The Endgame of Entitlement

Ansel Adams, 1902-1984
Timber Cove, California, 1960
American Landscape Photographer

It’s been very busy the last couple of months both personally and globally. Personally, well, I’ll keep that to myself and let you guys use your imagination about that chapter, but globally, the focus has shifted from the war in Afghanistan to the war on the environment.

The BP oil spill is obviously the epicenter of the conflict, and I will be honest with you, I am no expert on the subject and will stake no claim as such, but even a lay person can understand that the basic cause of the spill was human negligence spurred on by the most arrogant of aggressors: greed.

Greed can destroy families, friendships and business deals in the blink of an eye, but the situation here is pandemic and is affecting the world at large. I mean, does the fishing industry even have a future? And what does this mean for the future of the oceans?

Paul Greenberg’s eloquent cover story, Tuna’s End, from Sunday, June 27th, addresses these very same questions with his focus centered on the over fishing of the bluefin tuna, which, by association, includes the entire industry.

“Bluefin tuna and all species of tuna are the living representation of the very limits of the ocean. Their global decline is a warning that we just might destroy our last wild life.”

“Appetites continue to outstrip supply. Global seafood consumption has increased consistently to the point where we now remove more wild fish and shellfish from the oceans every year than the weight of the human population of China.”

I know. My eyes nearly popped out of my head when I read that as well. This backdrop built a very solid platform for the most interesting, if not poignant, aspect of Mr. Greenberg’s article which was the notion of entitlement.

When Greenpeace reached out to Ritchie Notar, a co-owner of the lauded Nobu restaurant chain in 2008, asking him to please consider taking bluefin off the menu, his response was befuddling,

“We are dealing with thousands of years of cultural customs. The Japanese have relied on tuna and the bounties of the sea as part of their culture and history for centuries. We are absolutely appreciative of your goals and efforts within your cause, but it goes without saying that we can not just take what has now all of a sudden been declared an ‘endangered’ species off the menu. It has to do with custom, heritage, and behavior.”

Yes, of course it does. Taken on the whole, this the crux of the article. Just because we have a particular behavior or heritage does not mean we are entitled to maintain these behaviors or customs if the circumstances of the present dictates otherwise; how can we continue to expect what the planet can no longer provide?

The circumstances of today are clearly stating that our sense of entitlement has reached its endgame. The next moves we make as a global community are crucial. Who knows? They could be so crucial that the pendulum could swing in two drastically different directions. If we make poor decisions, it could mean the obliteration of everything we’ve taken for granted, while if we choose wisely, perhaps it could mean the dawning of a renaissance.

Wouldn’t that be grand?

“When BP’s Horizon Deepwater oil rig collapsed into the sea and spewed oil into the only bluefin spawning ground in the Americas, just as the few remaining North American stock giant bluefin were preparing to mate in the Gulf of Mexico.”

Drysdale/Ernest Voller
Minischach
Berlin

“We are all one. The loss of any life only diminishes myself.”
- Jacques Cousteau