Save the whale – frighten your aunt
THE world is drowning in plastic. Scientists in Scotland and Norway have dissected deepsea whales that have died off their coasts and discovered in their intestines astonishing quantities of indigestible plastic bags, which have eventually killed them.
Most of the bags have on them trade markings in Danish and English, showing they contained merchandise bought in supermarkets. Bags that contained what people have bought for their household use have somehow ended up on the bottom of the ocean, where they are eaten by whales who mistake them for the vegetation on which they normally feed.
Meanwhile, other scientists have discovered that micro-plastics – tiny, invisible particles coming from the same source – have begun to enter the food chain. That means molluscs and the fish people eat, and eventually humans themselves, will be part-plastic.
In parts of the oceans, whole islands of plastic are floating – virtually forever unless something is done about it.
Sky News gives prominence to this menace. What is to be done about stopping the discarding of unwanted plastic bags into drains and waterways, which find their way into the sea?
There is surely one swift solution – revert to paper bags in shops and supermarkets. Consumers can reject plastic wrappers.
Is this something for governments to enforce? Or is it a cause calling for consumer power? Refuse to accept plastic bags. Leave your pile of purchases unpaid for on the supermarket counter if they won’t oblige. They’ll soon get the message.
Avante! Avante! The campaign for paper bags. Double value – you can blow ’em up and pop ’em to frighten your aunt!
Killer whales
DING! Ding! Ding! Kos is op die tafel – dinner’s on the table! If deep-sea whales are under threat from plastics, killer whales off Alaska seem to be thriving and behaving like motorcycle gangs.
Alaskan fishermen say they are being “chased out” of the Bering Sea by pods of killer whales – also known as orcas – that appear whenever they make a big catch, then strip their lines of fish.
Fishing boat skippers report losing huge catches of halibut and black cod.
Killer whales were once an infrequent sighting for fishermen in the Bering Sea, according to the Alaska National Post. Now they circle the boat.
Boat co-owner Paul Clampitt says they tried to use sound machines to deter the whales, but before long the orcas got used to the noise.
“It became a dinner bell.”
Banking
INVESTMENT analyst Dr James Greener notes in his latest grumpy newsletter that politicians and their staff are unhelpful in aiding a better public understanding of the topic of banking.
“They assure their constituents that it is possible to change banking so that the wealth stored in the system can be given to the deserving poor. History and mathematics show that this is not possible to achieve sustainably.
“Fortunately, in South Africa we also have constitutional barriers to tinkering with the Reserve Bank and other important institutions. But the rhetoric does fire up the hotheads who phone the spin-masters for another glib phrase to chant as they dance downtown with songs and demands.
“A terrifying pie chart graphic shows that the number of taxpayers is now less than the number of social grant recipients. Of course, the amount of tax paid is far larger than the total amount of grants made, and that difference is used for civil servant salaries, servicing of the national debt and paying the private sector for providing goods and services to the government.
“Since looting grants, salaries and debt repayment would be quickly discovered and very unpopular, pillaging is concentrated in the contracts awarded by tender. A chart illustrating the cash flows in this aspect would be even more scary.”
Tailpiece
A TOP press photographer rushes to a small rural airport to pick up a charter flight the office have hired for him to take pictures of a huge forest fire. A small plane is at the end of the runway warming up. He climbs aboard. “Let’s go, let’s go!” The plane takes off. “Now I want you to fly north of the fire and make several low passes.” “Why?” “So I can get pictures.” A pause. “You mean you’re not the instructor?”
Last word