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TechnoratiThe 'End of the Line' for the World's Oceans
Public Support Creation of Marine Nature Reserve
More than four fifths of people support the introduction of a nature reserve in our seas to protect stocks of fish, according to a survey published today on World Oceans Day.
The poll came ahead of the launch of a film, The End Of The Line, which reveals the impacts of overfishing on the world's oceans.
The documentary, by journalist Charles Clover, claims that industrial fishing is emptying the seas of fish, destroying the livelihoods of poor fishermen in places such as Africa and killing wildlife accidentally caught in the process.
And as fisheries ministers are accused of failing to tackle the problems, demand for species such as blue fin tuna, including from top restaurant Nobu, is driving the species closer to the brink of extinction than the white rhino, say campaigners.
The film has been described as the equivalent of Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth for fishing, and is being backed by a wide range of green groups including Greenpeace, WWF and the Wildlife Trusts, and retailers such as Waitrose.
Meanwhile, actress Greta Scacchi is launching her own initiative to help save the world's fish stocks.
She is working with London-based Japanese restaurant Soseki and photographer Rankin to take images of celebrities holding fish for a poster campaign.
Richard E. Grant, Emilia Fox, Terry Gilliam, Lenny Henry and O.T. Fagbenle have already participated.
Scacchi, who starred in White Mischief in 1988, said: "The first round of images are very striking - weird, witty, very saucy and some sensual.
"I have always made environmental issues a priority but recently I have been alerted to the urgency and importance of the effect of over-fishing.
"Nothing prepared me for the impact of Charles Clover's documentary. I came out of the screening shaken by the gravity of the situation."
The campaign will be launched at a celebrity party tonight at Soseki, opposite the Gherkin in the City of London.
A survey by the Co-operative, asking customers to vote at the tills on the chip and pin consuls, found that 83 per cent of the 360,000 people polled were in favour of highly protected marine reserves.
According to the retailer, evidence shows an increase of some 446 per cent in the amount of sealife found in reserves where fishing is banned compared to unprotected areas, while the benefits spill over into nearby waters - boosting productivity for fishermen.
Some scientists have warned that globally, without action to bring in marine reserves and stop the most destructive forms of fishing, the world's fisheries could all collapse by 2048.
As The End Of The Line was released, Mr Clover warned overfishing of the world's oceans ranked beside climate change as one of the biggest problems facing humans this century.
Mr Clover said: "The issue of overfishing isn't just something for the most junior minister in the cabinet and EU - it's one of the world's most important problems and it's the big problem on 70% of the Earth's surface."
"The world needs to understand over-fishing ranks up there beside climate change, human overpopulation and food security as one of the four big problems facing the present century.
"We're going to have to start managing large abundant fish populations for healthy oceans, rather than hunting down the last fish and then moving onto the next species."
The RSPB said that in addition to damaging fish stocks, industrial fishing was killing at least 300,000 birds a year, and threatening 18 out of 22 species of albatross with extinction.
The Co-op and Marine Conservation Society are backing calls for some 30% of the UK's seas to be included in a network of highly protected marine reserves under the Marine Bill which comes before the Commons this week.
MCS director Dr Simon Brockington said: "Our seas have taken a battering over the last century, but they may be amazingly forgiving.
"By offering much needed protection to important areas of our seas now, we could still ensure a diverse and productive future".
Dr Helen Phillips, chief executive of the Government's conservation agency Natural England, said the Marine Bill would "provide a once in a lifetime opportunity to rescue this incredibly precious resource from additional harm, to recover its fish stocks and to help the fishing industry move towards a more sustainable footing for the future".
She added: "As the End of the Line shows, this level of protection cannot come quickly enough if we are to avert an environmental disaster on an unprecedented scale."
But industry body Seafish urged the Government to acknowledge the role of British fishermen in the Marine Bill for their contribution to the economy, leading the way globally on sustainability and ensuring food supplies in a world of growing food insecurity.
37 Comments so far
Show AllAren't we great at destroying just about everything??? Homo Sapiens to Homo Stupidus to Homo Exctinctus.
money money money. it never ends! maybe its time for soylent green dig?
THE SEAS
To sit here and read and to hear of the cancers that plague the seas of the world .
Cancers , dead zones , can anyone tell the difference , except for bodies , one miniscule and the other earth wide and eons old ?
Where can the life in the sea go to get respect and some much needed TLC?
The one predator that is beyond control and that one can be found in the mirrors of Homo Sapiens who will see.
In a symbiotic relationship that has gone from needs for all life to the needs and wants of the one species.
What will be left for the next generation or the next? Will we make science fiction truth and leave nothing but feces?
snydly
The "...biggest problem facing humans today..." is the
CORPORATION.
THE CORPORATION WILL BE THE DEATH OF CIVILIZATION.
Sustainability and ecology do not enter into their computations.
STRIP CORPORATIONS OF LEGAL "PERSONHOOD"!!
Are you reading the posts or just posting your opinion?
It's not really your opinion by the way - the whole "Humans as a species" story. History is taught to us as tiny little impressionable children to marginalize if not outright ignore all humans that came before civilization. So, you've learned the domesticate lesson well. A-plus.
I wish I could charge people a buck each time they chalk up our species, humanity, mankind (little patriarchy too?) as being only the humans of the last 10 thousand years rather than the much longer legacy that our ancestors left us prior to domestication. It's ignorant in a sorta willful kinda way. It's calculated. Ignore the nature based humans that lived for hundreds of thousands of years and only talk of our species as those of us who are no longer wild. It's pretty sad when someone follows up a sentiment such as mine in this post with something that just keeps repeating the mantra: humans don't deserve to exist, mankind is by nature, greedy, violent, selfish, nasty, brutish, short. Ad naseum.
Progressive my eye.
That story is old, debunked, out of date, and completely inaccurate. If we wish to be cutting edge, progressive, we need be a bit more vigiliant about how up to date the stories, myths, and ideas are that we believe in and present in a rather less-than-mindful kinda way- sorta spread them around like fermented manure in a garden.
I'm gonna start charging now. $$$$$ A buck a pop $$$$$
Humans, as a species, are simply too stupid to save themselves, much less any part of the environment that makes their lives possible.
Kiss it goodbye.
Here's an excellent interview that talks about resources very clearly:
http://briarpatchmagazine.com/2008/07/21/its-tremendous-fun-to-fight-back-an-interview-with-derrick-je...
"Resources don’t actually exist: salmon don’t consider themselves a fishery resource, and trees don’t consider themselves timber resources. They’re just trees and they’re just fish."
Thanks.
-Glen
"Instead of bemoaning the loss of this abundant resource..."
This is just what I mean about the disconnect between non-human life and humans. Life is not a resource to be exploited and capitalized upon.
I bemoan the incredible loss of life, divesity and wholeness if the biosphere. Not the loss of a "resource" that I can kill, consume, and throw away only to move on to the next population of species to then repeat the same usary relationship.
"Humans are funny animals and mostly are a fluke of the universe and have no right to be here..."
I couldn't disagree more. This sentiment can only be in reference to civilized humans. Pre-civ humans have been around for a shit-load longer amount of time than us domesticates. To just throw in the towel because of what domesticated humans do is to completely dismiss hundreds of thousands of years of nature based human life.
Oh yes. Screw them. They didn't know nuthin'...We're the smart ones...
I would also submit that this, we're not worthy, type attitude fits into the biblical story that man is inherently evil, bad, and needs redemption. Drop the friggin' story already! It's old and lame. And beneath us as a species. It's self-deprecation at best. It's a cop-out, and it's excuse making for continuing to do nothing for alas, it's in our nature to destroy everything and we just can't help it. Get over it already!
I don't know how many times I will feel the need to point out that the "human nature" tape that gets played so often is false. I wish folks would quit playing it because it just ain't so.
Hobbes died a long time ago, but the damage is done. Time to fix that...
Thanks.
-Glen
"Life is not a resource to be exploited and capitalized upon."
Tell that to the religious freaks who dote on every word in their favorite "book of the lord".
Instead of bemoaning the loss of this abundant resource, let's get ready for what is next. The experiment in opposable thumbs is over, it failed. Before 2040 the last fish and chips will be served and the oceans will support a huge population of jelly fish. Great management there folks. Nope we deserve what we get and it will be a show, so get your popcorn and chairs ready coming soon to a planet near you, extinction level event.
What will it be? Your guess is as good as mine, but nothing and I mean nothing will stop this from happening. Humans are funny animals and mostly are a fluke of the universe and have no right to be here, so get ready and pack your bags because we are getting off of this planet sooner rather than later. Have a nice day.
Someone was speaking about how ownership causes us to work for money. I understand your point. (dubet).
One thing that has also contributed to the slave-type life style is the mass production line. Now, of course, many will disagree, especially when considering what autoworkers make(made)-and not that I begrudge them that pay, no way.
But the whole consumer society things was brought or able to be brought about by the mass production line. Ford invented this right? ( I think so.) Anyway, it's consumerism and keeping up with the jones' that keeps us in slavery.
Think about this.If we were still working cottage industry, would we be a throw away society? I doubt it. One would cherish what one produced. Craftmanship would still be worth something. Guilds and apprenticehips would abound.
I'll bet the oceans would not be full of garbage.
Let's all quit commercial fishing and become pirates.
That's better for the environment, more colorful and
that's what most commerce is anyway. Yo, ho, ho!
Native Tribes had prophecies of these things long before the French guy talked about these things. Long before Columbus even sailed.
And here we all are now. Time sure flys while your having fun. Put two human beings together & sparks will fly eventually.
Life is good. What an experience! It's always best to forgive.
"The world needs to understand over-fishing ranks up there beside
climate change,
human overpopulation and
food security
as one of the four big problems facing the present century."
Cannabis agriculture is A SOLUTION to be considered. Relevant to all three issues mentioned above. Protein production determines carrying capacity. Hemp is the only common seed with three essential fatty acids and is also the best available source of vegetable protein on the planet.
Over the past twenty years I've written that more than a thousand times.
No one seems interested in Cannabis solutions. Could it be that humans simply lack the balls to save the planet, by standing up to prohibitionist governments?
Too bad...
When I was younger the world population was at 2 billion. Now it is over 6 billion and out of control. We are metastizing into the blob that is eating our earth and all its resources. Population control and the switch to mainly a vegetarian diet may save us. It is not industrial fishing that is to blame, it is the demands from everyone of us.
I agree with you in regards to human population growth. That really is the crux of the issue. Alas, it unfortunately is also something of a sacred untouchable cow in the minds of many. We cannot seem to get over the hump that says babies are good, and we cannot deny people the right to have them. Instead we do quite the opposite -- we encourage them to reproduce, in many ways.
What if instead of getting a tax credit for every child in your brood, you instead got hit with a tax penalty? What if you were penalized by having to pay more in taxes for schools (which you children need) for every child you spawned? People would scream that you are punishing children for the reproductive practices of their parents, despite the fact that every child someone adds to the planet becomes yet another user of resources, whether it be diapers, education, water, or whatever.
On the issue of a vegetarian/vegan diet, I can also agree that it is a step in the right direction, but only a step. That alone will not "save us." One can be a vegetarian yet consume packaged vegetable products trucked in from foreign companies, foreign countries, packaged in plastic, etc. In other words, unless you don't grow it yourself, or purchase from local growers in some environmentally friendly fashion, you may actually be less enviro-friendly than your neighbor that eats meat (assuming he raised his own livestock).
The real problem is well described here:
http://www.storyofstuff.com/
The problem is stuff. The mass production of stuff produced with "externalized costs" etc. While it is true that by choosing to consume this "stuff" we contribute to the chain of events that causes more of it to be produced, more environmental degradation, more labor exploitation, etc., we cannot expect people to return to an 18th-19th century agrarian economy. We need to find ways to encourage less consumption. That can be done through the tax code, education and many other ways.
We also need to find more sustainable ways to produce things, but I feel this can really be done now, it's just that the "free market" price pressures make environmentally friendly sustainable production non-competitive. Something needs to be done to level the playing field.
Unfortunately, business lobbyists and the government (not to mention gluttonous, ignorant, and misguided consumers) will fight such efforts tooth and nail. Try to deny a 300-lb. grocery shopper his bag of Cheetos and his 99-cent a lb. ground beef. The food-industrial complex, aided by Rush Limbaugh and an army of people who think they cannot live without their Cheetos would be demanding their congresscritter supports the "Freedom of Cheetos" legislation within one press cycle.
So I harbor no illusions. I fully expect this will continue, until the last blue fin tuna fish is hooked with great fanfare and then sold to the highest bidder, for some ridiculously obscene price. The corporate media will lament for about a day, and then it will be back to the next shark bite story.
Soylent Green is...
Well, you know the rest. We are one destructive specie. And our man-made ideology of _rewarding_ resource-grabbers does not help.
The reason I joined the movement below.
Peace. The _Earth Abides_.
http://www.vhemt.org/
Does anyone know of a study that shows the impact of global warming and CO2 sinks such as the North Seas and the English Channel.
The idea is that trees and vegetation are able to take a certain amount of CO2 out of the atmosphere and replace it with oxygen. Excess CO2 is also "sucked" into a sink that rids the planet of a large amount of CO2 (more than trees)
Apparently, there were many such "sinks" in the past, but they are now disappearing as oceans warms and lose their ability to suck in CO2.
With more CO2 comes more global warming which increases the temperatures of the oceans and seas which act as sinks and breeding grounds for small organisms such as krill that live in the warming antartic and artic oceans that feed many large fish and as more and more forests are cut down...
We are spinning out of control
Does anyone know where we can get information on oceans and the regulation of CO2?
Here's an excellent source on this topic: Sea Sick: The Global Ocean in Crisis -- by Alanna Mitchell, voted best science writer on the planet in about 2002 -- she's a very thorough researcher, and weaves her learnings into a very readable book (including details of how climate change & CO2 are hugely altering the pH of the ocean (note it's singular, as she points out that there really is only one, large, global ocean)). I *highly* recommend it.
from the amazon.com review for this book:
Review
“A riveting book of revelations about Earth’s largest and most important habitat.”
— Tim Flannery, author of The Weathermakers
“Sea Sick is the most comprehensive book to date on the state of our oceans. With a writer’s eye for detail and a reporter’s expertise in pulling in disparate information, Mitchell has woven a powerful and deeply unsettling story about our collective abuse of the cradle of all life. Fortunately, she also gives us hope and a path forward if we have the wisdom to act.”
— Maude Barlow
“Alanna Mitchell has brilliantly woven together the threads of science taking place all over the world pointing to an accelerating crisis in the world’s oceans. She makes the case compellingly that the declining health of the planet's oceans — the place where life began, larger than our atmosphere and where 99% of life exists — is an imminent threat to survival on land. I thought I was sufficiently well-informed and alert to the risks of planetary collapse before reading this book. Turns out I was wrong. The climate crisis is more an ocean crisis. That she still finds reasons to hope is one reason you must read this book.”
— Elizabeth May
“Humanity is visiting a desolation upon the world. We already bear primary responsibility for the extermination of more than 100,000 fellow species/fellow travelers. During the next few decades, that colossal massacre may well be doubled or trebled. Death is running amok on the earth, but especially in the sea. If you would know how and why, read Sea Sick . . . although it may make you heartsick.”
— Farley Mowat
“…she writes intelligently and passionately. You need to read it too.”
— Globe & Mail
“Keeping the ocean's life switch turned on will require all of us to, like Mitchell, choose hope and to do something about it. Reading this book is a good first step.”
— Montreal Gazette
“A strong examination of degraded global ocean health based on years of research with top world scientists.”
— The Vancouver Province
“An engaging overview on the state of our oceans.”
— Treehugger.com
“Each chapter in the book blends lucid, factual explanation of complex subjects with engaging chronicles of the author’s travels to far-flung parts of the globe.”
— Quill & Quire
Glen, we're kindred spirits. My life is generally speaking, halfway over, too.
And I'm a huge fan of Sea Shepard and Captain Paul Watson. You're right, we cannot afford, nor can our descendants and offspring and their descendants afford, to be dogmatic about what needs to be done.
Thank you for your love and rage. A thing or two to learn about how to be human in that, too.
Bottom line: The problem is industrial culture. There are other ways to live. Stop this way of living by stopping the industries, before it's too late to live for ANYone. Learn how to live NON-industrially from those cultures who live that way on the planet, before those cultures are also destroyed. Help them fight back.
And stay the F*%# away from "managing" nature. Just get out of its way!
"...The documentary, by journalist Charles Clover, claims that industrial fishing is emptying the seas of fish, destroying the livelihoods of poor fishermen in places such as Africa and killing wildlife accidentally caught in the process..."
Did you read what I read? It reads, just in case there's a misunderstanding, "INDUSTRIAL FISHING is EMPTYING THE SEAS OF FISH".
It's utterly stupid then, to not stop industrial fishing, and instead to create human-made "_managed_" fisheries.
"...The RSPB said that in addition to damaging fish stocks, industrial fishing was killing at least 300,000 birds a year, and threatening 18 out of 22 species of albatross with extinction..."
Again: To stop the destruction, STOP what's doing the destruction.
The question, then will be, "How do we feed all these people on the planet then?"
My current partial answer is echoing what Samosamo said: force the rich to eat their gold, oil, money and jewels. That would get them out of the way, and that way, poor little "top restaurants" like "Nobu" will have to stop their "demand" for more feast-foods for the rich.
Jezuz H. Christ. What to do about a problem? Stop doing what's causing it, rather than creating yet another problem in the pretend solution.
Managed fisheries so industrial humans can keep breeding and feasting. Fff*%#-ing STUPID.
Exactly.
And I know it's not a popular way to look at things, but. Dare I say, in order to stop a systemic way of existing that is murdering the planet, we must become willing to look at all options. This means non pacifistic means as well - if it makes sense to do such.
We cannot afford to blindly act in "acceptable" legal ways if they are not effective. It should be illegal to "empty the seas of fish". Period. But it's not. Soooo....how else can we stop commercial fiching from happening? Mmmm?
I feel that rage. Perhaps focused rage can effect positive change.
Look at http://www.seashepherd.org/ . This is not peaceful protest. It is direct action. In love, and rage. And there may be a thing or two to learn in their strategies and tactics.
Thank you.
-Glen
The media needs to provide quantitative analysis. The people need numbers. We have brains. Please allow us to use them. No wonder the conventional media is dying. By the way, they should tax food. This whole idea of lowering prices serves only to increase consumption. Now if food prices were increased then people will claim it's hurting the poor. But that's not true. Public policy has to be geared toward averages, ensuring the average income is adequate for basic needs, and the deviation in incomes is small. There are no pragmatic arguments against this. Rather only arguments that serve to promote consumption, economic growth, the big "dead end".
the critical piece is ownership of property...this controls our access to the very necessities of incarnated life (air, water, food and shelter) that this planet is perfectly and uniquely capable of providing for free, which forces us to work for money, which forces us to self-destruct, as the environment cannot be used for both manufacturing product (money) and sustaining life (no money)...money breeds much evil...
this activity also damages our psyches by removing our physical existence from the natural oneness we would otherwise celebrate with this living world...
Way too many people automatically think of the Earth as a land planet. But 74% of this planet is ocean. Take a good look at a globe. Back in the fifties Thor Hyerdahl wrote about crossing the Atlantic in a reed boat, and talked about how the ocean was littered with trash. When I sailed my boat from Port Townsend to Hawaii, in the mid 70s, my bow wave was thrusting aside bottles and plastic bags for the entire distance. Jacque Cousteau warned of this phenomenon 30 years ago. Nobody ever listened. Photographs of the ocean bottom in the Grand Banks taken 30 years ago compared to ones taken now are absolutely horrifying. Read Farley Mowat. This is not new information. We have known for a generation that we were killing vast quantities of life both ashore and asea. If all governments act now to halt this juggernaut, we may be able to save about half of the existing human species. What do you think the chances of all the governments acting responsibly might be? Be aware, be politically active, be militant.
MichaelC
As I read the essays everyday here on CD and elsewhere, I think all we who comment need only to say:
HOW STUPID CAN WE REMAIN BEFORE IT'S ALL OVER?
But that isn't enough, is it?
Start thinking; start dreaming; start visioning ...
Life and the earth with all its gifts are too precious to let it all go so easily to a small percentage of elitist people whose primary intention is to control just about everything that isn't nailed down regardless of the untold misery and human suffering their own ambitions cause around the world.
Anything is possible, and that's the stuff that dreams are made of ... and before the last poor fish is caught.
/cm
Not only do we have to contend with vanishing fish stocks, and the spectre of the oceans one day acidifying, currently there's this phenomenon too.....
--"Jellyfish threaten to 'dominate' oceans"--
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/06/08/2592196.htm
I almost forgot about the OCEAN!
Well out of sight / out of mind I guess!
When the oceans die, we do too.
Tom Coburn and James Inhofe will say in unison, "Who gives a shit? We don't eat fish!"
The guy from cheers (why can't I think of his name?) was on CNn this am, talking about this very issue. He said the show actually keyed him into the whole thing. He's been onto this sonce then. He basicall stated what the article said.
My only comment is, this is very scarry. So, does that mean we need to take care of our fresh water fish? Of course. The problem is, I live on the Susquahana River. I'm in New York State. About two years ago or so, I learned from different sorureces that the Susquahana is THE most polluted river in the USA. I was stunned. I grew up near this river. Who'd o' thunk. I'm not sure what the status is now, I should find out. I think some work has been done, but...
My husband loves to fish and grew up in Grand Coteau, La. He refuses to eat fish from the river. I do have relatives that do.
My husban wants to make a small pond in back of our house. But that would take buying the little piece behind us, about 1/4 of an acre. I think we will do that...
"As The End Of The Line was released, Mr Clover warned overfishing of the world's oceans ranked beside climate change as one of the biggest problems facing humans this century."
Yeah. And I bet it's sorta a problem for the fish (and collateral victims) being eliminated too...
I fear that the motives for change are misplaced in that they focus on human well being primarily.
Once we change the story from the one that says human well being comes first, to one that honors (in action!) the natural worlds well being first, then maybe we'll have a recipe for successful living.
This biblical humans first story needs to be smashed. It ain't working.
And besides the actual destruction that threatens all life on the planet, it's really boring to listen to us worship ourselves. Jaysis, we think we're so neat. But who loves to listen to someone brag about themselves? That's what our culture is like - "Look at us! We're so smart and talented and attractive, and" ,...... BORING!
And the world burns.
The End Of The Line is also a Traveling Wilbury's song. Brother George perhaps writing that song on many many many levels. What was his Album & song, All Things Must Pass Away.
Life is good. What an experience! It's always best to forgive.
A woman another site said of me, your telling me I am boring. I said if I honestly tell a person they are boring to me, then I am just being honest that they are boring me, but other people might not find them boring.
I said, if I met you in real life in public, and helped with you something, then walked away, & you wanted to share whatever your thoughts in your mind are about anything I would more than likely find you boring.
But I would be happy for you that you money to pay your bills & buy stuff.
The Golden Rule. Them that have the gold make the rules, but only in this world.
Now if a person wanted to hang out with me in life I would show them how to have fun if they liked my idea of fun.
My friends like my idea of fun as were mostly old geezer now. Once I was young geezer, and now I am old geezer. Stuff happened to me in life. The stories I could tell, some of them completely unbelievable unless you were there.
Stories that stagger the human mind.
He said staggering around in stories.
Stories of adventure, travel, excitement, & romance.
But being an older geezer I just travel less now.
There I was in Nevada at a small playhouse performing a play I had written about John Lennon's life. A Richard Gere Fab Four 2 you all. The play received rave reviews, small rave reviews, but rave reviews none the less.
As Andy Kaufman said, when he becomes Tony Clifton he is Tony Clifton & Andy does not exist. And even though Andy & Tony are one in the same person they will both deny it.
Even though it looks like I am alone when just out doing stuff I am traveling with whole cast of characters.
I have no difficulty in making people look at me live & in person, because as things get worse & worse upon the earth like the prophecies of many many many peoples state, why not have fun? As long as it's harmless fun.
Life is good. What an experience! It's always best to forgive.
Well said, Glen. Thank you so much.
You're welcome!
Thanks for the props!
I know what you mean, everything I see is presented hubristically for the convenience of humans and that everything can be maintained as 'enough for all' but what is really working behind the 'news' or 'reality' is that a reason for all this theft is to give 'hope' for those thieves that they will have enough money to maintain the supply of the 'goodies' they like and crave to which they are addicted and then when the human population is reduced to a sustainable level by the environment, they will consider themselves to be the winners.
But this is where the 'sacredness' of humans as being 'god's' creatures and wholly and totally separate from animals will really be presented with an eye opening realization of the contrary, that humans are, after all, just animals also where any idea of a god or supreme being or creator is wholly a human invention of the imagination.
I believe the planet and all life on it are sitting close to a point where another E.L.E. will dramatically alter the whole terrain of life and nature won't discrimintate with those with or without money, as a matter of fact one of the funniest things I can picture are the 'elite' trying to eat their money, gold and jewels to survive.
Amen. "Little pieces of green paper". Abstraction. Or nowadays, "numbers in a bank account".
On the contrary, the saddest thing I can think of is the 200 plus species going extinct every day while we worry about human survival. Hardly a peep for their corner.
If I live to be a healthy age, my life is just about half way thru. It is unimaginable to me to picture what our planet will look like in another 40 years.