What a difference a day makes. Yesterday, dead calm. Today, anything but. Back to 20 knot winds, coming at me out of the south, which is not really what I want at this stage. So I’ve been busy rowing, but to remarkably little effect.

The rougher water meant I haven’t seen any fish today, apart from an acrobatic leap by one individual about twenty feet away from my boat. Yesterday it was so calm that looking down into the water was like looking into an aquarium. I could easily see these three chaps mooching around slowly and serenely down below.

So now I need another ID. If the handsome chap last week, with the distinctive yellow dorsal fin was (duh!) a yellowfin tuna, then what are these? Are they also tuna, but of a different variety?

Other Stuff:

Today I finished “The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency (Book 1)” by Alexander McCall Smith. Very different from “Corduroy Mansions”, being set in Botswana rather than Pimlico, but equally good. Lovely characters, and a gentle little slice of Africa.

Now I’m onto “The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals“, by Michael Pollan. After this, Fast Food Nation, Food Inc, and Supersize Me, it will be a miracle if I ever manage to find anything in America that I can eat without the deepest suspicion. The sooner we all wise up and start growing our own, and/or supporting farmers’ markets, the happier I will be.

Seems to me that when reconsidering our relationship with our planet, food is as good a place to start as any. While there are many things it is hard for us to control, we can (with very few exceptions) control what we eat. And if we all made well-informed decisions, we would reap huge benefits – both for our health and the health of the Earth.

Cynthia – the books you recommended, by Derrick Jensen, sound excellent. I have made a note of the titles and will follow up when on dry land.

Pippa – thanks for the good news about the Aussie carbon tax, and for the stern looks directed current-wards!

David Tangye – good to hear from you. Not so good to hear the general reaction to the carbon tax. Given Australia’s recent bumper crop of “natural” disasters, I thought there might have been more support.

Gloria in Iowa – thanks for the words of encouragement. And welcome to my blog!

Michael – you’re right that we humans have been predicting the end of the world for almost as long as we have been in existence. However, many factors have changed quite dramatically in the last 40-50 years, and I cannot see how our current path can be sustainable. Maybe the time has finally come for the man in the sandwich boards!

Thanks, Stephanie, for the order of the Diana Gabaldon books. Looks like I have books 1-4 and 7, but not 5 and 6. Doh! And you say laird Jamie “disappears”? There’s a tease! Thanks for not spoiling the ending for me!

Quote for the day: “I have developed a new philosophy – only dread one day at a time.” (Charlie Brown)

Sponsored Miles:
James Borleis, Megan Lutz, Paul Nordquist and some anonymous miles. Thanks to you Roz has regained lost ground and is further west than she had been before the current swept her backwards.

30 Comments

  • “Well informed decisions” to be sure, Roz; so education of the masses?
    There’s an article from the Daily Telegraph by a chap named Mark Lynas, giving another view on the chrisis, although the views expressed therein are not necessarily those of this author;-) 
    Titled “Geo-engineering, nuclear power and climate change: playing God is good for the planet”, it  can be googled  I thought some people may be interested to see the view from another angle? Like your new friend ‘downstairs’ Roz, looking up at your craft.
    By the way, philosophy Friday next week coincides with an Australian charity Lifeline “Stress Down Day”, so here’s wishing everyone less stress.
    Go well Roz.

  • It’s a Mahi Mahi. I caught one while charter fishing in Hawaii a few years ago. They’re delicious.

  • That fish looks like dorado!, just looks!!
    Los de aquí en Baja California Mexico son muy cabezones y si, dicen que son muy sabrosos,
    Roz, te felicito por tu coraje y tenacidad!!  

  • I like your idea about starting with “food”.  “Food” is one of the handful of real
    necessities, and the ramifications of getting, or not getting, good food
    spreads (like the ripples in a pond) into a myriad of other important issues
    (human physical and mental development, healthcare, social and cultural
    development, even war and peace).  But I
    think it’s more complicated than just “Grow your own food”, because most people
    don’t have the land, or the time, to be able to do that.  And maybe the bigger problem is that the
    “food industry” has been taken over by the same “drug pushers” (meaning:
    highly-paid and often highly-educated industry executives who do things for
    economic payoffs rather than for any “social good” reasons) who have brought us
    a slew of other “addictive” things (tobacco, artificial sweeteners, etc) which
    have ruined people’s health, while enriching the bank accounts of the “drug
    pushers”.  Go into any grocery store,
    nowadays, and you’ll see how little real food is in there, compared with aisles
    and aisles of boxed and packaged garbage that has little value for people’s health.  If you seriously want to “take real food back”,
    it’s going to actually mean a war against this industry, which has many
    advantages already going for it (patent and other legal protections for its
    genetically modified seeds, the economics of poor people being unable to afford
    “real food” and having to settle for packaged slop which is detrimental to
    their health, the destruction of small farms and the substitution of
    corporate-farming, etc.)  It’s not just “by
    accident” that the food industry is in such a state of chaos.  It’s actually “by design” because some people
    have been getting very wealthy by destroying the availability of real food, and
    instead substituting the packaged garbage that now passes for food.  You want to fix the environment?  Start here, with the food industry.

    • I fear, Rico, that you have things backwards. Consumers decide what to consume; manufacturers merely provide what the consumers want. A few places in the US have forbidden the sale of certain types of food and the consumers complain that it’s not governments role to tell them what they may or may not eat.

      The problem is lack of suitable education, but too much time is wasted on “educating” children in how to avoid upsetting people and not enough on practical matters. I buy PepsiCola because I like it occasionally – maybe as often as once a week – and will complain loudly if anyone tries to stop me.

      • This sounds like a debate not over food, but over the issue of “How much freedom should be allowed in a Democracy?”  Does living in a democracy mean that you should be allowed to do anything you want?  Or are there limits to the rights of individuals, that are necessary for the good of the nation, or national security, or whatever?  If there are limits, then “where” exactly should those limits be placed, so as to best balance the rights of the individuals and the good of the nation?  To use an extreme example, if people just want to sit around and “do drugs” all day long, do we let them?  Well, no, obviously not, and we have laws governing drugs, because their unbridled and unlimited use would be bad for the nation.  So if other things are bad for the nation (a population that is perpetually “sick” from eating crap-for-food), where do you draw the line on this?  Or do you really believe that “the pursuit of happiness” means you should be allowed to do anything you want, with no interference from government?  Anyway, this conversation should probably be kept for Philosophy Friday, because it also gets into the topic of “If corporations want to destroy the environment for their own personal profit, why should anyone object?”  Corporations are “people” too, in a democracy, and they therefore have the right to do whatever they want.  Right?  If it’s all about individual liberties, then corporations have the right to act in whatever manner they want.  But if it’s not all about individual rights, but rather about “balancing the rights of all of the participants in a nation”, well then that’s a different story.  And it might require a “policeman” (meaning: government) of some kind to tell people that “Yes, you can do this”, or “No, you can’t do that.”

        • It’s not philosophy; it’s politics. And corporations are not “people” in the laws of any country that I know of. Also, I did not mention the pursuit of happiness and you overlook the fact that “government” is not the only authority either in the USA or anywhere else.

        • As to your question:”How much freedom should be allowed in a democracy” the answer is self-evident: As much as the voters choose. Any other answer implies something that is not a democracy.

      • Actually John . . . the manufacturers do drive consumption through their advertising.  It is through their advertising that they make products (food or otherwise) seem trendy, must have, desirable, etc.  Do kids need McDonald’s Happy Meals ™?  Of course not . . . but they have done a pretty good job of convincing both the kids and parents that they do.  I could go on and on with examples but I think the point is clear, that companies *do* drive demand.

        • They don’t drive consumption; they respond to demand. Of course they advertise; so do all businesses. People still have free will. It’s better education that’s needed, not some government telling people what to do or retailers what they should offer. Do you really want some elected politician deciding what you should or should not buy? If the government controls the health-care industry they may well do that to control costs.

  • Roz –

    Regret it’s not Tony the tuna, but more like Marly the mahi mahi a.k.a. Dorothy the dorado or a.k.a. Dolly the dolphinfish! They are very beautiful with irridescent skin. Have to admit they are quite tasty too.

    Vince

  • Oh, you early risers always get a jump on my fish IDs!  It does indeed look like a mahimahi, Roz.

    Laird Jamie doesn’t really disappear, just the yummy series ends.  :[

    Wayne and I are walking the Relay for Life tonight, and then we start planning an ocean conservancy cleanup on two beaches for September 17th.  Guess to whom we send all the lighters that we find??  

    Keep rowing!  And hugs to your mom.

  • Roz, several weeks ago (just before the Mothers Day iMatterMarch.org events) I mentioned Alec Loorz’s intentions to sue the governments in every state. Today, I learned that this coming Wednesday Alec and his mother Victoria, as co-petitioners on behalf of Kids-vs-Global-Warming.com will have a hearing before the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality.  This is the second hearing in a long list to be held across the nation.

    The Petition builds the legal case in summary:

    “For the promulgation of a rule to strictly limit and regulate fossil fuel carbon dioxide emissions,and to establish an effective emissions reduction strategy that will achieve an atmospheric concentration no greater than 350 ppm of carbon dioxide by 2100.” 

    Rozlings may visit http://ourchildrenstrust.org/node/93 for more information and download the Petition at http://bit.ly/KidsOKpetDEQ 

    Reading the petition is bitter sweet.  It’s like finally brining to justice somebody who has perpetrated a horrific crime, but having to hear the details of the crime.

    There are 102 paragraphs in the 36-page peetition, which clearly lay out the case, mostly scientific, but also based on legal precident.The final paragraph reads as follows:

    “102. The shared atmosphere is a natural resource vital to human health, welfare, and survival.  Atmospheric health is essential to all survival.  Our atmosphere is a fundamental natural resource entrusted to the care of our governments, and the State of Oklahoma, to be held in trust, for its preservation and protection as a common property interest.  As a co-tenant trustee of this shared asset the State of Oklahoma has a fiduciary, and perpetual, affirmative duty to preserve and protect the atmosphere for the present citizens and future generations of the State of Oklahoma as beneficiaries of this trust asset.”

    I am feeling very satisfied that these legal cases are beginning to be presented … this is historic!

    Row with satisfaction, Roz!

  • Your chap is a dorado, also known as a dolphin fish. I have been following this blog since Fremantle and I didnt expect a tretise by Descartes. What happened to the adventure of fellows like Shackleton. Today’s “adventurers”
    encase themselves in a luxury carbon fibre cocoon, feet up, feasting on gourmet high tech meals, calling Mummy on the Sat phone while waitng for the Tradewinds to blow them across the Ocean. Really, I was expecting exciting rollovers and pitchpoles, attacks by massive sharks and what do we hear – whining because one of the six iPods has gone down!
                                                                              Jonathan.

    • Hi Jonathan, this voyage has been far tougher for Roz – and for myself – than the previous four. We are extremely grateful that the problems have not been any worse. 

  • Well said Julianhapel!!!…..I must find out more about “stress down day”…is there  a similar charity in the UK I wonder?  Stress is the insiduous modern ailment of the so called “sophisticated” society?  Much underated as a source of physical and mental demise in modern “living”..rush , rush, meet a target, then another, grab some “convenience” food, get a bigger house, travel faster, get “rich” etc etc etc.
    Roz you are , as it has been said many times, an INSPIRATION!!
    I hope your words and efforts to promote a more “wholesome ” attitude to the planet spread far and wide. If anyone knows the meaning of real stress …you must!
    Hoping for calm waters and inner peace for the days and weeks ahead,
    David

  • “The sooner we all wise up and start growing our own, and/or supporting farmers’ markets, the happier I will be.”  AMEN Roz!  Although Monsanto, and many other BIG Chemical companies have so much control over our Congress and especially USDA and FDA, that we are losing ground instead of eating healthier! 

  • I hate to waste your time. That fish is a dolphin. Notice I said fish, as the other type is a  mammal. As tasty as the fish may be, I no longer eat them and here is why.  When they mature, they take a mate. One day while trolling off shore for game fish to tag and release, a good size female was taken and kept for dinner.  Within  minute or so her mate jumped close to port and fixed us with such  cold stare that I could do little but head in with a sick feeling that all was not well. Turned out that ill feeling was spot on. I’ll not waste your  time in the telling, as I’m still here as are the members of the crew. The boat?  The boat bums the Bahama Bank; dropping this and that as needed by the people who have no place to go.

  • Roz– it’s been forever but I follow you religiously! Omnivore’s dilemma is the reason I became a vegetarian and was inspired to read all Michael Pollan’s other books. Botany of Desire is another favorite. Also on other environmental news, I’ve been accepted as an Agent of Change to represent the US youth at COP 17 for the UNFCCC in Durban in the fall! Will you be there?

    Am so happy you are doing well and hope to see you in South Africa.
    Katherine

  • Roz, I catch you when I can….I sit here and try to imagine these giant waves…you going up and down, strapped to your bunk. It just blows my mind, Girlfriend. WOW what you are doing is so awesome. A million trillion thanks to you from all of us. I hope you bring thousand-folds of attention to this cause. You rock. Blessings to you, Roz, out on that lonely sea…..May The Good Lord be with you! Erin in Wisconsin

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