They're the guys who first figured out the importance of mass media. They taught the world how to unfold banners on smokestacks and dodge whaling ships. So it's only logical that they would grasp the importance of our partnership between ocean conservation and Hollywood. And after 33 years of world class environmental activism, you can bet people at Greenpeace know the meaning of the term, "shifting baselines."
Here are a few details from John Hocevar about what they are currently doing in the oceans.
Greenpeace is working to defend deep sea biodiversity, calling for an immediate halt to deep sea bottom trawling. If allowed to continue, the bottom trawlers of the high seas will destroy deep sea species, before we have even discovered much of what is out there. Think of it as driving a huge bulldozer through a lush and richly populated forest and being left with a flat, featureless desert. Think of it as beef farming by dragging a net across entire fields, cities and forests to catch a few cows. It's like blowing up Mars before we get there.
There's a fun entry into the deep sea stuff at:
http://activism.greenpeace.org/voteforsquid/
On Tuesday the 16th (or possibly the 17th, if the agenda at the UN gets pushed back), Greenpeace will be addressing the UN General Assembly. It's the tenth anniversary of the creation of the Law of the Sea, and we will be calling on the UN to take up the challenge of saving the oceans. We'll be speaking on behalf of a few other organizations from the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition as well, but I'm not sure yet which ones have asked to be represented.
Posted by Randy Olson at November 11, 2004 05:01 PM