Do you remember Erich von Däniken? He was that guy who tried to persuade us the statues on Easter Island were made by men from outer space. The truth was altogether more alarming.
The indigenous population of that island followed a religion that required the erection of statues. To transport the stone the statues were made from, wood was required. Quite fortuitous, really, because the island was awash with trees, a veritable forest in the South Pacific.
The snag was, each tribe on the island tried to outdo the other, building ever-bigger statues. Presumably, the island had its own answer to Greenpeace, and some "heretics," warned that the building craze could not last, and yet, even when there was just one tree left, it was knocked down. The end result was, of course, disaster, and the island population imploded.
It's a lesson we should learn, but have we?
No doubt you know the oceans of this “blue planet" are running low on fish. If the global economy was represented by a balance sheet, rather than just by the P&L the IMF and OECD calculate, then it would show sharp falls in capital stock.
Okay, whether you believe we are running out of oil is open to debate, but there can be no doubt that the fish stock is diminishing fast, and no doubt, every year, if it produced balance sheets, the IMF would be announcing more massive write-downs.
But yesterday, the European Union fisheries ministers agreed to allow EU fisherman to catch more fish next year.
Now, a politician who worries about the long-term might be like a fish out of water – but this really does seem to be a horrendous case of short-termism.
But fret not; apparently, fishermen are going to follow "responsible" fishing practice, and follow a voluntary code, which, by the way, carries a financial incentive, of avoiding areas where cod is spawning, and to use fishing gear that is more appropriate.
Part of the problem lies with disgruntled fishermen in Poland, who had been ignoring bans and fishing in the Baltic anyway.
The real tragedy, though, is there had been promising signs, with indicators that the population of young cod has been rising – below the long-term average, of course, but up.
By taking this step, EU ministers have taken a quite appalling short-term measure that will go down in history as a moment of shame.
I spent a year studying MAIB investigations into fishing boat accidents and anyone brave enough to go into the North Sea in winter deserves respect. Whilst fish stocks have been falling for years, over fishing became worse with new Fish Finder sonar technology able to detect shoals underwater.
It isn’t sensible to throw fish back, the logical thing to do is to ban boats from spawning grounds and to insist on vessel position monitoring equipment which in any case is desirable from a safety viewpoint.
Please forgive me Sir, to trouble you many times when you are busy.
Please visit http://www.unittrustguide.com for more information on unit trust industry in Malaysia.