As I have mentioned here before, I access my news and information from many sources. As simply here in Britain the mainstream media just do not cover the real issues properly. Even the Media sources that I know I can trust will waste time on trivial items that are more to do with celebrity or at best the politicians rather than the politics. Most of the Newspapers here are either so right wing that they would make The Clan blush, or so trashy that unless the shenanigans of c list well known people (that I have never heard of) is news loose the right to be called newspapers.
Therefore, I acquire my news from podcasts via radio stations from across the globe. That enables me to discover what is really happening in the world without the bias that nations and politics place upon the news.
Even when the media covers a serious issue, they frequently make stories far more dramatic than they really are. A recent example was the outbreak of Swine Flu, the H1N1 Influenza. Where the media was creating a panic and much of the reporting was seriously irrational. Frequently too most stories are over simplified. When a complex issue may need good analysis to aid understanding, the media will just not give the time to a topic. A case in point is the recent European Elections. Where the media concentrated upon the extremist parties and absolutely nothing appeared about the issues.
If we take the issue of Fishing and Fishery policy, here the print media ignore the damage the British fishing fleet has done and blame our European neighbours for the fact that fish stocks are non existent. While Europe as a whole is the worst offender globally for over fishing, Britain is part of Europe and part of the problem. But if you followed what the media says then the “blame” is placed on boats from Spain or France. Yet even before Britain joined the European Community, we had devastated our own fish stocks and sent Naval gun boats to protect trawlers who were taking the fish from Iceland.
The problem has been that partitions have consistently ignored the science regarding fish stocks and fish populations. Each state in Europe has fought to gain a greater share of the pie, rather than safeguard the long term future of the fishing industry.
This is a topic that I have to seek out the story as the mainstream media just fails to report on the topic. One of the Podcast Channels I subscribe to is Green TV, an information channel from the United Nations Environment Programme. On this was a film from Greenpeace that shows just how much damage industrial fishing is doing.
I fully understand that the communities that rely on fish and fishing are struggling to survive, but the reality is that there will be no fishing industry if we continue raping the seas. This is one problem that we can solve and do so simply. We need to allow fish stocks to recover. There will be some short term pain but it will ensure that we have healthy seas in the future.
In America, especially off the coast of Alaska, fishing is sustainable well regulated and well managed. So there are examples where best practice is working. Perhaps if the mainstream media diverted even a small amount of time or space to covering issues that really mattered, we would be better informed and able make the wise choices we need for a sustainable future.
As someone deeply interested, and deeply concerned, I have to search out the information. What I can not understand is why contemporary media is so resistant to investigating and reporting real stories and issues. It is not surprising that people are so ill informed about the real dangers that we face.
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2 comments:
Thanks for your kind words about US fishing, but if I recall correctly, Pacific salmon numbers tumbled so fiercely they were considering banning any harvest at all last year.
Also about 30 years ago, a friend of mine worked as a graphic artist at an oceanographic lab,and one of the lead scientists there pronounced that anything could be dumped into the oceans with no effect, since the volume of water was so huge it would dilute it.
Yet now PCB concentrations are so high in some saltwater species that there are recommendations not to eat ANY. That's one way to prevent overfishing....
Tree
Hi Ms Tree (Mystery), I will always be prepared to acknowledge and praise good practice. America has understood the problems and put systems in place to deal with the potential for overfishing. As I understand if the fishery scientists see a population drop dramatical the federal authority can order all fishing for that species to stop. Also it is well policed so that there is no black market, illegal fishing or poaching, as this is all aided by the fishermen themselves. As they have seen what happened in Newfoundland where overfishing caused the collapse of the fish population and killed the fishing industry. In America they understand that no fish means no Jobs. Even on the Blue Fin Tuna, the US is taking a responsible attitude while Europe is acting irresponsibly and attempting to harvest three times the tonnage that the population can sustain.
I realise that far to often America is painted as an environmental villain, but that ignores where the US is getting it right. The American system is not perfect and there is still room for improvement, but America is getting far more right that Europe is.
In the past I may have been critical of the US, but just as when a drunk stops drinking you praise him for not drinking and not go on about his former dipsomaniac ways. Equally, there is room for improvement on the effluent that is dumped into the oceans. Here Europe took the lead twenty years ago, and while America and Canada still need to do more, they too are improving.
None of these problems can or will be solved overnight, and overfishing is just one of the problems the seas are under threat from, but there is hope and by having a sustainable fishing policy, America is helping to lead the way.
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