Dear Friends,
Back in 1986, during the early days of the environmental movement (when it was thought to be the preserve of mad hippies and conspiracy nuts), a hugely successful campaign by Greenpeace to “Save the Whales” galvanised the young movement into a political and moral fighting force that succeeded in having commercial whaling banned forever……or so we thought.
Commercial whaling is on its way back!
My friend Steve Hurford, a master diver and film-maker, sent this to me last night:
On Monday 19th June 2006 the Japanese pro-whaling lobby won a symbolic battle in its campaign to restart commercial whaling. Backed by other pro-whaling nations (including Norway, Iceland & Russia) the Japanese pro-whaling lobby forced the International Whaling Commission (IWC) to declare officially that a 20-year old moratorium on commercial whaling was “no longer necessary”.
The Japanese pro-whaling lobby’s influence over the IWC voting process has been increasing for many years as it has encouraged and allegedly given financial support to a stream of small countries joining as new members.
The Japanese pro-whaling lobby has unsuccessfully proposed similar declarations in most years, and had three proposals voted down in the latest meeting.
On Friday it lost by 32 to 30 a vote that would have removed dolphins from the IWC agenda.
Belize, which has received aid from Japan and had been expected to support it, voted against it - SO MUST WE.
PEOPLE OF MYSPACE: some say there are over 100,000,000 of us, almost as many as the POPULATION OF JAPAN.
If you are a MYSPACE USERS WHO CONDEMN COMMERCIAL WHALING, then register your disapproval with those who have the elected power and responsibility to decide.
If you are Norwegian, Icelandic, Russian or Japanese then you are the strongest force we have, but all of us are needed to make a difference.
Whales do not belong to any government, any organisation or any individual. They belong to no one but their welfare is the responsibility of us all.
IF YOU BELIEVE THE WORLD CAN BE CHANGED WITHOUT VIOLENCE THEN BELIEVE IN IT ENOUGH TO ACT.
To do so, simply send the following or similar text to one or more (preferably all) of the email addresses given below, and please remember to be civil and of pure motive otherwise it will not be taken with the seriousness with which it deserves:
Dear Sir/Madam, As a MySpace user and responsible citizen of this planet I am taking this opportunity to register with you my personal and sincere objection to the actions of your government in supporting the recent vote on restarting commercial whaling at the last meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC).
If your government continues its support of this proposal then as a consumer with the ultimate power of choice I will make it my personal aim never to purchase a single product that is produced, assembled, exported from or in any other way associated with your country.
I ask that you kindly reply to me acknowledging receipt of this communication and explaining to me why you believe your government’s current position in supporting this resumption of commercial whaling is in any way describable as responsible, necessary, beneficial to us or indeed worth anything at all to humanity.
Yours sincerely
with trust in reason and hope
a deeply concerned MySpace user
EMAIL ADDRESSES:
Japanese IWC Commissioner,
Mr. Morimoto
Japanese Government Ministry of the Environment
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
moe@env.go.jp
minoru.morimoto@mofa.go.jp
webmaster@mofa.go.jpNorwegian IWC Commissioner,
Ambassador K Klepsvik
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
kkl@mfa.no
post@mfa.noRussian IWC Commissioner,
Mr. V. Y. Ilyashenko
State Committee of the Russian Federation on Environmental Protection
postmaster@ecocom.ru
root@ecocom.ru
info@ecocom.ruIcelandic IWC Commissioner,
Mr. S. Asmundsson Director of International Affairs Ministry of Fisheries stefan.asmundsson@sjr.stjr.is
postur@sjr.stjr.is!! Keep the world’s media up-to-date on what we are doing. CC your emails to: foreign.news@thetimes.co.uk !!
To launch an e-mail pre-addressed to all of the above, click here
If you are multi-lingual, please take the time to translate this bulletin into your language and pass it on. Many, many thanks. PS. All of this information is out there in the public domain and therefore it is perfectly legitimate and legal to distribute it for your kind consideration and independent action.
There you have it folks, please get active. Please forward this to your friends, family, contacts and colleagues.
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