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Galapagos Islands Environment "In Danger"
cagrin writes "On Tuesday the UN's World Heritage Committee added the Galapagos Islands to the list of sites in danger from environmental threats or overuse. From the article: 'The Galapagos Islands, an Ecuadorian territory situated in the Pacific Ocean some 1,000 kilometers (625 miles) from South America, helped shape Charles Darwin's theory of evolution and in 1978 was the first site placed on UNESCO's World Heritage List.' Here is some background from Sea Shepherd on the insults facing the Galapagos."
it truly is a land of wonders.
It's a nice place but hardly the pristine wonder that many people think it is.
The rats, cats, dogs, goats, donkeys and many other animals and plants left there for hundreds of years by passing seamen have made sure of that. Not to mention the food hunting they've done. The animals are a bit less wary of people than in other places but not by much. It's managed better than before by the Ecuadoran government but the shear quantity of tourists (100,000+/year) and residents (30,000) make it difficult.
The Galapagos Islands are worth a visit for the interesting plants and animals there but are vastly overrated because of the Charles Darwin connection. There are many places in the world with similarly unique flora and fauna.
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Monopolies = Industrial feudalism
Actually I'm afraid you got it backwards. It's indeed for those "dumb lizards" (which btw are much less dumb than you appear to think) sake that those islands are being preserved. And also for the various seals, birds and rich marine life. The Galapagos archipelago is a completely astounding place. And if you viewed other life forms as something other than "stuff that can be eaten" or "people I can get money from" your life could have changed for the better with a visit there when it was still possible.
When I was there on a tiny boat, our small group was very tightly controlled by the park guide which is required to accompany any boat or anyone who sets foot on any of the islands. We were restricted to paths in well delimited areas which left 99% of the island to the animals. Since there was a large rotation in the visits of the islands, most animals didn't mind our presence too much and we regularly had to walk around a seal sunbathing in the middle of the path.
The situation there was already bad. All of the islands were still ridden with rats (a major problem for turtle and bird eggs and for hatchlings), stray dogs and goats. All of those were trapped/caught/shot during large campaigns that were regularly mounted but at the time they despaired of ever getting rid of the invading beasts (especially the rats).
A number of boats were dropping anchor outside of the tightly designed areas damaging the sea bottom.
And of course the problem with the explosion of the local population was already ongoing.
It's sad but IMO the archipelago is a goner. I've seen it happen in lots of places throughout the world. There's just too many of us and we'll never be organized enough to use the resources intelligently.
May contain traces of nut.
Made from the freshest electrons.
From http://www.activistcash.com/organization_overview. cfm/oid/347
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Overview
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society "We're not a protest organization, we're a policing organization," Paul Watson has said of his Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS). A pirate organization is more like it. Sporting the skull and crossbones, his black or battleship-gray ships sail menacingly through the waves. They are painted with the names of the boats Watson has rammed and sunk.
The ships are fitted with water cannons, a concrete-filled bow made for ramming, and an attachment dubbed the "can opener" that can tear open a boat's hull. In his book Earth Warrior, David Morris writes that Watson wears a long bowie knife at his side and carries AK-47s on board. He blasts Richard Wagner's rousing "Ride of the Valkyries" to herald his arrival and terrify his victims.
SSCS's mission is to stop fishing of which it disapproves. Its preferred methods? Ramming and sinking fishing ships, throwing butyric acid on their decks, and firing machine guns. Watson argues that United Nations resolutions authorize him to commit violent acts. But he regularly interferes with fisherman and hunters who are committing no crime. He serves as judge, jury, and executioner -- while enjoying the same tax-exempt status as universities and churches.
Some of the animal-rights movement's most notorious terrorists got their start with SSCS. One of them, convicted arsonist Rodney Coronado, had Watson's approval to plan and execute an attack on Iceland's whaling industry. He and a colleague sank two of the fleet's four ships and destroyed a processing facility.
The Birth of Violence
SSCS is run with an iron fist by its founder, "Captain" Paul Watson. "When this ship becomes a democracy," he likes to say to his crew, "you'll be the first to know." Watson is a dyslexic who "progressed from deckhand to able seaman without knowing how to tie a knot" with the Canadian Coast Guard and Norwegian and Swedish merchant marines.
In Vancouver, Watson joined a group of anti-war activists who attempted to forcibly shut down American nuclear tests. These radicals branched out into environmental activism and became Greenpeace, of which Watson was a founder. But Watson's violent tactics became too much for Greenpeace, which kicked him out in 1977, after he assaulted seal hunters. Watson now assails his old comrades for being too wimpy, calling Greenpeace "the Avon ladies of the environmental movement."
Soon after Watson's eviction from Greenpeace, Sea Shepherd and its ship-ramming philosophy were born. SSCS's band of pirates have disrupted the legal Canadian seal hunt, attacked whaling ships and fishing boats using driftnets, and taken credit for spiking (inserting large nails into) thousands of trees. The group has sunk at least ten ships in Iceland, Norway, Spain, Portugal, South Africa, and the Canary Islands. Watson has even sunk his own ships rather than let the authorities take them. And he has spent time in the jails of Canada and the Netherlands. "Any whaling ship on the ocean is a target for the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society," he has said.
Watson's love for marine life doesn't stop him from eating fish. "Paul, who likes hamburgers and grilled cheese sandwiches equally, interprets veganism as a form of philosophical lunacy," David Morris writes in Earth Warrior. Morris's book details often-hilarious disputes between Watson and the vegan crewmembers. One standoff ensued when Watson ordered the vegans to retrieve a driftnet left by an escaped fishing vessel. The crew took an agonizingly long time, trying to free every squid caught in the net, about which Watson couldn't care less. He didn't even mind profiting from the work of the ship he threatened -- Morris reports that he later sent his chef over to the net to "requisition a few squid for dinner."
On the Fringe
Paul Watson has used his aggres
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?