Cat Stevens: King of a Land
If I was a king of a land
I’d free every woman and man
I’d let them go
I’d set them free to serve You
If I knew every fish in the sea
And every bird in the tree
I’d hear their call
I’d hear them speak Your name
If I ran the schools of this world
I’d teach every boy and girl
I’d let them learn the truth
I’d let them know Your glory
If I had the stairs to the sky
(If I had the stairs to the sky)
I’d raise my voice up there high
(Raise my voice up thеre high)
I’d want the world to hear
Your pеrfect words and thank You
If I had a mountain of gold
I’d try to feed every poor soul
And give them hope again
And let them taste Your bounty
If I could reach every dream
I still would search the unseen
To find a way
That leads us to Your mercy
If I was a king of a land
(If I was a king of a land)
I’d free every woman and man
(Free every woman and man)
I’d let them go
I’d set them free to serve You
This post is being published on Saturday 6th May 2023… the day the Coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla is taking place at Westminster Abbey in London.
Wouldn’t it be great if Cat Steven’s lyrics were echoed by the actions of the kings and queens of the world?
Thanks Cat — you’ve always been a favourite and an inspiration!
Your Name on the Arctic Sunrise
It belongs to all of us.
Don’t let them destroy it.
PUT YOUR NAME ON THE ARCTIC SUNRISE – HERE
Help protect this important and unique environment and its inhabitants by supporting Greenpeace with a donation to help fund their work. After months without proper maintenance while in Russian custody, their ship the Arctic Sunrise requires a thorough overhaul and refitting including the replacement of equipment removed by the Russian authorities.
The Arctic Sunrise so when she sails into the sunrise, we all sail with her.
People who care about the planet believe that there should be a global sanctuary in the Arctic, which will help preserve its unique wildlife and habitat and allow the Arctic to continue to help stabilise the world’s climate.
More Information Available on SaveTheArctic.org
Why does the Melting of the Arctic Sea Ice Matter to Me?
More info on SavetheArctic.org
Rosneft is a massive Russian company whose pipelines spill over 2,000,000 tons per year. Now it’s moving into Arctic waters, where it plans to build over 100 rigs.
Together with Exxon, Rosneft plans to drill in an area overlapping the Russian Arctic National park, a sanctuary for polar bears, walrus and narwhals.
The Arctic could be devastated.
All for a few last drops of oil.
Environmental Activist
As an exemplary environmental activist, The Arctic Sunrise has taken part in campaigns and protests across the world, from withing 450 miles of the North Pole, to Antarctica’s Ross Sea, and it has Navigated both the Congo and the Amazon rivers, raising awareness of issues threatening the areas. Among other things, it has campaigned to stop whaling, taken part in protests in support of sustainable fishing, taken action to stop North Sea trawlers fishing cod towards extinction and campaigned against the Star Wars weapons programme.
The Arctic Sunrise is classified as a “1A1” Icebreaker – the second highest ice strengthening notation at the time of her construction in 1975. She was originally used as a seismic survey vessel, named Polarbjørn (“polar bear”) and was later used by the French Government. Greenpeace purchased the ship in 1995, having resorted to forming a “shell company” called “Arctic Sunrise Ventures Ltd” through which it made the purchase as the previous Norwegian owners had refused to sell the ship to Greenpeace.
Read More
Paul Snelgrove: Making Ocean Life Count
“How inappropriate to call this planet Earth when it is quite clearly Ocean.”
— Arthur C. Clark
The world’s first comprehensive Census of Marine Life — past, present, and future — was released in 2010 in London, at the same time that Paul Snelgrove released his book: Discoveries of the Census of Marine Life: Making Ocean Life Count.
The Census of Marine Life was started by two scientists who realised that the Oceans were in trouble and we were doing nothing about it.
Planet Ocean
Although the oceans cover some 70% of our planet, providing more habitat than all other habitat combined, and produce about half of the new life everyday on earth as well as about half of the oxygen that we breathe, we know more about the surface of the Moon and about Mars than we do about the oceans
The Census project was undertaken by a global network of 2700 scientists from more than 80 nations who engaged in a 10-year scientific initiative assess and explain the diversity, distribution, and abundance of life in the global ocean.
The three main components of the census were organised around the questions:
What has lived in the oceans?
What does live in the oceans?
What will live in the oceans?
They wanted to construct the history of marine animal populations since human predation became important – roughly the last 500 years. The Roman development of salting fish as a means of preservation changed fishing patterns from one of purely catching “the meal for the day” to industrial scale fishing.
New Technologies
The study examined and used new technologies to explore unknown species and habitats, migration routes and distribution patterns, how the oceans are changing and what we can expect from them in the future.
New technologies facilitated research, remotely operated vehicles combined with satellite communication enabled distant scientists to participate in scientific investigations thousands of miles away, and the new science of genetic bar coding , developed by geneticists enabled the exact recognition of fish species.
Results have been quite astounding, with 4-5 new species from the ocean being described each day. The information has proved extremely valuable already in many ways, for example, scientists in the Gulf of Mexico had just taken a census of species in the gulf which proved very useful when the Gulf Oil Spill happened , to establish a clear idea of how marine life in the area had been affected.
Paul Snelgrove gives a fascinating talk supported by illuminating graphics and astounding photographs.
Read MoreCitarum River: the Pollution of Paradise
Once a peaceful waterway rich in fish and waterside wildlife, where local villagers caught fish and used its waters to irrigate rice paddies, the Citarum River in West Java in Indonesia is a living (or dying) example of how much damage humans seem to be willing to cause to their environment.
Today it has the reputation of being one of the most polluted river in the world, and villagers who can no longer catch fish in it, pick through the pollution that carpets it, to try to earn a living.
25 million people in western Java rely on the river for drinking water and irrigation as the Citarum River traverses its 269 kilometers, passing through nine regencies and three cities. Of the 25 million people who depend on the river, 10 million live along its banks, split more or less evenly between urban and rural residents
Pollution to the river escalated with the rapid industrialisation of this area in the 1980’s, but many factories had been pouring toxic waste into its waters for generations before that.
One of the companies polluting the river,the Chisso Corporation’s chemical factory dumped industrial wastewater containing methyl mercury, into the river from 1932 to 1968. Toxins built up in fish which were a mainstay of the local diet.
The damaging effects on humans from rivers polluted by heavy metals can sometimes take years to manifest. Symptoms include numbness in hands and feet, general muscle weakness, narrowing of the field of vision and damage to hearing and speech.
In some cases insanity, paralysis, coma and death follow within weeks of the onset of symptoms.
“By March 2001, 2,265 victims had been officially recognized with 1,784 fatalities,and over 10,000 receiving financial compensation from the company. By 2004, the company had paid US$86 million in compensation, and in the same year was ordered to clean up its contamination.”
— one of the disturbing elements of the above story taken from the Jackarta Post, is that the company appears to have only been told to clean up its act in 2004 after paying out millions in compensation and after more than 70 years of poisoning the river.
Read MoreThe End of the Line
An Ocean Without Fish
Imagine an ocean without fish. Imagine your meals without seafood. Imagine the global consequences. This is the future if we do not stop, think and act.
“The End of the Line” was the first major documentary film to reveal the devastating effects of overfishing on our oceans and to show the direct effects of our global love affair with fish as food.
It examines the imminent extinction of bluefin tuna, brought on by the growing western demand for sushi, the impact this has on marine life, such as the huge overpopulation of jellyfish and the profound implications of a future with no fish which would result in mass starvation for many across the globe.
Filmed over a two year period it documented investigative reporter Charles Clover as he confronted politicians and celebrity restaurant owners who expressed little interest in the damage they are doing to the oceans.
One of his allies in his investigations is the whistle-blower Robert Mielgo, a former tuna farmer intent on exposing those involved in destroying the world’s magnificent bluefin tuna population.
The film travels right across the globe, from the Straits of Gibraltar to the coasts of Senegal and Alaska to the Tokyo fish market. It features top scientists, indigenous fishermen and fisheries enforcement officials. The End of the Line is a wake-up call to the world.
The End of Seafood by 2048
Scientists predict that if we continue fishing as we are now, we will see the end of most seafood by 2048
The End of the Line chronicles how high-tech fishing vessels leave no escape routes for fish populations, how farmed fish as a solution is a myth and how the demand for cod off the coast of Newfoundland in the early 1990s led to the decimation of the most abundant cod population in the world.
The responsibility lies with consumers who innocently buy endangered fish, politicians who ignore the advice and pleas of scientists, fishermen who break quotas and fish illegally, and a global fishing industry that is slow to react to an impending disaster.
The End of the Line shows that there are solutions that are simple and doable, but political will and activism are crucial if this is to be solved.
We need to protect large areas of the ocean through a network of marine reserves which are off limits to fishing, to educate consumers that they have a choice by purchasing fish from independently certified sustainable fisheries and to control fishing by reducing the number of fishing boats across the world
Global Campaign
The End of the Line premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2009 and was used to launch a global campaign for citizens to demand better marine policies.
Charles Clover, the book’s author said, “We must stop thinking of our oceans as a food factory and realize that they thrive as a huge and complex marine environment.
We must act now to protect the sea from rampant overfishing so that there will be fish in the sea for our grandchildren and great-grandchildren.”
“Overfishing is the great environmental disaster that people haven’t heard about,” said producer George Duffield.
“A recent global conference about bluefin tuna stocks saw almost no media coverage in the U.S. We hope this film really sounds the alarm. We can fix this problem starting right now.”
“Reading the book The End of the Line changed my life and what I eat. I hope the film will do the same for others,” said producer Claire Lewis.
How the film was financed
The End of the Line is a leading example of the new wave of documentary. It is an independent film – made outside the established broadcasting structure.
It is a campaigning film which aims to change the world by engaging large public audiences in a political issue. And it is a project which is integrated with the work of NGOs and progressive companies to achieve this change.
The film’s financing is an example of the new model of funding: with cornerstone funding from the UK’s Channel 4 BRITDOC Foundation, the vast bulk of the finance came from not-for-profit foundations in the UK and the USA.
In the UK the cinema release of the film was supported financially by Waitrose – a major UK retailer.
The film has received financial support from: The Waitt Family Foundation, Marviva, The Oak Foundation, Channel 4 BRITDOC Foundation, WWF, The Weston Foundation, The Clore Foundation, The Marine Conservation Society, AD Charitable Trust, GD Charitable Trust, Waterloo Foundation and Oceana.
Read More