'What have we done to the whale?'

[Nearly Sane]

Excellent article

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/08/24/what-have-we-done-to-the-whale

[Aruntraveller]

Thanks for posting NS and I agree brilliant.

Some things in it I had not realised. This one section should certainly stop and make us think about our year round supply of strawberries or whatever your exotic, out of season fruit & veg pleasure is:

A sperm whale that recently washed up on the Spanish coast had an entire greenhouse in its belly: the flattened structure, together with the tarps, hosepipes, ropes, flowerpots, and spray cannister it had contained. The greenhouse was from an Andalusian hydroponics business, used to grow tomatoes for export to colder climes. Food wasteproduced by the globalized supply chain accounts for eight per cent of carbon emissions (air travel accounts for only about 2.5 per cent), which melt the ice on which whales depend indirectly for their food.

Most of the article is shocking and stark, but that fact about the globalised supply chain shocked me. I do try, not always successfully, to buy UK produce whenever there is that option, and long ago stopped buying out of season soft fruit but if we want to survive and if we want whales to survive we have some radical changes to make to our diet, packaging of food and so much more.

[Owlswing]

I agree wholeheartedly with the post above,

The problem is that as long as big businesses are driven, as I fear they will for far longer than I still have life in me, by the size their profits, nothing on this Earth will change things.

There are times when I think that some of the American manufacturers of food and materials, like cars etc, will never do anything to reduce profits by one cent from the previous days - if they can help it.

[Aruntraveller]

There are times when I think that some of the American manufacturers of food and materials, like cars etc, will never do anything to reduce profits by one cent from the previous days - if they can help it.

This goes beyond any one nationality being responsible. The corporations aren't called multinationals without reason.

But we all to a greater or lesser extent support the system. We see a bargain and can't resist it. Be that 241 in a supermarket or a cheap t-shirt from Primark.

One could hope that the recent experience of the pandemic and lockdown may have changed peoples habits and made them realise they can actually manage without cheap imports or nail bars (which no doubt have embedded in their business strategy the use of dubious chemicals - not to mention less than strictly legal workers) or without a lot of the other unnecessary tat that keeps the economy going. Unfortunately therein lies the nub of the problem, keeping the economy going so that we stay just comfortable enough to not protest too much and bring the whole shebang tumbling to the ground.

And tumble to the ground it will. It is a system that in the medium to long term is going to die, what we replace it with and how we replace it is the really difficult issue.