eco denialist

 

in four hours

94-year old attenborough

gained one million followers

the british broadcaster's documentary

a life on our planet

calls for immediate action

to stop the next extinction

caused by the human asteroid

the documentarian is called 'radical'

david's popularity is 'a good sign' 

that humanity is changing

but is david's call radical enough

are his solutions way too little

and his analysis far too tepid

in his latest media blitz

the wildlife advocate argues

biodiversity loss 

is dangerous to humans 

by increasing epidemics

threatening food security

climate change and more

david lists the key causes

of the extinction crisis

the trade in 'wildlife'

overfishing oceans

over-consumption in developed world

pollution in the global south

destroying natural habitats

and climate change

but these causes are not radical

all are already known

so too the solutions offered 

like less consumption

with responsible carnism

used as an add-on at the end

far from an eco revolution 

this is business-as-usual

and eco denialism

david offers no critique

of carnism

specieism

anthropocentrism 

androcentrism 

right after his call 

for responsible carnism

the natural historian 

carts out one 'expert' 

who explicitly states

"that's not to say

that none of us

should ever eat meat

or we should cut

all dairy out from our diets"

thus dominion is left intact

and the human asteroid 

is cleared for landing

david's lack of awareness

is not surprising

in an interview he states

"I eat fish, and chicken, 

and my conscience does trouble me.

I'm affluent enough to afford free-range, 

but it's a middle-class hypocrisy"

alas, poor david

after all this time

spent in the company of animals

he still uses a knife

while preaching to others

blissfully ignoring

his denialism is the asteroid

no masks allowed

masses of pink people

immersed in outrage

assembled during a pandemic

with 200,000 deaths

for an election rally

with more dog whistling

relishing each hateful code 

from don the average con

leader of the aryan 'race'

willing to do whatever it takes

to end their replacement

at the hands of dark inferiors

energized by lots of 'good' genes

red blotches on angry faces

shouting "fill that seat"

obese arms with gucci watches

waving in economic angst

"all lives matter"

"open schools and businesses"

a sea of red hats

newly invigorated

by the sudden death 

of an 87-year old woman

to curb 'white' genocide

once and for all

by limiting abortion

gringos gathered to pray

on an airport runway 

for a new supreme judge

committed to racist pride

increasing pink babies

ensuring a biased future for all

decades of sexism

eons of racism

lifetimes of color privilege 

for the masters of disasters

in the land of xenophobia

Waste and ByCatch

Pandemics Ahead: Number 20 in a series looking at the link between animal protein and global health disasters.

Excerpt from Meat Climate Change: The 2nd Leading Cause of Global Warming by Moses Seenarine, (2016). Xpyr Press, 348 pages. ISBN: 0692641157. http://amzn.to/2yn7XrC

The future of marine life face threats from multiple fronts, including (i) overfishing, (ii) unsustainable seafood farming practices, (iii) ocean pollution, and (iv) acidification. In addition, due to seafood's short shelf life, there is a huge magnitude of waste in the fishing industry. Waste of seafood needs to be monitored and incorporated into the livestock supply chain.

The US edible seafood supply is around 4.7 billion pounds (2.1b kg) per year, which consists of domestic and imported products minus any exported products. Appallingly, from 2009 to 2013, nearly half of the sea creatures was lost and wasted as 40 to 47 percent went uneaten, around 2.3 billion pounds (1b kg).(972)

The greatest portions of waste occurred at the levels of consumers with 51 to 63 percent of loss attributed to consumption, a staggering 1.3 billion pounds (590m kg).

Bycatch discarded by commercial fishers accounted for 16 to 32 percent, or 573 million pounds (260m kg), and lost in distribution and retail operations was 13 to 16 percent, or 330 million pounds (150m kg).

Among all the fishing methods, bottom trawling, a fishing method that drags a large net across the sea floor, is the most destructive to oceans. Bottom trawls are utilized for catching desirable fish that live on the seafloor that is used for food, such as shrimp, cod, sole and flounder. However, the weight and width of a bottom trawl can destroy large areas of seafloor habitats that give marine species food and shelter. Bottom trawlers have affected 20 million square miles (52m sq km) of ocean, turning parts of the continental shelf to rubble. Such habitat destruction can leave marine ecosystems permanently damaged.(973)

In the US, bottom trawling occurs on the Pacific, Atlantic and Gulf coasts, capturing in excess of 800 million pounds (362m kg) of marine life in 2007. Bottom trawls are commonly used by many fishing nations and on the high seas as well. Undesirable marine creatures are usually discarded by commercial fisheries.

This collateral damage, called bycatch, can equal up to 90 percent of a trawl’s total catch.

In 1994, the UN's Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) estimated that between 17 and 39 million tons (average 27 million) of fish are discarded each year in commercial fisheries. Fisheries in the Northeast Pacific alone produced a bycatch exceeding one billion individuals annually.(974)

Discard problems in the Northwest Atlantic were classified into four groups: (i) marketable species too small or otherwise prohibited from landings, (ii) species for which no current market exists, but are caught along with commercial or recreational species, (iii) species-specific fleet sectors discarding another fisheries target species, and (iv) non-fishery bycatch species, such as marine mammals, turtles, and birds.

For every one pound of fish caught for food, an average of 5 pounds (2.2 kg) of unintended marine species are caught and discarded as bycatch. For every pound of shrimp, 26 pounds (12 kg) of other sea creatures are killed and tossed back into the sea. As many as 40 percent (63 billion pounds) of fish caught globally every year are discarded. In a multitude of fisheries, the percentage of bycatch far outweighs the volume of target catch.

Case in point, for every shrimp caught by nets dragged behind boats (or trawls) in the Gulf of Mexico, over four times its weight is made up of bycatch. Each year, 20 percent of the total US catch is thrown away, and as many as 650,000 whales, dolphins and seals are killed by fishing vessels.(975)

In addition to by-catch, tons of derelict fishing gear or “ghost nets” are silently killing dolphins, seals, and sharks and other ocean animals that become entangled in them. When nets get snag on the seafloor, crews leave them behind, but those nets keep on fishing and killing, perpetually. Just as ocean currents are pushing plastics to convergence zones, also called gyres, abandoned nets often end up funneled into the same spots.

Ghost nets trap countless numbers of marine animals for years, decades, and perhaps even centuries. In the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary over 85,000 abandoned lobster and crab traps are ghost fishing, while in the Chesapeake Bay, more than 913,000 crabs are caught by derelict traps each year.(976)

The state of the world's marine fisheries is worsening as evidenced by (i) the declining global marine catch, (ii) the larger percentage of over-exploited fish stocks, and (iii) the lower proportion of non-fully exploited species. Switching to less destructive fishing methods represents a partial solution at best, while adopting a plant-based diet is a far better intervention in the marine crisis.

Chapter 26: MISSING FISH, page 251.    Previous  |  Home  |  Next

For more information, see MeatClimateChange.org