Can we please have a global moratorium on all fishing for a few years? We are fishing the seas empty. I'm more than happy to pay for my share of the unsold/uncaught fish. This is such a disheartening example of the tragedy of the commons.
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Japan to withdraw from the International Whaling Commission
41–50 of 247 posts
Re: Japan to withdraw from the International Whaling Commission
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
While I agree with the first part of your point, I've come to the opposite conclusion: slaughtering cows and pigs is morally indefensible. One aspect of this particular cognitive dissonance has always baffled me: you can, for example, see lots of pictures in reddit's "r/aww" subreddit of adorable pigs and cows, and in many cases the draw is the way these animals show behaviors analagous to humans, e.g. cuddling, or p…
> I think that in the future societies will look back at our consumption of meat, especially factory farming methods, and wonder why it took us so long to change our attitudes on this issue. How would future societies propose we feed ourselves if we don't eat meat?
Is that a serious question? As one small example, the 500 million or so vegetarians in India seem to do just fine.
Re: Japan to withdraw from the International Whaling Commission
#43According to the article “ Pro-whaling nations expected the moratorium to be temporary, until consensus could be reached on sustainable catch quotas.” If this fishing is truly sustainable and doesn’t threaten the whales with extinction there shouldn’t be a problem. Why should whales get protection that pigs, cows, and other animals don’t?
While I agree with the first part of your point, I've come to the opposite conclusion: slaughtering cows and pigs is morally indefensible. One aspect of this particular cognitive dissonance has always baffled me: you can, for example, see lots of pictures in reddit's "r/aww" subreddit of adorable pigs and cows, and in many cases the draw is the way these animals show behaviors analagous to humans, e.g. cuddling, or p…
I have been thinking about the issue of "saving the planet", which is similar to "saving the endangered spices from extinctions".
Ultimately I think humans are just selfish by nature and they only do things to ensure the continuation of humans as a spices. Everything else is sugar-coating it. So really, there is no morality to be discussed, it is just natural instinct.
My unpopular thoughts on global warming:
https://paradite.com/2018/11/06/extinction-is-natural-so-is-...
Re: Japan to withdraw from the International Whaling Commission
#44What's a sustainable level of whaling?
Whale beef is totally delicious, but I'm wondering if Norways catch is sustainable and I can continue to enjoy it.
Re: Japan to withdraw from the International Whaling Commission
#45In unrelated news, a new season of Whale Wars has been announced
Re: Japan to withdraw from the International Whaling Commission
#46Waiting for the first person to mention Southpark.
Whale Whores! Someone did make the point about chickens/cows/pigs though.
Re: Japan to withdraw from the International Whaling Commission
#47I don't even eat meat but I find it difficult to be angry about this when at the same time at home we have millions (billions?) of farm animals live in absolutely terrible conditions. Reminds me a little of the outrage in CA about horse meat. There are plenty of people who think eating horse meat is morally wrong while at the same time they eat some salad with bacon on top. Why is a horse better than a pig? Certainly…
I don't think this is a fair comparison because we breed these animals for farming, so technically we could breed as many as we need to sustain our habits.
On the other hand there is no way to breed whales. There is some finite number of them in the wild and we cannot actively endeavor to create more.
Commercial farming of farm animals will not cause the extinction of farm animals; commercial farming of whales will cause the extinction of whales.
Re: Japan to withdraw from the International Whaling Commission
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
I generally see that rational applied to whaling only when discussing indigenous populations such as the Inuit in Alaska. They are whaling in small boats and canoes using traditional techniques. Japan’s excuse for whaling is “scientific study.” I don’t think they are claiming to whale for cultural reasons, nor are they whaling for subsistence, which is allowed under international law. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/…
No, they're explicitly dropping the scientific study excuse, and using culture now. They're also only going to be whaling in their economic exclusion zone now, rather than going potentially thousands of miles.
Not exactly meaningful when talking about highly migratory species!
Re: Japan to withdraw from the International Whaling Commission
#49> Government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said commercial whaling would be restricted to Japanese territorial waters and economic zones.
Someone needs to invent an underwater whale call (like a duck call) to lure the whales away from Japanese water.
Re: Japan to withdraw from the International Whaling Commission
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
As opposed to? Aren't pigs or cattle sentient?
No, pigs and cattle are not sentient. Sentience is a complex question, but it mostly revolves around language and symbol-making/recognition. There's substantial evidence that whales actually have language. Pigs and cattle do not. (edit: I'm misusing the word "sentience" here. The problem is that it's not the right distinction. Cows/pigs are sentient , in that they can feel emotions. But they cannot reason . So it's n…
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