A NEW report by the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) says that marine life, including fish, reptiles, mammals and birds, is in serious decline and has been almost halved since 1970.
The report says the commercial fish stocks, especially tuna and mackerel, have been particularly badly hit and are down by perhaps 74 percent.
The WWF said that largely to blame were government subsidies for commercial fishing fleets which resulted in over-fishing, coastal development and damage to popular marine habitats like coral reefs. It added that pollution and global climate change resulting in higher sea temperatures were also problems.
Ironically, at the same time a report from the Marine Conservation Society in the United Kingdom says that North Sea cod stocks are recovering well and have been moved from the red list for consumption to the amber list.
The society says that North Sea cod numbers collapsed in the 1980s and 1990s due to over-fishing and environmental changes, but strict catch controls applied in later years have seen a reasonable recovery.
So, some good news and some bad for the ocean’s fish stocks.
Back on land we are still experiencing the worst drought in a decade, but we’re not the only ones with this problem.
The state of California in the United States has been a disaster area for at least four years, but here’s a new South African angle.
The state authorities are urging people to ‘drought shame’ Hollywood stars who flout the stringent water restrictions, for example, those who have vast stretches of suspiciously verdant lawns around their mansions.
Among those so far shamed are Kim Kardashian (I have to ask, who exactly IS Kim Kardashian?) and singer Jessica Simpson (?).
On the side of the angels are people like Jamie Lee Curtis, Arnold Schwarzenegger and our own Charlize Theron, who have emptied their swimming pools and torn up their lawns and replaced them with rock gardens and desert plants.
Let’s hear it for Charlize!
And from Charlize to Chenobyl.
Here’s a question for your next cocktail party: when was the Chernobyl nuclear disaster? I rather think this is going to surprise most people (it certainly did us) – it was 30 years ago: April, 1986.
I have no desire to open a debate on the pros and cons of nuclear energy, but a report that has crossed my desk suggests a whole new positive angle.
The 3,700 square kilometre wasteland that surrounds the Chernobyl disaster site in the Ukraine (then a part of the Soviet Union) is now a wildlife sanctuary of note – why? Simple, no human beings.
The area (and that’s four times the size of our own Hlulhuwe-iMfolozi Park), is now home to elk, red deer and wild boar, and Eurasian lynx and wolves are flourishing.
The only competition is from the buses full of tourists who for some extraordinary reason want to visit the disaster site.
I think I’d rather visit Charlize’s garden. Cheers!
Source: The Week: The Best of the British and Foreign Media.
