Sending Out an SOS 3

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1. 

   Tom Turner Posted 3:55 am
   12 Feb 2007

   Whaling CommissionThe story about the clash between Sea Shepherd and the Japanese whalers has a small but significant error that was not in the source article. To wit, the Grist piece says the hunt "was OK'd by the International Whaling Commission as a scientific pursuit," which isn't quite right. As the Guardian rightly put it, the hunt is part of a "scientific whaling programme, conducted within the rules of the International Whaling Commission." The IWC's rules allow member countries to conduct "scientific" whaling on their own: individual hunts are not approved by the commission. If there were a vote on the permits Japan has awarded herself, it would likely fail to be approved.

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2. 

   Revbluesky Posted 4:55 am
   12 Feb 2007

   Many Tools in the ToolboxI know Grist reports on nice 'n legal activism, patiently working through political channels while the world burns, and I love how you do it.  And I know Sea Shepherd can be a bit strident and alienating, so I don't mind poking some fun at them, but! To ridicule to group of activists while portraying WHALERS in a sympathetic light - who, as Tom pointed out, operate under the same guise of "legality" that permits all order of insane atrocities on/against this planet - is baffling, infuriating, deserving of a good excoriating! Grist, what were you thinking?!

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3. 

   carbon sync Posted 9:49 pm
   21 Feb 2007

   r u f&%#ing kidding??Here's a rule - the UN World Charter for Nature, you know, the one that allows international NGOs to enforce environmental laws? Something very few NGOs do, and which Sea Shepherd should be applauded, not ridiculed, for. Forget the whalers, what about the whales? How many whales have ever been saved by a banner or a rainbow t-shirt or a Greenpeace sticker? As an Australian I'd love to see our little dictator welcome refugees to our shores and instead turn our immigration policy on whaling vessels - sink them, lie about how they drowned, or seize and burn their ships and stick them in cages in the desert for an indeterminate number of years as an 'effective deterrent'. Have just started reading Grist and i really hope this article, which essentially parrots the Japanese propaganda, and its attitude are not indicative of the journalism and commentary, let alone analysis, to be found herein. Otherwise I'll have to assume that Grist's 'environmentalism' is Luntzspeak for 'corporate sycophancy'. Real problems - like the industrial slaughter of endangered species - call for real solutions - like interference with and disabling of the bastards doing it.

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