China Whale Sharks from WildLifeRisk on Vimeo.

The world’s largest slaughtering facility for whale sharks — an internationally-protected endangered species — has been discovered,near Wenzhou, in China’s southeastern Zhejiang Province. The factory, which operates openly, is reportedly slaughtering over 600 whale sharks annually to produce shark oil for health supplements.

Revelations about shark-processing at the factory, located in Pu Qi township, near Wenzhou, follow a four-year investigation by the Hong Kong-based marine conservation NGO, WildLifeRisk.

In a joint-statement released today, Alex Hofford and Paul Hilton of WildLifeRisk said: “We went to Pu Qi three times in the last three years, and on each occasion the scale of the slaughter was truly staggering.

“How these harmless creatures, these gentle giants of the deep, can be slaughtered on such an industrial scale is beyond belief. It’s even more incredible that this carnage is all for the sake of non-essential lifestyle props such as lipsticks, face creams, health supplements and shark fin soup. We are calling on China’s regulatory authorities to enforce the international agreements on this illegal activity now, before these animals are brought closer to extinction.”

According to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), to which China is a signatory, the international sale of products from an endangered species is illegal and the trade is unsustainable.

However, the WildLifeRisk investigation found that countless basking sharks and great white sharks – two of three species currently afforded the highest protection under CITES– are also being industrially processed at the Pu Qi factory.

The products derived from these protected species are being exported to the United States, Canada and Italy, in contravention of the internationally-binding CITES agreement.

Undercover footage and audio recordings obtained by WildLifeRisk reveal that the whale sharks ending up at the factory are being caught off the coast of China in the South China Sea as they traverse the region on their migratory journeys. These extensive journeys across the world’s oceans, take in such famous whale shark-spotting sites as the Ningaloo Reef off Australia’s northwest coast, and waters off  Indonesia, the Philippines and Mexico.

WildLifeRisk believes a compelling argument exists for the better protection of whale sharks in their natural habitats, maintaining that these endangered creatures are worth far more, in economic terms, alive rather than dead. According to the Pew Environment Group:

“In regions where whale sharks are known to aggregate, ecotourism has proven to be an extremely lucrative alternative to fishing. It has been estimated that whale shark tourism, mainly through recreational diving, is worth about US$47.5 million worldwide.”

The WildLifeRisk statement pointed out that if whale sharks are to avoid being hunted to extinction, consumers must be persuaded to reject whale shark products, or any other kind of shark-related products. It said that the trade in endangered shark and manta ray products is both environmentally unsustainable and morally unethical.

“If we hope to save species such as the whale shark from extinction, we must hold individuals accountable for their violation of international protection laws and demand transparency so that consumers can make informed decisions about the products they buy.”

Full report available here

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Prophet or madman?

Probably both.

Michael C. Ruppert was forced to leave the LAPD after claiming that the CIA was complicit in selling drugs across America, and he quickly became one of the most original and strident voices to talk about climate change, government corruption, and peak oil through his website, “From the Wilderness.”

Following the release of Collapse, Michael’s personal life underwent something of a collapse itself and he paid off all his debts, left behind all his friends, and moved with his dog Rags to Colorado, planning to commit suicide.

VICE caught up with Michael in the middle of the epic beauty of the Rocky Mountains at the end of last year. We found a man undergoing a spiritual rebirth—still passionate about the world and with a whole new set of apocalyptic issues to talk about.

Apocalypse, Man is an intimate portrait of a man convinced of the imminent collapse of the world, but with answers to how the human spirit can survive the impending apocalypse.

APOCALYPSE, MAN – PART 1

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Human numbers are projected to swell to 9 billion and 90% of large fish have been extracted from the ocean, it is clear that to stop fisheries terminally collapsing all of us are going to have to eat less fish. However, it is vital to realise that each of us making this ethical choice will not, in and of itself, be enough to stop the over-fishing driving the death of the oceans.

Corporations are pulling the most fish from the sea. To stop them we need laws to limit their activities. Wild species need space to live, so just like on land we need large wild areas protected from human interference. The excellent video above outlines how such agreements come into being. I was disturbed when i checked out the comments underneath True Activists posting of the video. The most liked comment read “you could waste your time talking to politicians.. or you could just stop eating fish..”

I think this shout out strikes to the core of our challenge – it is not just ourselves we need to worry about – there is everybody else as well. The human superorganism isn’t just the sum of its parts just like an ant colony is more than just a lot of ants. Novel functions emerge out of the complex interaction of differentiated parts.

High-tech, corporate fishing fleets navigate by satellite are partly funded by governments and generate wealth for shareholders. A reduction in demand for their product in one market is not going to stop them. They will just increase sales in other markets, create new products, aggregate demand or genetically engineer “super-pigs” that grow twice as fast when fed congealed fish balls. Corporations don’t back off. They only move forward and those at the wheel only want to move faster.

The threat of a complete and devastating collapse of global fisheries requires us to consider the worst. If fishing fleets continue to extract fish at existing rates we will see extinction events like the loss of North Atlantic Cod. This is devastating economically, reduces a crucial protein source to billions of humans and may fundamentally destabilise ocean ecosystems leading to unpredictable run-away changes.

Overfishing by Alex Hofford

If we are motivated to protect the ocean and preserve the fish that live within it we have to organise to stop fishing fleets and create large-scale marine reserves that are policed. The tools we have to do this are limited. We can occupy the land and boats of the fleets to stop them sailing but we have seen how governments will violently protect corporate interests. Is anyone going to try something similar in Russia any time soon? Anyway, if one corporation is stopped another will step up to seize the resource. We need to get to the heart of the problem and change the rules of the game.

If we pull back into space we clearly see the problem. The algorithms determining the functioning of the human superorganism are out of sync with our planetary circumstance. The dials are still set as if we were small and growing into an abundant and limitless frontier – like back in 1831 when Darwin sailed on the Voyage of the Beagle. There were only one billion humans on the planet and everywhere they stopped they were met by the extraordinary wildlife of a thriving biosphere.

200 years of human population growth compounded with surging levels of consumption have created a very different planet. The cavernous excavations of natural systems have left them teetering on the brink, meanwhile, the wealth-concentrating function of corporations has created a remote elite with vast hoards of capital running organisations that span the world and answer to no one.

We need to adjust the controls of our superorganism so that it: stops expanding outwards, consumes less, functions more efficiently and produces less pollution. We can achieve this by, for example, shifting to an interest-free monetary system, limiting the economy, giving legal rights to natural systems and passing global treaties to limit pollution and ban war. To achieve these ends we must address governance issues and politics.

It isn’t just naive to think changing the behaviour of some individual ants will fix this situation it is disastrous because to protect what is left of nature we need to move quickly and decisively. This is the problem with environmental organisations that solely emphasise lifestyle changes – they distract us from the main causes of harm and let the powerful off the hook.

If we have reached the conclusion that our politicians have simply become administrators for large corporations and will work to concentrate wealth further even while the planet dies then surely then answer isn’t to back off and leave them to it!? If politicians are banqueting with bankers on the bones of our dying world lets not retreat into a muggy haze of personal development. Lets not kid ourselves that individual actions are enough. We have to get organised and change the system – thats called politics.

Vote here to stop the industrial destruction of the deep ocean.

The post Why Eating Less Fish Won’t Work appeared first on EcoHustler.

If these men were typical of the wider populations they are supposed to represent there would be absolutely no doubt that our civilisation is doomed to imminently collapse. However, the political elite is actually veering off on extreme tangents that in no way, comes even close to the pretence of serving the needs of the people any more.

Perhaps they sense the game is up? They are in the midst of a mad scramble to line their pockets before we execute the imminent flip to more equitable, sane and satisfying ways of living and organising ourselves on planet earth. They are the last stand of the old guard – totems of the final days of the industrial era when corrupted governments fought wars for oil rather than preserve our precious planet.

A large and growing proportion of global citizens realise that things have got to change radically and rapidly. The disparity between the mega-rich elite and the poor majority is cavernous; global ecosystems from fisheries to rain forests are stressed and failing; key resources like oil are running out and the denialists look increasingly insane – it is quite clear to everyone that the climate is changing with potentially catastrophic implications for vast swathes of humanity.

What is happening is our global civilisation is pushing up against planetary boundaries. We are learning what happens when 7.125 billion humans eat fish, drive cars, use phones and shop in supermarkets. This unprecedented flow of energy and natural resources is now greater than the natural ecosystems servicing us can sustain.

GDP Machine

Almost every historic human civilisation has hit resource constraints and collapsed as described vividly in Jared Diamond’s book of the same name. The Romans, Aztecs, Easter Islanders and Norse all peaked in population and expanse before dying off in a variety of unpleasant ways. That book, better technology and a planetary perspective should enable us to avoid the same fate. We know how to keep this civilisation going; we have to stop it growing.

Every threat our civilisation faces is driven by conventional growth and every solution is based on the flip from constantly increasing quantity to improving quality. We must learn how to improve our lives without cutting down more of the Amazon, removing more fish from the sea or burning what is left of fossil fuels. On one level this is a seismic transformation, on another it is natural, instinctive and easy; but what we need is a new type of leader to guide the transition.

If your civilisation is expanding outwards you may want gung-ho males in charge, tough pioneering types who are not hesitant to rupture the earth or steal their neighbours resources. If your civilisation is intending to put down roots and sustain itself for millennia you need more wisdom, less muscle. Managing the global commons like the oceans, atmosphere and Amazon cannot happen whilst nation states are locked in competition for resources. We must establish widespread peace, distribute resources fairly and empower healthy local communities to look after their own affairs. That is, we need a shift from centralised power and control to distributed, autonomous networks.

Locally, there are changes we can make to our daily lives. The amount we move around and per-capita resource use must reduce. We all have to work less – switching to a four and then a three day work week. We our compelled to spend more time in our local communities building resilience, this means making suburbs, gardens, roofs and patios ecologically productive. All of us can spend more time growing food, composting and caring for the people we live near – helping with child rearing and the elderly. This can improve our lives. Doing things collaboratively again, with the people we live near, is the resurgence of community we need to overcome contemporary epidemics of apathy and depression.

The industrial age pulled vast swathes of humanity out of poverty and built the infrastructure of the civilisation that now sustains us but it never could be an era that would last for long; it is too extractive, polluting and expansive. Also, the economic processes that co-evolved with industrialisation have led to corporate monoliths that have grown more powerful than nation states and the democratic processes that should govern them. These concentrations of wealth and power have a corrupting influence that has drawn a certain type of man to power.

Mindful of what has happened we can respond. Overall, we need to limit the global economy and manage our global commons. To do this we must break up multinational corporations and bring politicians back under the control of the people and we must live differently. To achieve these ends we need a new kind of leader that is wiser, thinks longer-term and is capable of seeing past the hubris of continuous growth and expansion.

We need Scandinavian-style leadership, female leadership and spiritual leadership. We need a revolution in kindness and compassion to pull poorer nations and other species into our concerns. We don’t want distant leaders with too much power we want local leaders with mud under their finger nails. Lets bypass the bastards who are currently leading us to a fiery armageddon. Peace, abundance, quality of life and an infinite potential for thriving awaits us in the Ecological Age. It is our generation’s challenge and privilege to get there. We are the leaders to make it happen.

The post The Last Leaders of the Expansion appeared first on EcoHustler.

Louie Psihoyos founded the non-profit organisation Oceanic Preservation Society, produced Academy Award-winning film The Cove and has helped reduce the slaughter of dolphins and whales in Taji and worldwide. What next?

Louie and his team are tackling the biggest issue on our planet. The current, human-caused mass extinction event.

Although largely ignored by the media and politicians, collapsing biodiversity critically undermines society. Our civilisation is founded on planet earth’s ecosystems. As species are lost, ecosystems change. Lose too many species and the change could be catastrophic for humanity. We have to preserve enough wild spaces for other creatures to thrive.

Scientists are saying we could lose half the species on the planet by the end of the century. Behind this mass extinction? Us. The OPS team is pulling off The Heist to inspire people to take action on behalf of the species that are blinking out on our watch.

More information here

The crew of the documentary, “The Cove” Translator, Goh Iromoto, Simon Hutchins, Joe Chisholm, Charles Hambelton, diretoctor Louie Psihoyos, Marine mammal activist, Ric O’Barry and freedivers Mandy-Rae Cruickshank and Kirk Krack

Public Service Announcement

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The contemporary, consensus understanding of life as a characteristic of individuals is giving way to something more expansive. Life makes more sense when viewed as a planetary process and this has important ramifications for human identity and our relationship with other species.

The concept of an individual living organism is a projection of our modern, atomistic sense of self. A sense of separateness may, at least, reduce well being and, at worst, be considered the root trauma of modernity. This suffering manifests, at the planetary level, as the collapse of biodiversity.

Where reductionist science leads, education is compelled to follow. Children are taught that living things eat, shit, fuck and die. Apparently, our principle characteristic is survival in an uncaring universe; the ubiquitous battle against entropy.

Worse, fundamentalists like Dawkins insist we are selfish automatons, dancing to the beat of a maniac drummer who pounds on a xylophone of DNA that coils, inexplicably out of the Big Bang, through our minds and into the inevitable big chill of thermal death.

No wonder our kids plugin to digital dystopias for light relief.

If life was a characteristic of individual beings we might expect to find some, randomly floating in space. Clearly, this is impossible. Life requires the support system we call a biosphere in order to exist. This is not a trivial point, if you are dragged into space you will die in seconds.

The biosphere regulates against the harsh extremes of space principally via an energetically activated atmosphere. Within this, it provides for every other biological need.

As new creatures on an extended branch of the tree of life we have evolved out of billions of years of prior evolution that has literally laid the ground for us. The fertile soil we walk on, is everything that lived before us, dead. Most species that have ever existed are extinct. Those that remain are our natural bed fellows. We are perfectly nestled within this unfathomably rich, living matrix.

No planet could be only partly alive. If a dead planet suddenly had a miraculous life event in a cave – what would be the chance of it surviving just there? A single hit from a meteorite, violent solar activity, a gamma ray burst, any random celestial event could wipe it out. Over a long enough time period extinction is inevitable.

The only way a miraculous life event can become an effectively immortal living process is to spread over the entire planet and turn into Gaia.

Once a planet is alive, it creates an atmosphere that shields and protects. It creates myriad forms. It digs in, lays soil and reaches up to collect more light. The increasingly complex living fabric of the world is resilient. A meteorite may tear up one part but it grows over, heals and diversifies.

Our biology of eating, breathing and excreting is the continuous cycling of matter through the network of beings that is the planet’s living fabric. Separation is a temporary illusion. When we die our atoms continue, “Rolled round in earth’s diurnal course, With rocks, and stones, and trees.”

Understanding ourselves to be a small part of something bigger is both humbling and ennobling. Domination is not only impossible, attempting it is self defeating. Nature isn’t a resource to be chopped up and sold. In a very practical sense, it is us.

Industrial, technologists may think that we can afford to lose a significant chunk of the biosphere’s diversity. Perhaps we can muddle on without those little known fish, plant or amphibian species? Perhaps we will find a technological replacement to fulfil their ecological function? Perhaps not.

These vague assumptions underly the rubric of the ideology of a continuous growth economy and to say it is risky is the understatement of the aeon. The fire-sale of the life-support systems that sustain us ends with a collapse of civilisation. This isn’t sensationalist indeed it has been the destiny of all civilisations that don’t become planetary.

Rather than trying to achieve absolute ecological control as a “god species” we can acknowledge the innate, tried and tested genius of the natural world. It has successfully held the ravages of space at bay for billions of years.

The surest way of being sustainable is simply by leaving natural systems in place – by preserving vast tracks of wilderness. As Gregory Bateson put it, “I surrender to the belief that my knowing is a small part of a wider integrated knowing that knits the entire biosphere or creation.”

We can use the genius of our technology to live thrilling lives in the spaces in-between the crucial life-sustaining ecological zones. Our planet can remain largely forested, large terrestrial mammals can roam the land and the seas can be full of life – surely the world most of us actually want to live on?

With the natural infrastructure of our world in place we gain stability. We can slow and then reverse global warming and reverse the acidification of the oceans. We can preserve biodiversity and ensure healthy food supply. This opens up the future to our civilisation – the time we need to become a multi-planet species. Human technology could be the means by which Gaia becomes fertile. Fertilising a distant planet will require extended time in space. To stay alive, our vessel must contain a mini-ecosystem to provide air, food and water.

A NASA designed space colony from the 1970s housing about 10,000 people

To our single-planet perspective, space may seem inhospitable. But individuals are to the biosphere as living planets are to the universe. Gaia creates the conditions that enable life and the universe creates the conditions that enable Gaias – the “anthropic principle.” Does this universe want to be alive?

Living processes may seem to contradict the second law of thermodynamics but biology emerged out of physics. The laws of  physics dictate the structure of DNA, and is stability and computational properties all flow out of that structure.

If our universe seems acutely poised as a crucible of life, and if life appears to be gravitated towards complexity, it seems a wilful blasphemy to insist life is random, pointless and will end in darkness. Couldn’t life actually be the driving force of the universe? A process by which the cosmos awakens and knows itself?

Billions of years hence mightn’t our decedents, using technology we cannot fathom, bypass the universe’s entropic, thermal death by seeding a new universe that contains again, the fine-tuned physical laws that will bring forth life. This biocentrism solves the anthropic conundrum and the God Delusion.

The science project, perhaps paradoxically, pushes humanity to the periphery. Copernicus shattered the babyish illusion that our species is at the centre of the universe. Every subsequent discovery pushes us further out. Not only are we not the pinnacle of complexity there may be at least 30 billion other planets in the universe capable of life and therefore sentience and technology. As our own glory fades the systems of which we are a part shine brighter.

Just as a baby’s life enriches when it becomes aware of others, so our civilisation can relish getting over itself. Consciousness does not reside solely in our skulls.

Alien God

There may well be galaxy-spanning civilisations out there, comprised of species that evolved beyond war with their own biospheres eons ago. These species may eye us with wary caution. Clutching our nuclear weapons for national “security”, fighting wars for “peace” demonising our own sexuality and systematically selling each other the life and culture we innately are.

We are not so much conflicted as poised on an evolutionary razor. We could just as easily tip into oblivion as ride out of the darkness of competition. As Bucky Fuller put it “We know now what we could never have known before — that we now have the option for all humanity to ‘make it’ successfully on this planet in this lifetime. Whether it is to be utopia or oblivion will be a touch-and-go relay race right up to the final moment.”

The anthropic principle groups thinking around why our universe appears fine-tuned to create life. It seems that we are what happens if you give a universe like ours enough time.

Today, civilisation hangs in the balance and our generation will determine the fate of life on this world for tens of thousands of years. Competition for economic growth or cooperation for planetary health? Our choices will make the difference.

Reinterpreting life, not as a property of individuals, but as a property of planets leads us to the inevitable conclusion. You, me, we… are Gaia. So what shall we choose?

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