Re: "The Profound Role of Whales" by Koohan Paik-Mander
Dear Sir or Madam:
"The ongoing atrocities of the U.S. military against whales and marine ecosystems make a mockery of any of its climate initiatives. / While the slogan 'Save the Whales' has been bandied about for decades, they’re the ones actually saving us. In destroying them, we destroy ourselves."
Thus concludes Koohan Paik-Mander's very informative article, “The
Profound Role of Whales,” recently re-printed by The Catholic Worker
(March-April, 2024)—an article published a few
years earlier by Counterpunch under the somewhat misleading title,
"Whales could Save the World's Climate unless the Military Destroys
them First." The Catholic Worker title more closely fits the
evidence because the saving of whales, phytoplankton, and other
marine life, from military atrocities, though indisputably necessary
for the continuing of life on earth, as the author successfully
argues, would not be a sufficient condition for reversing the
climate crisis.
The author—an environmental activist, journalist, and
filmmaker—describes what she calls the "miraculous" role of whales
in sequestering carbon and increasing phytoplankton—from which
organisms at least 50% of Earth's oxygen derives—thus mitigating or
delaying climate catastrophe. The military, however, for the sake of
weapons and communication systems of war, is waging a war on whales,
torturing and killing immense numbers each year, with a trajectory
that implies their complete annihilation. The author’s solution:
“Clearly, a key path forward toward a livable planet is to make
whale and ocean conservation a top priority.”
Yes, of course, although how much could such prioritizing help if
the military is hell-bent on destroying the oceans and, thereby, us?
Even the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, while indispensable,
would, as the author herself suggests, not be enough for saving the
planet.
A paradigm shift would also seem to be in order that centers on the
way humans relate to nonhuman creatures. That, mercifully, is
already in the works with the ongoing Copernican revolution for
animals across the world, disseminating its insights so that finally
animals may be treated in accordance with what they truly are—not
food, rather, feeling beings; not property or slaves or toys or
other throwaway commodities, rather, persons; not clothing,
entertainment, experimental objects—not, in short, things or mere
tools to be exploited for human needs, rather, living individuals
with their own integrity, worth, dignity, and needs, apart from the
needs of humans—ends in themselves, to borrow a Kantian
expression—whose almost unimaginable suffering and premature dying
are a blot on ALL humanity. Whales in particular are known to be
highly intelligent, loving creatures, with a language system so
complex that scientists still have not fully decoded it, and even a
keen sense of their own histories, which, according to Ingrid
Newkirk, they sing to their young.
The author speaks at length of carbon dioxide, yet neglects to
mention nitrous oxide or methane, which are far more heat-trapping.
The overwhelming quantity of those gasses—and a substantial amount
of carbon dioxide—are emitted annually and worldwide by animal
agriculture (https://awellfedworld.org/wp-content/uploads/Livestock-Climate-Change-Anhang-Goodland.pdf),
itself long known, in this country at least, to be under military
auspices. The gargantuan role of animal agriculture in climate
change, however, though increasingly acknowledged, is still being
suppressed by many environmentalists, climate activists, climate
scientists, and the United Nations climate summits (see the
documentary "Cowspiracy")—even though the UN was the agency that
first broke the news with its 2006 report, “Livestock’s Long
Shadow.”
The eating of fishes, moreover—who are relentlessly tortured by the
fishing industry that is emptying our oceans—and the poisonous
runoff from animal factories generated by meat, egg, and dairy
consumption—also contribute greatly to the oceans' destruction. And
so does the illegal whaling of a few rogue nations that slaughter
over a thousand whales each year—not to mention many dolphins and
other sea creatures—primarily for food and drugs.
There may be no way for us to combat military evils except by
bringing them to light. Everyone, however, can begin to restore the
oceans and the Earth
by cutting down on the use of plastic, which kills massive numbers
of fishes and whales each year, not to mention numerous land
animals—and, above all, by leaving animals and their secretions out
of our diets and making responsible food choices.