WDC Blog - From the Front Line

So the fin whale stranded in Denmark has made its political point. Whilst thousands of people in Denmark have been following its plight and wishing it well it has astonished rescuers and has started swimming out to sea.

As colleagues at WSPA note, one should contrast this with the attitude of the Danish Government who is trying hard to see as many fin whales killed as possible in Greenland and through the commercial whaling deal.

So where is the accountability of the Danish Government, seems they don't know what they should be doing to represent the views of the Danish peoples

It seems the Faroese answer to a stranded fin whale in Denmark is 'let us eat it'. At the same time the Faroese are putting pressure on the Danish Government to try and get the Danish support for commercial whaling to be extended to them. They want a quota, even if its a zero for now, added to any populations of whales they would like to kill in coming years.

A few days ago a fin whale was reported as stranded on the danish coast. Whilst strandings teams mobilized to see how to rescue this endangered individual that comes from an endangered species, the Faroese have offered their services with a knife and fork.

Ok so this is what Denmark has to put up with, but maybe its an indication that its never going to get better for Denmark. Time to stand up to this constant bullying from the Faroese and let Denmark uphold European law and protect whales.

The more that Denmark is hostage to its colonial past the more it ceases to represent the rest of the mainland Danish peoples.

You can see our arguments about the abuse of Aboriginal Subsistence Whaling on the BBC website

My feeling is that the EU has gotten itself into a farcical situation.

The ludicrous EU voting system means that the Members of the EU who oppose Greenland's proposal to hunt humpback whales can not act in the interests of whale conservation as Denmark has managed to have their hands tied firmly behind their backs. Where now democracy?

Why do species go extinct? Many have gone extinct because they could not adapt quickly enough to changes in their environment. (Recently, we have helped many on their way.)

The big question for our species – the most adaptable species planet Earth has ever seen - is can we adapt quickly enough to address the global-scale damage we have done to our atmosphere. The latest reports from the Copenhagen conference on climate change now indicate that we probably cannot because no deal is going to be sealed there!

Many state leaders are now present. Many celebrities are also in town (Gordon Brown, Boris Johnson, Arnold Swartzeneger and many others and tomorrow Mr Obama arrives for the final day). Many non-governmental bodies are also there. Many are there without a hope of getting into the conference but they obviously feel they should be represented.

Outside the conference center there are reports that protestors are being treated very robustly by the security forces and delegates are even having problems getting into the conference itself.

Inside there is also conflict and an impasse, and people are starting to talk about another year of negotiations being needed.

Ed Miliband, the UK’s Energy and Climate Change Secretary who is leading the negotiations for the UK, said last night that the current position was very dangerous and if the talks failed that ‘people all over the world will be furious and they will be right to be furious’.

There is a lot of confusion about where the problems are. Many commentators are saying that they simply do not know what is going on. This may be one of the perils of having such a large conference with so many people involved.

One particular sticking point, however, is reported to be an objection from the developing countries based on the notion that the existing treaty, the Kyoto Protocol, will be done away with.

Britain had apparently agreed last night at the talks with Australia, France, Japan, Norway and the US to start a major new fund for the purpose of stopping and eventually reversing deforestation in developing countries, as long as there is "an ambitious and comprehensive" outcome in Copenhagen.

UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown said "Unless action is taken, these forests could be lost forever, impacting not only the global climate but on the livelihoods of 90 per cent of the 1.2 billion people living in extreme poverty who rely on forest resources for their survival.”

Sources: The Independent  and BBC Environment Blog

Many websites are bringing blow-by-blow news from the climate conference in Copenhagen. For example the regular updates by the BBC's respected enviornmental correspondant Richard Black's can be found here

We can only stand back and wait as the clock ticks down on an issue that many believe relates directly to the survival of our own species as well as so many others.

Meanwhile we can see unusual alligencies forming as various actors try to make a positive impact on the negotiations. Perhaps the most dramatic of these is the one common editorial published by 56 newspapers in 45 countries in 20 different languages. This is unprecedented. The article starts likes this:

"Unless we combine to take decisive action, climte change will ravage our planet, and with it our prosperity and security. The dangers have been becoming apparent for a generation. Now the facts have started to speak: 11 of the past 14 years have been the warmest on record, the Arctic ice-cap is melting and last year's inflamed oil and food prices provide a foretaste of future havoc. In scientific journals the question is no longer whether humans are to blame, but how little time we have got left to limit the damage. Yet so far the world's response has been feeble and half-hearted."

And it end with these words:

"The politicians in Copenhagen have the power to shape history's judgment on this generation: one that saw a challenge and rose to it, or one so stupid that we saw calamity coming but did nothing to avert it. We implore them to make the right choice."

You can find the full article here.

So as I write this it seems that the rogue US delegation is now trying to strong arm the UK, - blaming the UK for Greenland not getting its unsupportable humpback quota.

Well, well done UK and Germany is what I say, - and where does the US get off in trying such pressure? Both these countries have evaluated the available information supplied by Denmark and found it lacking, both scientifically and politically in its arguments for justifying an increase in the hunt.

Denmark has not been able to persuade the IWC of its case so its using the US to suggest taking the issue into another IWC intersessional meeting to discuss this one issue. It hopes that NGOs and other countries that oppose the quota will not be able to attend and it can slip through proposal through away from prying eyes.

And before any journalists say this shows the IWC is dysfunctional, what it actually shows is what the whalers strategy is.

Lets get an endorsement for a any form of coastal whaling that allows for commercialization. Of course this one is wrapped up in the trappings of ASW language and Sweden and others are pandering to such rhetoric. But of course if the USA and others can get this through then they can deliver Japan its coastal whaling; Heh, they may even be able to justify Iceland joining the EU as a whaler.

On behalf of the whales, thanks for nothing USA.