Sustainablog

Most of America’s seafood counters display glistening mounds of all manner of fresh fish. But this bounty belies the fact that the oceans are in serious trouble. In the U.S., thousands of fishermen have lost their jobs, and signs of ecosystem collapse are on the rise, as nets get clogged with jellyfish rather than sought-after kinds of fish.

The graph below paints a sobering picture of how much fish populations have dwindled – and where they might be headed if we don’t act soon: In 1950, just 15 percent of stocks were overfished; in 2003, 70 percent were overfished or had totally collapsed

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As our friends over at Feelgood Style have noted, EDUN Apparel, the company founded by Ali Hewson (wife of U2 frontman Bono), isn’t just in the business of making stylish green clothing.  The company’s vision includes using trade (rather than aid) to support sustainable community development in the developing world, and encouraging the fashion industry to work with Africa.

The company’s t-shirt division, EDUN LIVE, in partnership with Spike Jonze’s VBS.tv and VICE magazine have created a series of videos presenting the cultural and natural environments around Kampala, Uganda, where a local textile company makes some of the organic cotton t-shirts sold by EDUN.

A visitor to the “Made in Africa” section of EDUN LIVE’s web site could have a hard time choosing where to start. While the company does use some of the videos to reinforce its green and socially responsible cred with a three-part series on Japanese native Yuichi Kashiwada’s organic cotton textile mill, “Made in Africa” goes well beyond company promotion. Videos on the Breakdance Project Uganda at the Sharing Youth Center, and the Uganda Skateboard Union provide glimpses into youth culture in the city. Another features the KCC (Kampala City Cleaners) Football Club, a social welfare program that eventually produced a national championship soccer team. And the three-part “Gorillas in the Midst” takes viewers on a trek through the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, with guide Levi and the WWF’s Dr. Richard Carroll, to see the magnificent, and endangered, mountain gorillas.

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By Lester R. Brown

After World War II, accelerating population growth and steadily rising incomes drove the demand for seafood upward at a record pace. At the same time, advances in fishing technologies, including huge refrigerated processing ships that enabled trawlers to exploit distant oceans, enabled fishers to respond to the growing world demand. In response, the oceanic fish catch climbed from 19 million tons in 1950 to its historic high of 93 million tons in 1997. This fivefold growth—more than double that of population—raised the wild seafood supply per person worldwide from 7 kilograms (15.4 pounds) in 1950 to a peak of 17 kilograms in 1988. Since then, it has fallen to 14 kilograms.

As population grows and as modern food marketing systems give more people access to these products, seafood consumption is growing. Indeed, the human appetite for seafood is outgrowing the sustainable yield of oceanic fisheries. Today 75 percent of fisheries are being fished at or beyond their sustainable capacity. As a result, many are in decline and some have collapsed.

While oceanic fisheries face numerous threats, it is overfishing that directly threatens their survival. Oceanic harvests expanded as new technologies evolved, ranging from sonar for tracking schools of fish to vast driftnets that are collectively long enough to circle the earth many times over. Indeed, a 2003 landmark study published in Nature concluded that 90 percent of the large fish in the oceans had disappeared over the last 50 years, as a result of this expansion.

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From the back cover of “Dry Spring”:

As it warms, our world is running out of fresh water - fast. Lakes, aquifers and rivers are disappearing, but we consume more water than ever. What will this mean for North America?

Veteran author and Canadian journalist Chris Wood has had a varied career contributing to national and regional publication including the CBC, Global and Mail, The Tyee, The Walrus, and many others. Chris is also co-author of the bookBlockbusters and Trade Wars: Popular Culture in a Globalized World.

In an interview with Wood last month, I asked how he came to write his latest book Dry Spring. He told me that throughout his writing career his focus has been, as he put it, “People and societies in their place”. This interest, combined with his acute awareness of the pressing environmental issues facing society, led him his work on the world’s fresh water supply, most particularly that of North America.

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The U.S. Mint is helping to bring America’s favorite bird back to its native skies!

Once abundant throughout American territories, the Bald Eagle has been negatively impacted by poaching, habitat destruction, pesticides and food source contamination. Its population has dropped from approximately 100,000 nesting pairs at the nation’s founding to just over 400 nesting pairs in the early 1960’s.

The Bald Eagle, nearing the brink of extinction just 35 years ago, has made remarkable progress and is still expanding its presence throughout our nation’s lands and skies. Public Law 108-486, signed by President George W. Bush on December 23, 2004, called for the United States Mint to mint and issue three commemorative coins that celebrate the encouraging recovery of the Bald Eagle species and the removal of the Bald Eagle from the Endangered Species List. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m reading a book about wood. The title is “Wood,” by Harvey Green. It’s written a bit like the slightly more popular and accessible books by a different author titled “Salt” and “Cod” by Mark Kurlansky. But “Wood” is about our use of wood in home construction, furniture, machinery, packaging, religion—everything. In this book, the author makes many interesting observations, like the fact that although the saw was developed independently in many parts of the world and they are strikingly similar, some cultures designed saws to cut on the push stroke (Western) and others to cut on the pull stroke (Eastern). I think this is fascinating.

He also writes about a time in our past when almost everyone had some knowledge of working with wood because everyday activities like farming, cooking, cleaning traveling, required implements that needed to be made out of wood.

Now that I have read it, this seems so obvious. Back in Laura Ingalls’ time, you couldn’t just go to the store and buy everything you needed like we can today (alas, Mr. Oleson’s store was well stocked but not like what you can find at Wal-Mart). Still, what a cool common bond they all had. I feel a little envious of what seems like a really artistic skill, but then I think that this is sort of how computers are for us today. Almost everyone has to have some knowledge of a computer interface in order to help get our jobs done (supposedly) faster and more efficiently.

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Russian environmental groups have today launched a legal challenge against a consortium led by U.S. oil and gas giant Exxon, for threatening critically endangered whales in the far east of the country.

Last year, Russian authorities gave Exxon the green light to build a pipeline across a lagoon on Sakhalin Island that is a crucial feeding ground for the world’s last surviving colony of Western Gray Whales.

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Katydids visited our back porch on the past several weekends. The way their bodies were designed to look like leaves impressed me, and also made me think about how much of a conundrum these insects are. In fact, it made very confused as to my beliefs in evolution and god. In the end I suppose that the concepts are compatible. But what a marvel to see something designed to be so camouflaged as a katydid.

After looking on Wikipedia, I learned that there are approximately 6,400 species of katydids around the world. I wanted to see more of these fascinating insects, and so I searched for photos on Flickr. What you see here are some of the more beautiful and interesting photos I found, combined with several of my own. Read the rest of this entry »