LAMENT FOR A NATION'S OCEANS

With the excitement of elections and a crumbling economy, who cares if ocean life is being killed off?

Jeff Hutchings does - even if the government is ignoring his warnings. Jeff is the Chair of the committee advising Canada on endangered species. And though warnings of extinctions come thick and fast - the government continues to issue fishing and hunting permits to kill off the last of a kind.

I debated running this speech, now, on Radio Ecoshock. Surely Americans will be too absorbed with their own affairs, to notice the end of fisheries of the world's longest coast line? Shouldn't I talk economy, with breezy interviews, and hot music instead?

My listeners do care. They know the human economy is built upon the natural economy. If our ocean stocks are going bankrupt, along with the food chain, we all need to know about it.

Normally, scientists at the top government levels work behind the scenes, keeping a cautious reserve and even secrecy. Not now. The situation off the coasts of North America, and the Arctic, are just too severe. Why even bother with endangered species, if the government will ignore all warnings - even if it saves just two - that's right TWO - jobs. Listen and weep.

Professor Jeffrey Hutchings comes from Dalhousie University, on Canada's East Coast. He's Canada Research Chair in Marine Conservation and Biodiversity. This is the Canada Oceans 2008 annual lecture, recorded by Alex Smith at the Wosk Centre of Simon Fraser University, in downtown Vancouver Canada, on October 22nd 2008.

It's a powerful speech. CBC Radio, the national broadcaster, was recording it for the well-known program "Ideas."

Two points for listeners: (1) the word "extirpated" means that species will disappear from the region, but may still exist somewhere else in the world. It only appears "extinct" to those who have known it for generations in a locale.

(2) "on the Minister's desk" is a quaint Canadian phase which means the scientists have put their endangered warnings in a report to the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, for the Federal Government of Stephen Harper - but nothing has been done about it. It is being stalled, ignored, and in some cases abused - by approving a catch on endangered or severly at risk stocks.

You will also find out that Canada's most threatened mammal in the Arctic, due to climate disruption, is not the polar bear. Learn what it is, and why.

The event was held "in the round" at the beautiful Wosk Centre. The plush chairs, each with their own desk space and microphone, were filled with top fisheries people - the British Columbia government types, well-known university scientists, ocean environmentalists you see on TV all the time, and people who love the sea. In the quiet tones of a Canadian from the inner circle, Jeff Hutchings nailed them to their chairs.

Let's tune in to a lament for a nation's oceans, this week on Radio Ecoshock.

Alex Smith
Radio Ecoshock

RUNAWAY TRAIN

Finance & Climate Crisis How we go bankrupt; the currency crisis from Max Keiser et al. Features a clip from Unwelcome Guests underground radio show, plus Alex on the developing Depression.

Then Jim Laurie interview: how we can save the climate without spending a trillion dollars. Ecoshock Show 081031 1 hour

CD Quality 56 MB or Lo-Fi 14 MB

Songs: James McMurty "We Can't Make It Anymore" and Eliza Gilkyson "Runaway Train" I love this song - it could be a theme for our times. Both American artists.

PLANKTOS: OFFSETS REAL & IMAGINED

[In Blogger, to hear the show, click the title above.]

When we purchase carbon offsets, or companies claim to be "carbon neutral" - are we kidding ourselves?

In the first of a two-part radio series, we look at one of the best-known "green" carbon offset companies, Planktos Corp. I spend the whole show interviewing the CEO, Russell George.

You can always learn a lot about the workings of the ocean, from Russ George. He tells us plankton, the very basis of the food chain, is greatly reduced since 1980. That means less food all the way up to fish, which are also declining severely.

George explains that just as water rising from the ocean creates the rain that feeds the land - so dust from the land has been feeding phyto-plankton, (also called algae) for millenia. But now George thinks that the extra CO2 tossed into the atmosphere has allowed groundcover, like grass, to stay greener into the summer. That means less dust, and less micronutrients like iron, reaches the ocean.

Plankton are thought by many scientists to have been (a) the source of all of our oxygen, and (b) a regulating factor (possibly) leading to ice ages. They are a huge engine that, when blooming, can suck incredible amounts of CO2 out of the air. Are they a big solution to climate change? Can they buy us time, while we install alternatives to fossil fuels?

Planktos Corp is planning to create new, permanent forests in Hungary, and then in the Queen Charlotte Islands (Haida Guai) of British Columbia. They will sell these carbon credits, mainly to hungry, would-be-green institutions and companies in Europe. The new carbon markets are already worth billions.

Russ George also has a dream to take rock dust, from natural iron ores, out to the Pacific, to "feed" the algae, and stimulate new blooms.

About a dozen government-funded expeditions have tested this idea. They found that new plankton did occur, but the impacts on the ecosystem, and the real carbon that gets stored, is difficult to predict. Major environment groups, including Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund have strongly opposed Planktos' proposed "Voyage of Discovery" to the Pacific. Paul Watson, founder of the Sea Shephard Society, has threated direct action to stop the project. He has been known to ram ships at sea.

Meanwhile, Planktos Corp purchased a former U.S. Research ship, the Weatherbird II. Already months late, it's in Florida, loading equipment for the voyage, allegedly with a former Greenpeace captain signed on.

We asked Russ George about his critics, and about his business prospects - which are always right on the edge, as a start up company that could make billions, or go bust.

This is important radio, about the future of our oceans, and whether climate capitalists can act independently there. I urge you to download the one hour program and listen.

Next week, in part two, we'll hear more from Russ George, from the Chicago Green Festival, but I'll also interview his critics, including stock watcher David Baines, and Pat Mooney from the environmental ETC Group.

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NEW: You can also find the full text transcript of our interview with Russell George of Planktos.

Alex Smith
host
Radio Ecoshock
www.ecoshock.org