one of the fastest decimations of an animal population in world history
November 13, 2013 10:53 AM Subscribe
The environmental record of the Eastern Bloc states is the worst ever.
posted by Ironmouth at 11:09 AM on November 13, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by Ironmouth at 11:09 AM on November 13, 2013 [1 favorite]
Nor, considered aright, does it seem any argument in favour of the gradual extinction of the Sperm Whale, for example, that in former years (the latter part of the last century, say) these Leviathans, in small pods, were encountered much oftener than at present, and, in consequence, the voyages were not so prolonged, and were also much more remunerative. Because, as has been elsewhere noticed, those whales, influenced by some views to safety, now swim the seas in immense caravans, so that to a large degree the scattered solitaries, yokes, and pods, and schools of other days are now aggregated into vast but widely separated, unfrequent armies. That is all. And equally fallacious seems the conceit, that because the so-called whale-bone whales no longer haunt many grounds in former years abounding with them, hence that species also is declining. For they are only being driven from promontory to cape; and if one coast is no longer enlivened with their jets, then, be sure, some other and remoter strand has been very recently startled by the unfamiliar spectacle.If Melville only knew.
Furthermore: concerning these last mentioned Leviathans, they have two firm fortresses, which, in all human probability, will for ever remain impregnable. And as upon the invasion of their valleys, the frosty Swiss have retreated to their mountains; so, hunted from the savannas and glades of the middle seas, the whale-bone whales can at last resort to their Polar citadels, and diving under the ultimate glassy barriers and walls there, come up among icy fields and floes; and in a charmed circle of everlasting December, bid defiance to all pursuit from man.
posted by Iridic at 11:16 AM on November 13, 2013 [6 favorites]
The Soviet whalers, Berzin wrote, had been sent forth to kill whales for little reason other than to say they had killed them. They were motivated by an obligation to satisfy obscure line items in the five-year plans that drove the Soviet economy, which had been set with little regard for the Soviet Union’s actual demand for whale products. “Whalers knew that no matter what, the plan must be met!” Berzin wrote.Slaughter for bureaucracy. Frightening.
...
This absurdity stemmed from an oversight deep in the bowels of the Soviet bureaucracy. Whaling, like every other industry in the Soviet Union, was governed by the dictates of the State Planning Committee of the Council of Ministers, a government organ tasked with meting out production targets. In the grand calculus of the country’s planned economy, whaling was considered a satellite of the fishing industry. This meant that the progress of the whaling fleets was measured by the same metric as the fishing fleets: gross product, principally the sheer mass of whales killed.
posted by filthy light thief at 11:17 AM on November 13, 2013 [8 favorites]
Well, climate change...
More generally, I read "Industrialized Nature: Brute Force Technology and the Transformation of the Natural World" by Paul R. Josephson. The chainsaw and the dam are up there with overfishing, but his main point is that every previous improvement in human technology and power has increased the degradation of the environment, not decreased it. Cured me of techno-Utopianism, but very depressing.
Perhaps the best thing for the environment is a free press.
posted by alasdair at 11:19 AM on November 13, 2013 [2 favorites]
More generally, I read "Industrialized Nature: Brute Force Technology and the Transformation of the Natural World" by Paul R. Josephson. The chainsaw and the dam are up there with overfishing, but his main point is that every previous improvement in human technology and power has increased the degradation of the environment, not decreased it. Cured me of techno-Utopianism, but very depressing.
Perhaps the best thing for the environment is a free press.
posted by alasdair at 11:19 AM on November 13, 2013 [2 favorites]
The problem with killing one whale in ten is you eventually end up with only nine whales.
posted by tavella at 11:23 AM on November 13, 2013 [18 favorites]
posted by tavella at 11:23 AM on November 13, 2013 [18 favorites]
Man must adopt a penitential attitude toward the other life-forms on this planet. We need to heal our spiritual wounds that result from our crimes toward them by serving them, by making the planet into a place of solace for all life.
posted by No Robots at 11:25 AM on November 13, 2013 [2 favorites]
posted by No Robots at 11:25 AM on November 13, 2013 [2 favorites]
Well, climate change...
As posed in the first article, the sheer senselessness of the Russian whale slaughter was what sets it apart from other environmental atrocities. The scale is astounding, but the fact that they did it because they had to meet their quota and there was no demand in Russia for whale meat sets this apart from other acts that are carried out for some (perceived) market demand.
posted by filthy light thief at 11:26 AM on November 13, 2013 [4 favorites]
As posed in the first article, the sheer senselessness of the Russian whale slaughter was what sets it apart from other environmental atrocities. The scale is astounding, but the fact that they did it because they had to meet their quota and there was no demand in Russia for whale meat sets this apart from other acts that are carried out for some (perceived) market demand.
posted by filthy light thief at 11:26 AM on November 13, 2013 [4 favorites]
Whenever I hear about the Communist country's environmental record, I think "Well I guess capitalism isn't the worst thing for the earth, then."
posted by ThatFuzzyBastard at 11:26 AM on November 13, 2013 [3 favorites]
posted by ThatFuzzyBastard at 11:26 AM on November 13, 2013 [3 favorites]
The problem with killing one whale in ten is you eventually end up with only nine whales.
It would have been better than killing 99 in 100.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 11:39 AM on November 13, 2013
It would have been better than killing 99 in 100.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 11:39 AM on November 13, 2013
In my lifetime (I'm 40 years old) I've witness the return of Humpback whales to the Inside Passage (stretching from Seattle to Alaska). An extremely rare Pacific Right whale has been spotted twice in the past couple of months in the eastern Pacific off the coast of Vancouver Island. A Basking shark, once plentiful around the island (until they were slaughtered 50 years ago by the Canadian government) was spotted off the Brooks Peninsula on northern Vancouver Island.
Sea otters are returning off the coast of Vancouver Island.
So it might be small, but it does show that conservation does work and recovery, however slow and gradual, can be achieved.
Unfortunately, the growing population ringing Puget Sound the the Georgia Basin (aka Salish Sea) is going to put pressure on this recovering ecosystem, not to mention plans to increase oil tanker traffic and coal exports from Vancouver.
posted by KokuRyu at 11:43 AM on November 13, 2013 [5 favorites]
Sea otters are returning off the coast of Vancouver Island.
So it might be small, but it does show that conservation does work and recovery, however slow and gradual, can be achieved.
Unfortunately, the growing population ringing Puget Sound the the Georgia Basin (aka Salish Sea) is going to put pressure on this recovering ecosystem, not to mention plans to increase oil tanker traffic and coal exports from Vancouver.
posted by KokuRyu at 11:43 AM on November 13, 2013 [5 favorites]
Whenever I hear about the Communist country's environmental record, I think "Well I guess capitalism isn't the worst thing for the earth, then."
Of course, some countries have rapacious capitalism AND terrible environmental records, so I'm not sure it's a one-or-the-other scenario.
The only comfort I took from this article was the fact that all the whales killed and then dumped, rather than used for food, would have at least sustained other marine life. But still such a terrible waste. I loved the quote at the end which applies to so much: “There can be no acceptable future,” Solzhenitsyn said, “without an honest analysis of the past.”
posted by billiebee at 11:47 AM on November 13, 2013
Of course, some countries have rapacious capitalism AND terrible environmental records, so I'm not sure it's a one-or-the-other scenario.
The only comfort I took from this article was the fact that all the whales killed and then dumped, rather than used for food, would have at least sustained other marine life. But still such a terrible waste. I loved the quote at the end which applies to so much: “There can be no acceptable future,” Solzhenitsyn said, “without an honest analysis of the past.”
posted by billiebee at 11:47 AM on November 13, 2013
CHERNOBYL
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 11:50 AM on November 13, 2013
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 11:50 AM on November 13, 2013
ThatFuzzyBastard: "Whenever I hear about the Communist country's environmental record, I think "Well I guess capitalism isn't the worst thing for the earth, then.""
There has been a huge shift in a lot of Communist thinking since those days, however. I can't guarantee that a lot of it is rhetoric, of course, but if you look at the critique of the Philippine's NPA or the Naxalite movement in India, a large thrust of their movement is an ecological critique of Crapitalism (that was a typo, but I think I'm gonna leave it, cuz I like it).
It's hard to know what they would do if they gained power, of course. But I don't think it's fair to base the current strains within the Communist movement on past actions. Of course, you are right - that there was a lot of problems with Soviet Russia and how its environmental policies (or lack thereof) played out.
Just as there were a lot of policies (or lack thereof) that had devastating consequences in the US during that time period.
In some ways ecological protection is a fundamental question when it come to development of the third world vs first world. It's hard to get the cutting edge "clean" technology when you're not in first place, so you're stuck with the limited resources that weren't stolen from you by the imperialists. You got the hand-me-downs, you got the coal and the pollution. Lord knows you ain't getting no nuclear power. Unless you're an ally of the US. This is sort of the problem that China has now. They claim they're working toward Green Energy, but they are under a severe mandate to produce and keep their economy churning by supporting the first world.
Interestingly, like the Soviets, when looking at protection of species, for different reasons, China clearly has a problem, this time less related to a supposed Communist ideology and more towards historically culturally engrained beliefs about various medicines and such. In the west we slaughter for fashion. Thankfully we had our pioneers like Audubon, Leopold and Muir, it seems they never had that in the Soviet Union? Even during the revisionist era?
posted by symbioid at 12:06 PM on November 13, 2013 [2 favorites]
There has been a huge shift in a lot of Communist thinking since those days, however. I can't guarantee that a lot of it is rhetoric, of course, but if you look at the critique of the Philippine's NPA or the Naxalite movement in India, a large thrust of their movement is an ecological critique of Crapitalism (that was a typo, but I think I'm gonna leave it, cuz I like it).
It's hard to know what they would do if they gained power, of course. But I don't think it's fair to base the current strains within the Communist movement on past actions. Of course, you are right - that there was a lot of problems with Soviet Russia and how its environmental policies (or lack thereof) played out.
Just as there were a lot of policies (or lack thereof) that had devastating consequences in the US during that time period.
In some ways ecological protection is a fundamental question when it come to development of the third world vs first world. It's hard to get the cutting edge "clean" technology when you're not in first place, so you're stuck with the limited resources that weren't stolen from you by the imperialists. You got the hand-me-downs, you got the coal and the pollution. Lord knows you ain't getting no nuclear power. Unless you're an ally of the US. This is sort of the problem that China has now. They claim they're working toward Green Energy, but they are under a severe mandate to produce and keep their economy churning by supporting the first world.
Interestingly, like the Soviets, when looking at protection of species, for different reasons, China clearly has a problem, this time less related to a supposed Communist ideology and more towards historically culturally engrained beliefs about various medicines and such. In the west we slaughter for fashion. Thankfully we had our pioneers like Audubon, Leopold and Muir, it seems they never had that in the Soviet Union? Even during the revisionist era?
posted by symbioid at 12:06 PM on November 13, 2013 [2 favorites]
I'm curious whether the ban on whaling, when it finally came in 1986, was spurred by pure environmentalism, economically motivated environmentalism (protecting marine ecosystems in order to be able to fish other species), animal rights, aesthetics -- or some mixture of the above.
posted by dontjumplarry at 12:13 PM on November 13, 2013
posted by dontjumplarry at 12:13 PM on November 13, 2013
What a horrible story all around.
I followed the PDF links and came across this hearbreaking image Lactating fin whale female on the deck of the factory ship Aleut, 1959.
So incredibly sad.
posted by dougzilla at 12:17 PM on November 13, 2013 [2 favorites]
I followed the PDF links and came across this hearbreaking image Lactating fin whale female on the deck of the factory ship Aleut, 1959.
So incredibly sad.
posted by dougzilla at 12:17 PM on November 13, 2013 [2 favorites]
quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon: "CHERNOBYL"
In a weird way Chernobyl resulted in the involuntary creation of a huge wildlife preserve with very little human interference. Lots of animals, including rare ones, have made that area their home.
Of course you get nine-headed deer who fart lava and flesh eating zombie owls but, hey, glass half full. Who knows, maybe this kind of area with high rates of genetic mutation will be the source of the next wave of life which will inevitably rise from the ashes following the current great extinction event which will peak soon after climate change triggers the collapse of all major food chains.
posted by Hairy Lobster at 12:23 PM on November 13, 2013 [4 favorites]
In a weird way Chernobyl resulted in the involuntary creation of a huge wildlife preserve with very little human interference. Lots of animals, including rare ones, have made that area their home.
Of course you get nine-headed deer who fart lava and flesh eating zombie owls but, hey, glass half full. Who knows, maybe this kind of area with high rates of genetic mutation will be the source of the next wave of life which will inevitably rise from the ashes following the current great extinction event which will peak soon after climate change triggers the collapse of all major food chains.
posted by Hairy Lobster at 12:23 PM on November 13, 2013 [4 favorites]
Whenever I hear about the Communist country's environmental record, I think "Well I guess capitalism isn't the worst thing for the earth, then."
I used to think of Soviet Communism as "fascism with a socialist face", but have since given up on thinking of The Soviet Union as being "Communist" at all; it abandoned any Socialist Principles in favor of acting like the World's Largest Multinational Corporation with a local monopoly on everything... oh, and nukes. U.S.S.R.Inc.
There are many big Corps in the post-Communist world that pursue their next Quarterly Earnings with the same mindless zeal that the Soviets pursued the quotas in their latest Five Year Plan. And when Profit numbers are treated the same way the Soviets treated Production numbers, it's almost sure to have even worse effects.
CHERNOBYL
FUKUSHIMA, showing that, yes, it wasn't something that could ONLY happen under Communism, but its relatively-less-devastating impact shows the value of Independent Oversight, separate from a quota/profit system, as flawed as such oversight can be. That's why a Nuclear Plant operating in a totally Libertarian system would make a worse-than-Chernobyl disaster inevitable.
But I lose about 50% of my respect for any self-proclaimed Socialist who doesn't recognize the USSR - and most other "Communist" countries - as Sham Socialism.
posted by oneswellfoop at 12:30 PM on November 13, 2013 [4 favorites]
I used to think of Soviet Communism as "fascism with a socialist face", but have since given up on thinking of The Soviet Union as being "Communist" at all; it abandoned any Socialist Principles in favor of acting like the World's Largest Multinational Corporation with a local monopoly on everything... oh, and nukes. U.S.S.R.Inc.
There are many big Corps in the post-Communist world that pursue their next Quarterly Earnings with the same mindless zeal that the Soviets pursued the quotas in their latest Five Year Plan. And when Profit numbers are treated the same way the Soviets treated Production numbers, it's almost sure to have even worse effects.
CHERNOBYL
FUKUSHIMA, showing that, yes, it wasn't something that could ONLY happen under Communism, but its relatively-less-devastating impact shows the value of Independent Oversight, separate from a quota/profit system, as flawed as such oversight can be. That's why a Nuclear Plant operating in a totally Libertarian system would make a worse-than-Chernobyl disaster inevitable.
But I lose about 50% of my respect for any self-proclaimed Socialist who doesn't recognize the USSR - and most other "Communist" countries - as Sham Socialism.
posted by oneswellfoop at 12:30 PM on November 13, 2013 [4 favorites]
Pffft! Pretty minor. Now with the great Pacific garbage patch we can kill numerous species by the millions!
posted by BlueHorse at 12:42 PM on November 13, 2013
posted by BlueHorse at 12:42 PM on November 13, 2013
I don't see what the difference is between capitalism and communism in terms of environmental impact and attitudes towards the environment. The pulp mills and and down the British Columbia coast for years dumped untreated "black liquor" directly into the ocean. Howe Sound, north of Vancouver, has had elevated levels of dioxins (from mill effluent) for years.
The Russians weren't alone in killing off the great whales.
posted by KokuRyu at 12:45 PM on November 13, 2013 [1 favorite]
The Russians weren't alone in killing off the great whales.
posted by KokuRyu at 12:45 PM on November 13, 2013 [1 favorite]
Whales used to congregate in Boston harbor so thickly one could walk from one side to the other. They were largely eliminated by American whalers. That is the insidiousness of it, every generation gets less and less and doesn't experience first hand the dramatic losses that have already occurred.
posted by stbalbach at 1:00 PM on November 13, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by stbalbach at 1:00 PM on November 13, 2013 [1 favorite]
There is NO justifiable reason for commercial whaling. There are better and more economical substitutes for every product they provide. And, regardless, great whales live way too long and breed way too slowly to be harvested in any sensible way.
posted by Benny Andajetz at 1:06 PM on November 13, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by Benny Andajetz at 1:06 PM on November 13, 2013 [1 favorite]
Small, historical note: As mentioned in the article, and in this thread, right whales are one of the rarest of the great whales today. They used to be one of the most abundant. They got their name from whalers, because they were the "right" whale to hunt - they frequented shallow water and were slower and more docile than other species. You can see what that got them.
posted by Benny Andajetz at 1:12 PM on November 13, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by Benny Andajetz at 1:12 PM on November 13, 2013 [1 favorite]
So on this point:
But the Russians? They had a large contract with the government to dredge the sea bed in Mozambiquan coastal waters, destroying delicate ecosystems as they went, and turn these prawns into.. fertilizer. So it's not such a great shock that precious whales were slaughtered en masse for such little return.
posted by MuffinMan at 1:13 PM on November 13, 2013 [4 favorites]
The Soviet whale slaughter followed no such logic. Unlike Norway and Japan, the other major whaling nations of the era, the Soviet Union had little real demand for whale products. Once the blubber was cut away for conversion into oil, the rest of the animal, as often as not, was left in the sea to rot or was thrown into a furnace and reduced to bone meal—a low-value material used for agricultural fertilizer.I lived in Mozambique, a nominally communist country aligned with the Soviet Union, before and just after the Soviet Union collapsed. Mozambique had the most amazing prawns I've ever eaten. They were six to eight inches long, caught wild and utterly delicious. If you could find a place that sold them, because in the midst of a civil war and chronic poverty there was virtually no fishing fleet, they sold for next to nothing.
But the Russians? They had a large contract with the government to dredge the sea bed in Mozambiquan coastal waters, destroying delicate ecosystems as they went, and turn these prawns into.. fertilizer. So it's not such a great shock that precious whales were slaughtered en masse for such little return.
posted by MuffinMan at 1:13 PM on November 13, 2013 [4 favorites]
I don't see what the difference is between capitalism and communism in terms of environmental impact and attitudes towards the environment. The pulp mills and and down the British Columbia coast for years dumped untreated "black liquor" directly into the ocean. Howe Sound, north of Vancouver, has had elevated levels of dioxins (from mill effluent) for years.
The Russians weren't alone in killing off the great whales.
The historical record is clear on this. Example one, the Aral Sea.
Less visual but as damning: The Aral Sea crisis.
posted by Ironmouth at 1:19 PM on November 13, 2013 [2 favorites]
The Russians weren't alone in killing off the great whales.
The historical record is clear on this. Example one, the Aral Sea.
Less visual but as damning: The Aral Sea crisis.
posted by Ironmouth at 1:19 PM on November 13, 2013 [2 favorites]
Look, there is no one with clean hands. I live on the Great Plains, scene of many senseless biocidal crimes. Remember the buffalo? How about the Plains Indians? This is about mankind's savagery and contempt for lives that differ from his own. Of course, combining this with industrial power and an ideology of material progress creates a very desperate situation indeed.
posted by No Robots at 1:36 PM on November 13, 2013 [5 favorites]
posted by No Robots at 1:36 PM on November 13, 2013 [5 favorites]
I was just going to mention the Aral Sea, Ironmouth.
The Soviet environmental record is unquestionably damning. However, I'm always suspicious of people who bring it up, because again and again it's used to create a false dilemma where you either have to support all the excesses of modern capitalism, or your carbon tax proposals prove you are a stupid commie who will ruin the environment anyway while impoverishing everyone and sending millions to die in the gulags.
posted by [expletive deleted] at 1:46 PM on November 13, 2013 [4 favorites]
The Soviet environmental record is unquestionably damning. However, I'm always suspicious of people who bring it up, because again and again it's used to create a false dilemma where you either have to support all the excesses of modern capitalism, or your carbon tax proposals prove you are a stupid commie who will ruin the environment anyway while impoverishing everyone and sending millions to die in the gulags.
posted by [expletive deleted] at 1:46 PM on November 13, 2013 [4 favorites]
dontjumplarry: "I'm curious whether the ban on whaling, when it finally came in 1986, was spurred by pure environmentalism, economically motivated environmentalism (protecting marine ecosystems in order to be able to fish other species), animal rights, aesthetics -- or some mixture of the above."
Nope. It was just Star Trek IV.
posted by Big_B at 2:44 PM on November 13, 2013 [2 favorites]
Nope. It was just Star Trek IV.
posted by Big_B at 2:44 PM on November 13, 2013 [2 favorites]
I was just going to mention the Aral Sea, Ironmouth.
The Soviet environmental record is unquestionably damning. However, I'm always suspicious of people who bring it up, because again and again it's used to create a false dilemma where you either have to support all the excesses of modern capitalism, or your carbon tax proposals prove you are a stupid commie who will ruin the environment anyway while impoverishing everyone and sending millions to die in the gulags.
I think the key point is this. Representative democracy allows for people to step in and fight those who do these sorts of things and also to make decisions in our own lives to limit our own impact on the problem. The Soviets had none of that. It was only the way of those at the top.
There is zero reason to support any excesses of modern capitalism. They should be seriously limited. And those excesses have zero to do with Soviet Communism, which sucked in nearly every way. So the capitalists have nothing to hide behind.
Indeed, tell the capitalists not to do it like the Soviets did and accuse them of acting like the Soviets.
posted by Ironmouth at 2:51 PM on November 13, 2013 [2 favorites]
The Soviet environmental record is unquestionably damning. However, I'm always suspicious of people who bring it up, because again and again it's used to create a false dilemma where you either have to support all the excesses of modern capitalism, or your carbon tax proposals prove you are a stupid commie who will ruin the environment anyway while impoverishing everyone and sending millions to die in the gulags.
I think the key point is this. Representative democracy allows for people to step in and fight those who do these sorts of things and also to make decisions in our own lives to limit our own impact on the problem. The Soviets had none of that. It was only the way of those at the top.
There is zero reason to support any excesses of modern capitalism. They should be seriously limited. And those excesses have zero to do with Soviet Communism, which sucked in nearly every way. So the capitalists have nothing to hide behind.
Indeed, tell the capitalists not to do it like the Soviets did and accuse them of acting like the Soviets.
posted by Ironmouth at 2:51 PM on November 13, 2013 [2 favorites]
The historical record is clear on this. Example one, the Aral Sea yt .
Less visual but as damning: The Aral Sea crisis.
There's Williston Lake in British Columbia, the Hoover Dam on the Columbia (in the 1950's the various reactors on Hanford recycled coolant directly into the river)... nowadays the Alberta Tar Sands are transforming a very large section of that province.
posted by KokuRyu at 2:56 PM on November 13, 2013
Less visual but as damning: The Aral Sea crisis.
There's Williston Lake in British Columbia, the Hoover Dam on the Columbia (in the 1950's the various reactors on Hanford recycled coolant directly into the river)... nowadays the Alberta Tar Sands are transforming a very large section of that province.
posted by KokuRyu at 2:56 PM on November 13, 2013
The pulp mills and and down the British Columbia coast for years dumped untreated "black liquor" directly into the ocean.
The extreme example of the kinds of things the Soviets were intentionally dumping into the ocean is entire spent nuclear reactors, though. They really did have even more impressively bad environmental practices than the already-impressively-bad Western nations and Japan.
I wouldn't think it's a capitalism/Communism thing at all, though; I would expect it to happen in any llarge unindustrialized nation with abundant national resources that decided it absolutely had to industrialize as fast as possible, especially doing so with twentieth-century technology, regardless of what economic system the industrialization was carried out under. When the Soviet Union was created Russia had only just completed its first transcontinental railroad, thanks primarily to a centralized effort by the Russian Imperial government that involved massive foreign investment, and even had only eliminated serfdom half a century before that.
posted by XMLicious at 3:21 PM on November 13, 2013
> There are better and more economical substitutes for every product they provide.
There are now, but before the advent of petrochemicals, sperm oil was prized as an illuminant. Clean burning and relatively odour free, it lit the homes of the upper class.
Somewhere in my toolbox, I have a marking punch that was quenched in sperm oil. As a student, I worked one summer in an engineering plant. They didn't have much for me to do, so the machinists amused themselves by teaching me how to make things (and mostly laughing at my handlessness). On the day I made the punch, one of the oldest lathe-workers made me promise not to tell anyone what we were about to do. He took a battered old tin from a locker, and inside was a golden oil with a rich aroma. The oil had been his father's (who had been a machinist in the same works), and it must have dated from the 1940s. We dunked the red-hot punch in the oil, where it quenched with a sharp sputter in a cloud of vile smoke.
The works is long gone, but that little punch still exists, likely breaking every CITES law in existence.
posted by scruss at 3:49 PM on November 13, 2013 [2 favorites]
There are now, but before the advent of petrochemicals, sperm oil was prized as an illuminant. Clean burning and relatively odour free, it lit the homes of the upper class.
Somewhere in my toolbox, I have a marking punch that was quenched in sperm oil. As a student, I worked one summer in an engineering plant. They didn't have much for me to do, so the machinists amused themselves by teaching me how to make things (and mostly laughing at my handlessness). On the day I made the punch, one of the oldest lathe-workers made me promise not to tell anyone what we were about to do. He took a battered old tin from a locker, and inside was a golden oil with a rich aroma. The oil had been his father's (who had been a machinist in the same works), and it must have dated from the 1940s. We dunked the red-hot punch in the oil, where it quenched with a sharp sputter in a cloud of vile smoke.
The works is long gone, but that little punch still exists, likely breaking every CITES law in existence.
posted by scruss at 3:49 PM on November 13, 2013 [2 favorites]
Still, I'm tired of hearing about the Soviet environmental record. The Soviet Union no longer exists to continue its depredations. It gets thrown in my face all the goddamn time. It's gotten to the point where I don't talk about the Canadian environmental record any more because people get so angry and defensive a conversation is impossible, and "the communists were worse, why do you want to make us like them" is option 1 in most people's bag of red herrings. Next typically comes threats of physical violence and bragging about times they assaulted cyclists.
We would rather kill every pine, poison every river, explode every quaint Quebec town and burn down the entire goddamn world than have to change our economy or lifestyle one iota.
If the rest of humanity wants to survive, they should just acknowledge we don't want to change and just put Canada and Australia to the sword already. History won't miss us, and we aren't about to collapse like the USSR.
posted by [expletive deleted] at 4:05 PM on November 13, 2013 [3 favorites]
We would rather kill every pine, poison every river, explode every quaint Quebec town and burn down the entire goddamn world than have to change our economy or lifestyle one iota.
If the rest of humanity wants to survive, they should just acknowledge we don't want to change and just put Canada and Australia to the sword already. History won't miss us, and we aren't about to collapse like the USSR.
posted by [expletive deleted] at 4:05 PM on November 13, 2013 [3 favorites]
Phew, I read the first few sentences and just had to stop. I just can't handle this kind of thing--seriously emotional and upset and almost ready to cry.
I try to make a contribution every year to an organization that helps, preserves, and maintains animal populations...and let it go.
I guess I'm a wimp (and don't need "the horror" prod to make what I hope is a positive contribution).
posted by CrowGoat at 5:23 PM on November 13, 2013
I try to make a contribution every year to an organization that helps, preserves, and maintains animal populations...and let it go.
I guess I'm a wimp (and don't need "the horror" prod to make what I hope is a positive contribution).
posted by CrowGoat at 5:23 PM on November 13, 2013
Ironmouth: There is zero reason to support any excesses of modern capitalism. They should be seriously limited. And those excesses have zero to do with Soviet Communism, which sucked in nearly every way. So the capitalists have nothing to hide behind.
And lots of people don't support environmental degradation per se. With ~36% of the popular vote, our Conservative government in Canada is systematically dismantling the programs, facilities and scientific support resources which underpin a relatively modern and comprehensive set of environmental laws. Why? Because it allows their business partners to not worry about a few fish here or bit of prairie there in their god-given quest to create Jobs. Jobs for Canadians, who by and large haven't seemed to mind a few small changes buried in an omnibus budget*. This is all Capitalism, but very little Democracy. I don't see a huge difference between the excesses of Communism and the hoped-for excesses of this kind of Democracy.
And yes, I've written to my MP several times. She's very happy to answer my questions, explaining the importance of jobs and the economy, and how those environmental values we've promoted in Canada during my lifetime are standing in the way of economic growth.
*Apparently, for example, a majority of Canadians are unaware that Canada had pulled out of the Kyoto agreement.
posted by sneebler at 5:43 PM on November 13, 2013 [1 favorite]
And lots of people don't support environmental degradation per se. With ~36% of the popular vote, our Conservative government in Canada is systematically dismantling the programs, facilities and scientific support resources which underpin a relatively modern and comprehensive set of environmental laws. Why? Because it allows their business partners to not worry about a few fish here or bit of prairie there in their god-given quest to create Jobs. Jobs for Canadians, who by and large haven't seemed to mind a few small changes buried in an omnibus budget*. This is all Capitalism, but very little Democracy. I don't see a huge difference between the excesses of Communism and the hoped-for excesses of this kind of Democracy.
And yes, I've written to my MP several times. She's very happy to answer my questions, explaining the importance of jobs and the economy, and how those environmental values we've promoted in Canada during my lifetime are standing in the way of economic growth.
*Apparently, for example, a majority of Canadians are unaware that Canada had pulled out of the Kyoto agreement.
posted by sneebler at 5:43 PM on November 13, 2013 [1 favorite]
Right now listening to British Columbia's "Environment" minister talk about how a massive increase in BC natural gas production (with an accompanying massive increase in our province's GHG emissions) will still mark a net reduction in GHG emissions worldwide. Orwellian.
posted by KokuRyu at 5:56 PM on November 13, 2013
posted by KokuRyu at 5:56 PM on November 13, 2013
When I read the title, I thought the post was going to be about Steller's sea cow. A marine mammal related to the dugong and the manatee, they were hunted to extinction within 27 years of being discovered by Europeans.
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 6:58 PM on November 13, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 6:58 PM on November 13, 2013 [1 favorite]
Same thing's happening now with tuna. I wish their red flesh wasn't required with every sushi platter.
posted by Rash at 1:50 PM on November 14, 2013
posted by Rash at 1:50 PM on November 14, 2013
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posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 11:06 AM on November 13, 2013 [7 favorites]