Posted on 05/17/2010 10:50:46 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
NEW YORK (AFP) – The world faces the nightmare possibility of fishless oceans by 2050 without fundamental restructuring of the fishing industry, UN experts said Monday.
"If the various estimates we have received... come true, then we are in the situation where 40 years down the line we, effectively, are out of fish," Pavan Sukhdev, head of the UN Environment Program's green economy initiative, told journalists in New York.
A Green Economy report due later this year by UNEP and outside experts argues this disaster can be avoided if subsidies to fishing fleets are slashed and fish are given protected zones -- ultimately resulting in a thriving industry.
The report, which was opened to preview Monday, also assesses how surging global demand in other key areas including energy and fresh water can be met while preventing ecological destruction around the planet.
UNEP director Achim Steiner said the world was "drawing down to the very capital" on which it relies.
However, "our institutions, our governments are perfectly capable of changing course, as we have seen with the extraordinary uptake of interest. Around, I think it is almost 30 countries now have engaged with us directly, and there are many others revising the policies on the green economy," he said.
Collapse of fish stocks is not only an environmental matter.
One billion people, mostly from poorer countries, rely on fish as their main animal protein source, according to the UN.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
I agree. The fact that their solutions are almost always control and command based are partially to blame.
Well, I've been recommending Sudan, or perhaps Zimbabwe as potential future locations for the UN...someplace that reflects their values.
Acid Rain, disappearing rainforests, warming, cooling, warming again, yada yada.
I think I will buy an extra fish this weekend. Or maybe have a crawfish broil with fish on the side!
If we kill all of the whales and polar bears, we ought to be able to “hold our own” in eating fish. We aren’t the only predators.
...and the winner of the “Ted Danson No Life Left on Planet Earth by 2009 Award” for 2010 is....
...or just take short positions in Mrs. Paul’s and Long John Silvers....
Can’t we just get the UN to disappear - in four days?
Funny, they said the same thing 40 years ago.
It really sucks, but I agree with ‘em.
Modern fishing is just too efficient. It leaves a desert behind it. It comparable to us getting all of our meat by game drives - we’d wipe out the critter population in the forests in a short time.
Here’s a real environmental problem, unquestionably caused by human overfishing. It’s the same problem we afced on land millennia ago, and solved by onventing agriculture. In response to wild fish depletion, we have already started to farm the most popular species of fish.
So how to liberals react? They urge us to avoid farm-raised fish and hunt for more wild-caught fish!
The latest from the chronic histrionicists.
Exactly!!!! However, I do think fish farms are a needed next step in the supply of fish.
Another shi’ite piece of invented information to scare the dumbest.
I’m torn by this story.
Overfishing is real but I doubt it will wipe out the fish population like the UN claims.
On the other hand, when I visit a sanctuary back home in St. Croix called Buck Island, if you throw a piece of bread into the water the yellow tail snappers appear instantly and feed feverishly like a school of piranha. On any other part of St. Croix where fishing is allowed you don’t see this.
Also when researching this I found that the UN in 2008 was targeting developing countries alone and were also claiming before that that Global Warming would harm the fish population. It seems as if the UN is changing course from Global Warming to overfishing as being the cause.
We used to call the UN the communist and cannibal club.
That could be tomorrow, if our Congress and President would order them out of the U.S.A. now.
This ‘no fish future’ is bull crap.
It is more of the same power-grab by a non-elected global organization hell bent on dominating the world and eliminating self-determination by the world’s people.
I’ve got an idea, take all people involved with the un and dump them in the ocean, fish food for a couple of days anyway.
I haven’t been to the Caribbean or Gulf for a few years.. some great spots down there for sure.. if hurricanes don’t mess with them too bad..
The UN has many tentacles&issues left even after global varming got outed bigtime. what next? 8-?
UN Expert is an oxymoron, like jumbo shrimp.
They need to push the two words closer together, the “unexperts.”
“That’s what Cousteau and the libs were telling us in 1972.
Anybody know what year it is now?”
In 2 years it’ll be 40 years...Oh no 2012!!!!! The ancient Mayans were right once again!!!!!
;-)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.