We are coming to the end game of a mistake made some 40 years ago with the abandonment of the gold standard for currencies.
In 1971, the major countries of the world were on a gold standard set at $35 an ounce. To back up their paper money they had to keep gold bullion in vaults to ensure the paper denominations ‘really meant something’. Soon thereafter, to save costs of bullion storage and because of the false belief that a country’s currency is really backed by its economic health and GDP – i.e., you can trust the country to pay out its money promises as its economy could generate enough ‘ wealth’ to honour any claims against the paper currency. In good times, this fantasy worked reasonably well, but as the world’s economies have begun to implode, even central bankers are starting to rethink the need for the universally accepted ‘hard asset of gold’ -- to ensure currencies can be ‘trusted’.
For some 40 years, governments have been allowed to print money at will, run huge deficits and allow speculators (i.e., invest banks, regular banks, oil rich national wealth funds and individual multi-billionaires) to play the currency exchange game at the cost to ordinary people and rational government behaviour.
Canada, for instance, is a stable democracy with a smoothly growing population and extensive and diverse resource base (coal, minerals, timber, oil/tar sands, and essential crops such as wheat), yet we have seen the Canadian dollar fluctuate irrationally against the American dollar and world currencies over the last 20 years.
At one point the Canadian dollar was worth $0.65 against the greenback and just a year ago the Canadian dollar zoomed to a high of $1.06 US! Today, it fluctuates almost at par but moves up and down a fraction to one cent almost hourly!!
Such roller coaster -- and even penny -- differentials have huge impacts on the Canadian economy and corporate decision making, creating uncertainty and undermining long term planning and growth.
Businesses that sell outside of Canada usually sign contacts in US dollars. So any change in the relative value of the Canadian currency to the US dollar – as set by the daily market swings -- affects their bottom line.
NHL teams in Canada, for example, when the Canadian dollar was at $0.65 US were bleeding to death as long term contracts for players signed when the currencies were close to par suddenly cost teams 35% more in Canadian funds – a huge penalty!!!
Even a fluctuation of 1 cent out of 100 cents (= $1.00 ) is significant as it is a 1% change and many companies often work on a net profit margin of 5 to 10%. So a drop in the Canadian dollar of 1 cent can affect profits immensely!
Profit and business viability is consequently and too often at the mercy of exchange rates, not in the sale of goods per se.
And those exchange rates are not controlled by governments any more really, but the speculative stock marketers.
So lets end the speculative currency roller coaster before this and related market insanity ** result in another World Depression!!!
The governments of the world and IMF need to get their acts together – or we will all pay a horrendous price as the currency fantasy comes to a crashing end!!!
** A barrel of oil from normal ground wells costs $10.00 or so to produce and even the most expensive oil source, the Alberta tar sands, are ‘profitable’ at $70.00 a barrel according to the OPEC minister from Saudi Arabia. So why is oil selling around $85.00 a barrel on the ‘open market’ and expected to go up?
Because MARKET SPECULATORS rule!!!
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
TECHNOLOGY
All Hail Google
Google is on an ever expanding, winning streak of innovation.
For years Google has been the most popular search engine on the Internet, leading the verb “to google” to be added to our most recent dictionaries.
With Google Chrome, Google has expanded to compete with Internet Explorer and numerous others as a web desktop browser -- and is currently the 3rd most used web browser in the world.
As for Android, Google’s smart phone software, it has been chosen by so many handset manufacturers that it is on more smart phones than any other system – far surpassing Apple’s iPhone numbers.
And with Google Earth the company has gone even further afield, into the realms normally left to geographers and real estate agents. Anyone can now look up his or her home for a bird’s eye – and more recently street side – view, or comb great cities, the oceans and mountains galore.
Then, just last week, to this expanding Google universe, was added the automobile!
Google released images and a brief PR story on how it has mastered creating a driverless car!!! The vehicle can drive to preset location automatically, staying on the road and making the needed turns – even in traffic – without collision or panic. To keep passengers more at ease – and this is still the test phase after all – a passive backup human sits in the driver’s seat – so if anything seems amiss, he/she can override the system.
So far, Google says, no glitches!
While German, Japanese and American automobile companies have been working on similar robotic cars – Lexus and Ford have production models that can parallel part on their own -- no auto manufacturer to my knowledge has created anything like the Google car yet.
Another Google first? It seems so.
What will this innovative and wide thinking company come up with next?
IBM, Sony and Microsoft are past being leading edge. And Apple seems to be reaching its Zenith as a 2½ note company – iPods, iPhones and the new, but far from unique iPad.
So all hail the new innovation superstar and future world leader (Yes, I am predicting this) – GOOGLE.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
GAIA
Vegan secret agenda
A slew of recent articles are advocating the end to animal husbandry and eating flesh.
U of T Magazine’s Autumn 2010 “This Looks Like a Farm” eulogizes a farm animal sanctuary in Uxbridge, Ontario and how it has saved pigs from certain death. The 6 page spread ends with a long attack on the cruelty and barbarism of farming of pigs and other domesticated animals, and ends with a plea to end all animal farming as it is simply cruel and inhumane.
Put briefly pigs and other domestic animals have emotions and social needs, feel pain and are “not that different in kind [than we humans].” (p. 41)
The same line of attack is used in a Globe and Mail article of a few weeks back attacking the cruelty of fishing – any and all fishing. Starting with putting a live worm or minnow on a hook, hooking a living fish and battling it, often letting fish ‘drown’ in air once caught, or trapping them in nets where they can be left crushed together and unable to move for hours until the net is pulled up – at which point they are usually allowed to ‘drown’ in air –all steps too inhumane for the author’s vegan likings.
Put simply, he advocates an end to all forms of fishing – all over the planet.
Finally, articles on dolphins, dogs and other animals are appearing in magazines such as Time as researchers find more and more animals feel pain, go through emotional states and can think in more sophisticated ways than previously thought.
Put simply, the gulf between humans and the rest of the animal world is not as great as once thought.
The net result of all these scientific and humanist arguments is to piece by piece assault the human practice of eating flesh and proposing strict vegetarianism; that only fruits, vegetables and grains are acceptable food sources.
This defies human history as we have been hunters and gatherings since almost the beginning of time and this is still the norm in the cultures of tribal Amazon and Africa.
Our teeth have canines and semi-caninies specifically to tear at and eat flesh – so we are biologically designed for meat eating – among other things.
Most importantly, if these ‘bleeding hearts’ had their way, billions of people would be starving to death each year – because without the bounty of the sea and human animal husbandry, there is not enough arable land, not enough access to water and irrigation to feed the world’s over 6 billion people!!!
Think drought, think floods, think locus and you know how fragile the world’s agricultural food supply can be – and is.
To close, let me end with a response I read years ago by the late Lubavicher rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneeson. When asked if a Jew should become a vegetarian, he rephrased the question to “what is the purpose of animal life?”. His answer basically repeated standard Jewish belief that animal life is designed for mankind’s benefit and the eating of meat is a key part of this.
A slew of recent articles are advocating the end to animal husbandry and eating flesh.
U of T Magazine’s Autumn 2010 “This Looks Like a Farm” eulogizes a farm animal sanctuary in Uxbridge, Ontario and how it has saved pigs from certain death. The 6 page spread ends with a long attack on the cruelty and barbarism of farming of pigs and other domesticated animals, and ends with a plea to end all animal farming as it is simply cruel and inhumane.
Put briefly pigs and other domestic animals have emotions and social needs, feel pain and are “not that different in kind [than we humans].” (p. 41)
The same line of attack is used in a Globe and Mail article of a few weeks back attacking the cruelty of fishing – any and all fishing. Starting with putting a live worm or minnow on a hook, hooking a living fish and battling it, often letting fish ‘drown’ in air once caught, or trapping them in nets where they can be left crushed together and unable to move for hours until the net is pulled up – at which point they are usually allowed to ‘drown’ in air –all steps too inhumane for the author’s vegan likings.
Put simply, he advocates an end to all forms of fishing – all over the planet.
Finally, articles on dolphins, dogs and other animals are appearing in magazines such as Time as researchers find more and more animals feel pain, go through emotional states and can think in more sophisticated ways than previously thought.
Put simply, the gulf between humans and the rest of the animal world is not as great as once thought.
The net result of all these scientific and humanist arguments is to piece by piece assault the human practice of eating flesh and proposing strict vegetarianism; that only fruits, vegetables and grains are acceptable food sources.
This defies human history as we have been hunters and gatherings since almost the beginning of time and this is still the norm in the cultures of tribal Amazon and Africa.
Our teeth have canines and semi-caninies specifically to tear at and eat flesh – so we are biologically designed for meat eating – among other things.
Most importantly, if these ‘bleeding hearts’ had their way, billions of people would be starving to death each year – because without the bounty of the sea and human animal husbandry, there is not enough arable land, not enough access to water and irrigation to feed the world’s over 6 billion people!!!
Think drought, think floods, think locus and you know how fragile the world’s agricultural food supply can be – and is.
To close, let me end with a response I read years ago by the late Lubavicher rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneeson. When asked if a Jew should become a vegetarian, he rephrased the question to “what is the purpose of animal life?”. His answer basically repeated standard Jewish belief that animal life is designed for mankind’s benefit and the eating of meat is a key part of this.
Sunday, September 26, 2010
GAIA
Panic, panic everywhere
This week I have stumbled upon a variety of panic items:
FOREIGN FISH
2 recent immigrants to North America from Asia - Asian carp and snake head fish -- have been causing panic. At a metre long and able to jump high over canoes and barriers (Asian carp) or walk on their fins on land for up to 4 days breathing air (snake head ) these new fish are seen as deadly, voracious invaders who, without natural predators, will soon wipe out local fish and animal populations.
MY PERSPECTIVE:
Funny thing is both are prized delicacies in Asia (see Wikipedia) and, somehow, back home, they are not causing mass extinction.
Maybe the U.S. and Canadian fishing authorities should check with those in Asia to find out why they are not a problem there, and figure out how to capture them here for the North American Asian population diet.
CANADA GEESE
Mclean’s magazine, August 30, 2010, pages 50-51 condemns efforts in the U.S. to cull Canada geese in New York city as captured birds are euthanized with carbon dioxide and then buried. The article’s author, Josh Dehaas, recommends they follow Canadian practice at Toronto and Vancouver airports: scare off the geese (and seagulls) using trained hawks and other raptors or use loud canon noises, or plant long grasses the geese don’t like.
MY PERSPECTIVE:
As the article notes, there are 250,000 geese residing in New York state and 85,000 is the acknowledged ideal size for this species for New York state’s area. So how do you cope with massive goose overpopulation? Scaring them off means they soon return, or become someone else’s problem.
The geese, like seagulls and duck, constitute a life threatening hazard for jet planes at take off as they clog and shut down engines when sucked into the turbines.
Their large and extensive poop droppings are an even greater and widespread hazard – on beaches, in water, at golf courses, on sidewalks and public parks.
Bottom line: when it comes to choosing between a wild, overpopulated animal species and human safety, I vote for the latter.
Burial, however, seems such a waste. After all, humans raise geese for food and it is a French delicacy. And a quick Google search finds many wild goose recipes.
Anyone for Canada goose under glass in New York?
FLORIDA Everglades
A recent National Geographic on the Everglades and how they are endangered focused on 2 problems. One, there is less water flowing into the southern tip of Florida reducing plant growth and creating shallow rivers that harm animals. The reason: watershed in mid-Florida is being diverted – for … PEOPLE as the human populations expands.
Pythons were another focus and example of foreign, exotic animals being released by former pet owners. The pythons are huge creatures and can travel for over 30 miles, thereby endangering local animals.
MY PERSPECTIVE:
Since when are PEOPLE not important or worthy of drinking water? If the mindset is to preserve nature at all costs, then humans should all be sent to the Moon or Mars, because we cannot farm or build or propagate into the billions without somehow bumping some other creatures and their habitats.
So get real!
Secondly, this fear of invasive animals is poor history. Are we to believe that creatures only now come to the Americas secretly in boats? What of all the ships of Columbus and the Pilgrims, etc.? Did trade between Europe and the China of Marco Polo and thereafter not include some animal, plant and disease cross-pollination, so to speak? Did not the very first humans to come to the Americas from Asia via the land bridge of the current Bering Sea not introduce new animals and plants?
And what of horses, introduced to North America by the Spanish? Should they have been hunted down and exterminated as ‘invasive creatures? Just ask the plains Indians?
Put simply, animals, plants and diseases## are and have always been transmitted to new environments by human travel. It is nothing new and local eco-systems will adapt as they have done for centuries.
## Yes, diseases. Small pox, for example, came from Europe, and we now know that syphilis originated among the natives of the New World. HIV and AIDS are of African origin and influenza and SARS originate in China, as is the Avian flu virus spread by wild bird migrations.
EXTREME WEATHER
This summer’s floods, droughts, forest fires, super heat waves, etc. bode ill and it will get worse. So claims the article in MacLean’s re: flooding in Pakistan, droughts in other areas, forest fires and the super heat wave in Russia. (Maclean’s Aug 30, 2010, pages 38-44)
Put simply, the argument is that the Earth is becoming a climate roller coaster of extremes as it heats up due to Global Warming. And things will definitely get worse and worse and worse!
MY PERSPECTIVE:
Unfortunately, the article’s writers ignore the historical record some of which he mentions in passing. Pakistan’s floods are the worst in 100 years and Russia has not had such a heat wave since the 11th century (Maclean’s p. 39, last line).
Oh … then such extreme weather has happened before and not just recently.
Maybe they and others should check out a little known but well documented weather blip called the ‘Little Ice Age’. a period extending from the 16th to the 19th centuries across Europe (see Wikipedia and Google search articles).
+ + + + + + +
Again, the Global Warming mindset and animal/nature lover purists get plenty of space to propagate their views in mainstream media … but often with poor facts, limited historical perspective and little or no regard for human beings.
This week I have stumbled upon a variety of panic items:
FOREIGN FISH
2 recent immigrants to North America from Asia - Asian carp and snake head fish -- have been causing panic. At a metre long and able to jump high over canoes and barriers (Asian carp) or walk on their fins on land for up to 4 days breathing air (snake head ) these new fish are seen as deadly, voracious invaders who, without natural predators, will soon wipe out local fish and animal populations.
MY PERSPECTIVE:
Funny thing is both are prized delicacies in Asia (see Wikipedia) and, somehow, back home, they are not causing mass extinction.
Maybe the U.S. and Canadian fishing authorities should check with those in Asia to find out why they are not a problem there, and figure out how to capture them here for the North American Asian population diet.
CANADA GEESE
Mclean’s magazine, August 30, 2010, pages 50-51 condemns efforts in the U.S. to cull Canada geese in New York city as captured birds are euthanized with carbon dioxide and then buried. The article’s author, Josh Dehaas, recommends they follow Canadian practice at Toronto and Vancouver airports: scare off the geese (and seagulls) using trained hawks and other raptors or use loud canon noises, or plant long grasses the geese don’t like.
MY PERSPECTIVE:
As the article notes, there are 250,000 geese residing in New York state and 85,000 is the acknowledged ideal size for this species for New York state’s area. So how do you cope with massive goose overpopulation? Scaring them off means they soon return, or become someone else’s problem.
The geese, like seagulls and duck, constitute a life threatening hazard for jet planes at take off as they clog and shut down engines when sucked into the turbines.
Their large and extensive poop droppings are an even greater and widespread hazard – on beaches, in water, at golf courses, on sidewalks and public parks.
Bottom line: when it comes to choosing between a wild, overpopulated animal species and human safety, I vote for the latter.
Burial, however, seems such a waste. After all, humans raise geese for food and it is a French delicacy. And a quick Google search finds many wild goose recipes.
Anyone for Canada goose under glass in New York?
FLORIDA Everglades
A recent National Geographic on the Everglades and how they are endangered focused on 2 problems. One, there is less water flowing into the southern tip of Florida reducing plant growth and creating shallow rivers that harm animals. The reason: watershed in mid-Florida is being diverted – for … PEOPLE as the human populations expands.
Pythons were another focus and example of foreign, exotic animals being released by former pet owners. The pythons are huge creatures and can travel for over 30 miles, thereby endangering local animals.
MY PERSPECTIVE:
Since when are PEOPLE not important or worthy of drinking water? If the mindset is to preserve nature at all costs, then humans should all be sent to the Moon or Mars, because we cannot farm or build or propagate into the billions without somehow bumping some other creatures and their habitats.
So get real!
Secondly, this fear of invasive animals is poor history. Are we to believe that creatures only now come to the Americas secretly in boats? What of all the ships of Columbus and the Pilgrims, etc.? Did trade between Europe and the China of Marco Polo and thereafter not include some animal, plant and disease cross-pollination, so to speak? Did not the very first humans to come to the Americas from Asia via the land bridge of the current Bering Sea not introduce new animals and plants?
And what of horses, introduced to North America by the Spanish? Should they have been hunted down and exterminated as ‘invasive creatures? Just ask the plains Indians?
Put simply, animals, plants and diseases## are and have always been transmitted to new environments by human travel. It is nothing new and local eco-systems will adapt as they have done for centuries.
## Yes, diseases. Small pox, for example, came from Europe, and we now know that syphilis originated among the natives of the New World. HIV and AIDS are of African origin and influenza and SARS originate in China, as is the Avian flu virus spread by wild bird migrations.
EXTREME WEATHER
This summer’s floods, droughts, forest fires, super heat waves, etc. bode ill and it will get worse. So claims the article in MacLean’s re: flooding in Pakistan, droughts in other areas, forest fires and the super heat wave in Russia. (Maclean’s Aug 30, 2010, pages 38-44)
Put simply, the argument is that the Earth is becoming a climate roller coaster of extremes as it heats up due to Global Warming. And things will definitely get worse and worse and worse!
MY PERSPECTIVE:
Unfortunately, the article’s writers ignore the historical record some of which he mentions in passing. Pakistan’s floods are the worst in 100 years and Russia has not had such a heat wave since the 11th century (Maclean’s p. 39, last line).
Oh … then such extreme weather has happened before and not just recently.
Maybe they and others should check out a little known but well documented weather blip called the ‘Little Ice Age’. a period extending from the 16th to the 19th centuries across Europe (see Wikipedia and Google search articles).
+ + + + + + +
Again, the Global Warming mindset and animal/nature lover purists get plenty of space to propagate their views in mainstream media … but often with poor facts, limited historical perspective and little or no regard for human beings.
Saturday, September 4, 2010
TECHNOLOGY
‘clean’ Electricity – the false messiah PART 2
ELECTRIC CAR RECHARGING WILL CRASH THE ELECTRIC GRID SYSTEM
Aside from the problems mentioned in Part 1 re: electric car distance range, the real ‘killer’ is the recharging. At 8 hours using 240volts, recharging will be such a drain on the grid system as to ensure immediate and continual crashing!
Don’t believe me? Well maybe you will trust Anthony Haines, the head of
Toronto Hydro -- which handles the electricity needs of Canada’s largest city.
According to the article in Toronto Metro, September 2, 2010, page 04,
Haines is quoted as saying “If you connect 10% of the homes on any given street with an electric car, the electricity system fails.” “It basically can’t handle that load.”
Why?
a. Electric cars are electricity HOGS!!!
1. recharging a electric car takes 3 times the power a home normally uses in a day (according to Haines)
2. if you recharge as soon as you get home you overload the grid since early evening is the peak home use time already
3. recharging at work or during the daytime is instant blackout as the grid is already at max from commercial and industrial use
b. Our electrical grid is OLD and already having trouble coping with new
housing, new malls, new industry etc. as it was designed in the 1970s
and 1980s.
c. To cover the cost of ‘maintaining the current grid needs and replacing frayed wire lines and worn out parts, electricity costs across North America will be skyrocketing upward. In the Toronto area, word is that next year electricity will go up 25% just to cover current ‘urgent’ repair/replacement needs.
So, where will all the extra electricity come from to recharge – in future -- the over 120,000,000 ( yes, 120+ million!!!) cars, vans and trucks currently used in the USA alone? What will be the cost of electricity if it is also needed to run the equivalent of 360,000,000 extra houses every day? (Remember, a 1. Each 8 hour recharge equals the electricity usage of
3 houses.)
And, finally, that electricity you plug in comes from some power plant that either uses coal, oil, natural gas or nuclear power to make your nice electric car run ‘emissions free’. So you really have only shifted the problem.
That’s NIMBY thinking.
ELECTRIC CAR RECHARGING WILL CRASH THE ELECTRIC GRID SYSTEM
Aside from the problems mentioned in Part 1 re: electric car distance range, the real ‘killer’ is the recharging. At 8 hours using 240volts, recharging will be such a drain on the grid system as to ensure immediate and continual crashing!
Don’t believe me? Well maybe you will trust Anthony Haines, the head of
Toronto Hydro -- which handles the electricity needs of Canada’s largest city.
According to the article in Toronto Metro, September 2, 2010, page 04,
Haines is quoted as saying “If you connect 10% of the homes on any given street with an electric car, the electricity system fails.” “It basically can’t handle that load.”
Why?
a. Electric cars are electricity HOGS!!!
1. recharging a electric car takes 3 times the power a home normally uses in a day (according to Haines)
2. if you recharge as soon as you get home you overload the grid since early evening is the peak home use time already
3. recharging at work or during the daytime is instant blackout as the grid is already at max from commercial and industrial use
b. Our electrical grid is OLD and already having trouble coping with new
housing, new malls, new industry etc. as it was designed in the 1970s
and 1980s.
c. To cover the cost of ‘maintaining the current grid needs and replacing frayed wire lines and worn out parts, electricity costs across North America will be skyrocketing upward. In the Toronto area, word is that next year electricity will go up 25% just to cover current ‘urgent’ repair/replacement needs.
So, where will all the extra electricity come from to recharge – in future -- the over 120,000,000 ( yes, 120+ million!!!) cars, vans and trucks currently used in the USA alone? What will be the cost of electricity if it is also needed to run the equivalent of 360,000,000 extra houses every day? (Remember, a 1. Each 8 hour recharge equals the electricity usage of
3 houses.)
And, finally, that electricity you plug in comes from some power plant that either uses coal, oil, natural gas or nuclear power to make your nice electric car run ‘emissions free’. So you really have only shifted the problem.
That’s NIMBY thinking.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
GAIA
Gaia 10 – scientists 0
Blowing in the wind
On the 5th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina (2005) and her devastating flooding impact on New Orleans and the adjoining region – and as this year’s hurricane cycle starts again, with hurricane Earl approaching landfall and hurricane Fiona building in the Caribbean and Danielle weakening in the mid-Atlantic, it may be worthwhile to recall that in the wake of Katrina and that year’s increased number of North American hurricanes, scientists and environmentalists predicted that – due to Global warming – we would be seeing an ever growing number of hurricanes and ones of more deadly force that in previous years and decades.
Global Warming said so.
But that has not really been the case. No U.S. super flooding has occurred since 2005, and no category 5 killers anywhere in North America.
Katrina hit New Orleans as a category 3, while far worse category 5 (super deadly) hurricanes were Andrew in 1992, Camille in 1969 and the 1935 Labour Day hurricane (never given a name).
So just look at the numbers, and do the math.
There is a cyclical ebb and flow to Gaia; not the catastrophic escalation Global Warming advocates have propagandized.
Blowing in the wind
On the 5th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina (2005) and her devastating flooding impact on New Orleans and the adjoining region – and as this year’s hurricane cycle starts again, with hurricane Earl approaching landfall and hurricane Fiona building in the Caribbean and Danielle weakening in the mid-Atlantic, it may be worthwhile to recall that in the wake of Katrina and that year’s increased number of North American hurricanes, scientists and environmentalists predicted that – due to Global warming – we would be seeing an ever growing number of hurricanes and ones of more deadly force that in previous years and decades.
Global Warming said so.
But that has not really been the case. No U.S. super flooding has occurred since 2005, and no category 5 killers anywhere in North America.
Katrina hit New Orleans as a category 3, while far worse category 5 (super deadly) hurricanes were Andrew in 1992, Camille in 1969 and the 1935 Labour Day hurricane (never given a name).
So just look at the numbers, and do the math.
There is a cyclical ebb and flow to Gaia; not the catastrophic escalation Global Warming advocates have propagandized.
Monday, August 30, 2010
Gaia 10 – scientists 0
Something’s fishy
For years the salmon fishery in British Columbia has been declining – which is true -- and fears of the immanent collapse of the wild salmon stock and extinction of the species has been gaining credence in the scientific and environmental/green movement.
But this year’s bumper crop of Pacific sockeye salmon has been so overwhelming, that the fishing regulatory ministries are increasing fisherman quotas by the day – in fear of over-population as the fish swim up river to spawn.
It is the best salmon numbers in 100 years!
For half a decade, and at millions of dollars of taxpayer expense, scientists scowered the causes; from reduced river flow due to urbanization, industrialization and a rise in the beaver population and their dams to a reviving Pacific seal populations. Just last year, the west coast fish farm industry was declared the ‘real problem’, as farm salmon tend to have (controllable) lice and it was speculated these vermin somehow spread to wild salmon --killing them off at sea. Activists and scientists called for an end to man-made fish farming -- as a danger to the survival of natural species and the ecosystem!
Now, with this cornucopia salmon harvest, all the above ‘causes’ have been proven false. Only the theory of a local change in water temperature – a la El Nino and La Nina -- is still viable.
It is, again, Gaia and its natural forces and ebbs and flows that are at work. One can no longer blame the activities or ‘environmental’ damage of the human ant (nor a few beavers and seals).
[See Globe and Mail, “The salmon are back, but the mystery deepens” and “Sockeye surge spawns overcrowding concerns”, August 28, 2010, A1 and A8]
P.S. The East coast northern cod fishery off Newfoundland, which did seem close to extinction and has been under a moratorium for some 20 years (since 1992) will probably be revived by next year. The cod are coming back in such numbers that in some east coast areas – based on anecdotal reports -- residents are finding large numbers of cod tossed onto the shore; a sudden return from the dead not anticipated by ocean scientists and counter to general theory.
Gaia strikes again!
[See archive.greenpeace.org/comms/cbio/cancod.html, “CANADIAN ATLANTIC FISHERIES COLLAPSE”]
For years the salmon fishery in British Columbia has been declining – which is true -- and fears of the immanent collapse of the wild salmon stock and extinction of the species has been gaining credence in the scientific and environmental/green movement.
But this year’s bumper crop of Pacific sockeye salmon has been so overwhelming, that the fishing regulatory ministries are increasing fisherman quotas by the day – in fear of over-population as the fish swim up river to spawn.
It is the best salmon numbers in 100 years!
For half a decade, and at millions of dollars of taxpayer expense, scientists scowered the causes; from reduced river flow due to urbanization, industrialization and a rise in the beaver population and their dams to a reviving Pacific seal populations. Just last year, the west coast fish farm industry was declared the ‘real problem’, as farm salmon tend to have (controllable) lice and it was speculated these vermin somehow spread to wild salmon --killing them off at sea. Activists and scientists called for an end to man-made fish farming -- as a danger to the survival of natural species and the ecosystem!
Now, with this cornucopia salmon harvest, all the above ‘causes’ have been proven false. Only the theory of a local change in water temperature – a la El Nino and La Nina -- is still viable.
It is, again, Gaia and its natural forces and ebbs and flows that are at work. One can no longer blame the activities or ‘environmental’ damage of the human ant (nor a few beavers and seals).
[See Globe and Mail, “The salmon are back, but the mystery deepens” and “Sockeye surge spawns overcrowding concerns”, August 28, 2010, A1 and A8]
P.S. The East coast northern cod fishery off Newfoundland, which did seem close to extinction and has been under a moratorium for some 20 years (since 1992) will probably be revived by next year. The cod are coming back in such numbers that in some east coast areas – based on anecdotal reports -- residents are finding large numbers of cod tossed onto the shore; a sudden return from the dead not anticipated by ocean scientists and counter to general theory.
Gaia strikes again!
[See archive.greenpeace.org/comms/cbio/cancod.html, “CANADIAN ATLANTIC FISHERIES COLLAPSE”]
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