necessarily want to carry out whaling but could do with an injection of foreign cash.

I know it screams of hypocrisy to protect one animal or group of animals because we have a fondness for them: whales, pandas, gorillas and dolphins for example. But the point about whaling is, we almost hunted many species to extinction in the 20th century, but the Save the Whale campaign was a great success, catching the imagination of people around the world and helping to raise awareness of many environmental issues. Now the International Fund for Welfare spokesperson is quoted as saying that the current attempt to revert to whaling is a "wake-up call" for countries that claim they care for whales.

Maybe we need to have a rethink: we cannot save every species that is endangered. But we should maintain the policies of saving what we can, or the consequences could be dire.

Do we really want to rely on William Shatner and the Star Trek crew to save the human race in the 23rd century?

Source: Guardian Unlimited
06-19-2006 12:56 PM
Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply


« Next Oldest | Next Newest »
Post Reply 


Possibly Related Threads...
Thread: Author Replies: Views: Last Post
  Army chief opposes lifting of martial law lukamar 0 919 02-13-2008 06:20 PM
Last Post: lukamar
  Australia releases whaling photos cyrano 0 695 02-08-2008 05:42 AM
Last Post: cyrano
  Anti-whaling cause getting stronger says New Zealand Coffee Break 0 764 05-23-2007 05:11 AM
Last Post: Coffee Break

  • View a Printable Version
  • Send this Thread to a Friend
  • Subscribe to this thread
Forum Jump:


User(s) browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)

Advertise on Daily Talk Forum
  • Webmaster Forum
  • cPanel Hosting
  • SEO Directory
  • Toronto
    • Contact Us
    • Daily Talk Forum
    • Return to Top
    • Lite (Archive) Mode
    • RSS Syndication
    • Help
    • Portal
    • Membership
    • Advertise
    • Banners
    • Privacy
    • Rules

    • Review DTF at Alexa
    • Review DTF at Nortons
    • Site Map

    • Links
    • Your Link Here
    Current time: 02-26-2021, 05:27 AM Powered By MyBB, © 2002-2021 MyBB Group Theme created by Justin S