a matter of survival
We are entering an increasingly dangerous period in human history. Our world, our oceans are so precariously close to causing an unimaginable catastrophic disaster for all life on planet Earth. Since the dawn of man, all of humanity has survived on various food sources. But, the one food source that has dictated the rise of all others came from the world’s oceans. Today, our oceans, our food and the very existence of man depend on the vitality of life and the sustainability of our oceans to maintain and support that vitality of life. So catastrophic is the disappearance of the vitality of life in all the world’s oceans caused by the selfish and aggressive instincts of man that all life on this planet is in danger. The depletion of the vitality of life in our oceans has increased considerably each year with no apparent change in sight. In the last 50 years alone, humanity has called into question the very survival of humanity.
This crisis is announced on the bare tables of families around the world. The breath and scope of what is fast becoming the largest man-induced cataclysmic carnage against humanity of biblical proportions, millions now face the harsh realities of simply trying to survive. From the endless slaughter of majestic bluefin tuna, to the slow strangulation of a Newfoundland fishing village where the collapse of cod has destroyed livelihoods and a way of life that has existed for generations, to nations that continue to ignore international laws on trawling with nets held open by heavy bulldozers crawling along the seabed where they indiscriminately capture any and all forms of marine life only to discard more than 95% of what they catch.
Not only is the world facing depletion of seafood, but humanity has only exacerbated the growing global threat of mass starvation due to continued ignorance and blatant refusal to acknowledge what global warming has caused and continues to affect the world. the world’s food supply, primarily to life in and around our oceans The effects of global warming are now more apparent than ever in Canada’s Hudson Bay. Depicting the southern limit habitat of polar bears. Hudson Bay has been experiencing increasingly shorter winters, leading to earlier ice melt and forcing bears to stay on shore before they have a chance to fully replenish their fat stores by feeding on seals that live on the ice. A delicate balance of nature is unbalanced by man.
Our population and our use of the finite resources of planet Earth have been growing exponentially. But perhaps it is in our human nature or some would venture to say that our genetic code leads man to ignore or discard what we have and are still doing with the world’s food supply. Greed and selfish and aggressive instincts still manage to govern prudent and humane policies where the balance of nature can regain its balance.
The sad irony of all this is taking place in countries all over the world; but it is so evident in Africa, where much of the world’s export of its food, mainly Nile perch, continues to grow, only the rate of poverty and hunger. The fish caught there remain unaffordable for the majority of the African population. The export of food and other resources from the African continent is accelerating the rate of poverty in all African nations. Nile perch that is harvested and caught is filleted for export. All that remains for the population are the corpses that do nothing but continue the plight of hunger for millions of native Africans. With years of overfishing, fish stocks have dwindled dramatically, endangering the livelihoods of more than 100,000 fishermen and depriving millions of Africans of food.
In a span of just 50 years, the volume of global fishing has increased from less than 20 million metric tons in 1950 to more than 100 million metric tons of fish per year. An example of how bad things are today; To supply global sushi markets, giant bluefin tuna is caught at four times the sustainable rate. At the present time, the rate of catch of bluefin tuna makes it inevitable that this species will soon become extinct. The balance of nature will surely be uprooted again.
Not only is the tuna species facing probable extinction, but all marine life is threatened by man’s lack of empathy for all life on this planet. International laws in place to protect marine life yet countries blatantly ignore proper protocol to uphold the letter of the laws in place to protect and preserve all of the world’s natural food sources. If all fishing was done by hook and line, spawning grounds would still be intact, fish would be plentiful, and our oceans would no longer be threatened by mass extinctions.
To compound the existence of overfishing, the world’s oceans are facing the most extreme dangerous conditions the world has ever seen. The pollution that is spreading and threatening all species of marine life continues unabated. It is as if the oceans and waterways of the earth are now the dumping grounds of humanity. Without remorse or concern for the living organisms that inhabit our waters, humanity continues to ignore their plight. As man continues to burn fossil fuels with increasing ferocity, there continues to be more pollution as a result of which it pours into our waterways and ends up in our oceans. With the flood of more non-biodegradable refugia ending up in the oceans, it is also having a very adverse catastrophic effect on all marine life.
What must be done to preserve, protect and maintain the world’s food supply? Most well-known scientists and environmentalists agree that the world’s oceans should be managed as ecosystems. Management boards that oversee fisheries like ICCAT, which, by the way, have long been dominated by commercial fishing interests, must share authority with scientists and conservationists. Governments must cut half of the 4 million fishing vessels currently in service to keep pace with the sustainability of fish in the world’s oceans, in addition to cutting the $25 million in government subsidies given annually to the fishing industry.
These are just some of the most important reforms that must be carried out to protect and preserve the delicate balance of our world’s oceans. Facing these reforms and in order to reverse the effects caused by man’s reluctance to openly embrace the energy of the third industrial revolution, there has to be a real joint effort by all nations to discard the energy of the second industrial revolution. Only then will the world begin to restore the balance of nature that will ensure the survival of man. It is a multi-layered facet of programs, policies, and laws that must be initiated and enforced first to stop the eradication of vital food sources, second, to restore the balance of nature, and finally to drastically reduce the effect of global warming. All these contingencies without direct action now humanity is on the proverbial road to self-destruction.