One of the best ever.
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Thursday, November 26, 2009
Arlo Guthrie's Thanksgiving
I love the story, no matter how many times I've heard it or watched the movie. Read More......
Happy Thanksgiving
In honor of Thanksgiving, I found this video on YouTube titled "Crappy Canadian Thanksgiving." It's, well, a bit odd. And Canadian Thanksgiving already happened in October. But hey, it's kind of funny. And Justin Long is hot. So what the hell.
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Sustainable fish yes, but...
For anyone who likes eating fish, the sustainability question is always a big issue. I grew up eating fish (rockfish, bluefish, weakfish, sea bass, flounder, porgy) and still today, would prefer eating fish over most anything else. Unfortunately fish management around the world is quite poor so fish farming has been promoted as the best option. It's necessary, perhaps, though that too is creating other problems such as the heavy need for feed fish to sustain the farm populations. A few young Dutch fish suppliers are looking to get around the problem by seeking out sustainable fish supplies from around the world.
The idea itself is good - supporting such an industry is a step in the right direction - though it also then forces the issue of adding to the troubled environment. Selling fresh, wild fish from Alaska is great, but in order to remain fresh, it's going to have to be sent via airliners. That is definitely a step in the wrong direction. The Dutch fish mongers believe the sustainable fish supplies deliver lower carbon footprints though it sounds like a tough sell. Maybe, but it sounds like a stretch. The general direction these days is to make attempts to eat locally. Then the issue is back to what in the world is the EU (or US or Japan, etc) doing about their own backyard? But then, that is a much bigger problem.
Focusing on the problem locally sounds like a much more sustainable long term solution, but maybe this approach is OK in the near term.
The idea itself is good - supporting such an industry is a step in the right direction - though it also then forces the issue of adding to the troubled environment. Selling fresh, wild fish from Alaska is great, but in order to remain fresh, it's going to have to be sent via airliners. That is definitely a step in the wrong direction. The Dutch fish mongers believe the sustainable fish supplies deliver lower carbon footprints though it sounds like a tough sell. Maybe, but it sounds like a stretch. The general direction these days is to make attempts to eat locally. Then the issue is back to what in the world is the EU (or US or Japan, etc) doing about their own backyard? But then, that is a much bigger problem.
Focusing on the problem locally sounds like a much more sustainable long term solution, but maybe this approach is OK in the near term.
The idea is to get people to connect with their fish in the way they do with their meat. But where butchers can now tell you which farm an animal grew up on, who its parents were and how it voted on X Factor, "the sea is not that transparent", says van Olphen drily. Provenance is not that easy with fish unless it has MSC certification. North Sea cod could have been caught anywhere within thousands of square miles, within a wide time frame and by a variety of unspecified methods.Read More......
Van Olphen certainly doesn't agree with the doom-mongers who say we must all give up fish to save stocks, but neither, despite the theme of the book, does he think that sustainable fishing in the wild is a long-term solution. "With the population growing at its current rate, farmed fisheries are the only answer," he says. "But our farming practices aren't sustainable. It takes 12kg of wild fish in feed to add just one kilo of weight to farmed fish; roughly one third of all wild fish caught around the world is pulped to create foodstuffs for other animals. Within 20 years we'll run out of fish stocks.
Obama confirms attendance in Copenhagen
It's definitely good news that he is visiting Copenhagen though the timing is odd. If he decides to actively engage in the move for change, even better. The note of caution though is that on paper it does sound like a drive by meeting which suggests it's a low priority. Whether he is serious or not will be known quickly enough by all involved. Obama has backed out of too many battles in the US so if this happens in Europe, he may start losing even more friends out there. At the moment, most Europeans still see him as the candidate of a year ago as opposed to the cautious politician we now know in the US.
Attending the talks but not committing to the more important sessions with world leaders doesn't scream of confidence or support. What makes this a particular problem is that the US is at the top of the pile for being part of the environmental problems faced by the world. The US consumes much more energy per household than Europe yet the meetings are somehow not important to the White House.
Attending the talks but not committing to the more important sessions with world leaders doesn't scream of confidence or support. What makes this a particular problem is that the US is at the top of the pile for being part of the environmental problems faced by the world. The US consumes much more energy per household than Europe yet the meetings are somehow not important to the White House.
Obama will travel to Copenhagen on 10 December, on his way to collect the Nobel peace prize in Oslo the next day. But the White House gave no indication that the president was prepared to return to the city when Gordon Brown and 60 or more world leaders fly in to add impetus to the final deal one week later on 18 December - the last day of the talks.Read More......
The Observer revealed this week that the US administration was poised to announce a specific figure for cuts ahead of the Copenhagen talks.
Obama's commitment to attend the talks was welcomed by the UN and many environment groups but dismissed by others as a photo opportunity designed to upstage the other 60 world leaders.
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