Monday's dose of hyperbole

Man, I just love a good "the sky is falling" moment. Today's comes from the always level-headed folks at The Independent and it involves a shakeup at the International Whaling Commission. Now from a little outside reading I've done, it seems that the pro-whaling countries have just flat out bribed their way to a majority on the IWC. The most blatant example seems to be the Japanese -- they sponsor teeny tiny states for membership, pay their dues, and then offer them generous "assistance/development packages" and oh, by the way, these countries always vote in Japan's favor. I know this stuff goes on, but this just seems a little too "out in the open" for me.

Anyway, back to The Independent's falling sky:

The environment movement suffered one of its greatest reverses late last night when pro-whaling countries, led by Japan, gained control of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and immediately began undermining the 20-year-old international whaling moratorium.

Sounds like pretty serious bad news for Willie and his buddies, huh? Er, not quite. A little later in the story:

The simple 51 per cent majority they have now secured will not allow them to scrap the moratorium directly - for that they need a majority of 75 per cent.

Oh, and then there's this admisstion:

The vote is largely symbolic and does not mean an imminent start to commercial whaling.

So one of the environment movement's GREATEST REVERSES in actuality is a symbolic act that in no way affects the current whaling ban?!?! Of course.

Now in all seriousness, I have no doubt Japan and its Scandanavian allies will try to get the maratorium lifted and this vote does show the bloc is gaining power. The wailing and gnashing of teeth, however, seems a mite overblown. Further, not all whales are endangered and while many of us may squirm at the notion of eating the majestic whale, I'm sure Hindus feel the same way about my enjoyment of a Quarter Pounder w/ Cheese. Don't get me wrong, I'm not jonesing to start chomping whale, but I think it's a little ethnocentric to assume it's inherently wrong to do so.

Politically, I'm a fairly strong (by American standards) pro-envirnoment and conservation voter, but I'm not a reflexively evnvironomental voter. I don't immediately assume Sierra Club or Greenpeace has the right answer and I don't think the type of argument offered up by one of the coffee shop partrons this morning justifies the whaling moratorium. She read the story in the paper and said, "But whales are mammals, aren't they?" I replied with, "Yes, and so are cows."

I'm not familiar enough with whale numbers to issue an informed opinion on whether the moratorium should be modified, but I doubt the press (in the non-whaling nations) will perform this analysis. The "ick factor" is just too much.