Weather went berserk

Talk about global warming. The effects are global. Last month, London was totally snowed-in.

Here, I'm seeing weathers unlike those in the past. Normally, we would be experiencing hot, windy and dry days. But we had been having rain almost daily for the last two weeks. Some days it rained dogs and cats. Kuala Lumpur reported a 2m high flood last week. News said the rain in KL that day was equivalent to that of a 2- months' rain. The good thing is nights are cooler due to the evening rains. That means I could sleep better. So I am all for rain minus floodings. Yea.

A bowl of shark fin soup, anyone?

Ummph...delicious. I especially like mine served with a little vinegar. I'm a chinese and I grew up with in a community where a bowl of shark fin is a luxury served only on special occasions and only for those who can afford. After watching Jaws I, I was terrified of "jaws" (didn't know its actual name was shark until I grew older) and paranoid about swimming in sea (you never know when one "jaw" is nearby).

Today, I find out that this soup is the reason many shark species are endangered or vulnerable. Some areas had lost as much as 95% of its population in the last fifteen years. I admit that I had read shark population was vulnerable a few years ago but I did not put much thought about it because the price of a small bowl is so expansive that it is a once-in-ablue-moon luxury. I only have this soup at some wedding functions and most of the time, the soup has more crab meat than shark fins. These days, some even serves vegetarian shark fin soup. Topping that was the notion that we were ridding the world of savages (still haunted by "Jaws"). So, seeing as to the rarity of my consumption, I was not overly ridden by guilt. Till now.

A CNN report state (http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/12/08/knights.sharks/index.html) that although shark kills an average of ten person per year, human is killing 70 - 100 million sharks per year. So, which is more predacious, human or shark? The concern also lies on the fact that shark is top predator in the ocean. I admit I have not researched in details on the consequences of its declining population in the ocean but surely the rapid reduction of its population will disrupt the balance of the marine ecosystem. Previously, the demand for shark fin came mainly from Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore. These days, greater demands are coming from China as its number of middle class families increase. According to CNN, despite international and some national regulations, enforcement is weak. As such illegal shark finning still continues.

Due to limited space on the ships, the fishermen will just cut off its fins and throw the shark back into the ocean where it will drop sink to ocean bed and be eaten or nibbled by other marine life. There is much furore over the inhumane method of shark finning. So I guess for these people, as long as a humane method is used, the shark finning may go on. Maybe the fishermen should just catch them whole and like they do with other types of fish.

Personally, I do not think there is a humane method to kill another living being be they sharks or cows or chicken. However, I think the bigger issue is the unsustainable practice of shark finning and its effect on our ecosystem. Perhaps we should start thinking about breeding sharks for human consumption.

Plastic: Menace or Saviour

I was doing a research on the impact of plastic on human lifes and discovered some facts that were unknown to me before.

Everyone knows the convenience of plastic - plastic carrier bags, plastic containers, etc. Worldwide, approximately 500 billion to 1 trillion of plastics are used. Only 3% are recycled.

BUT did you know that 86% of debris floating in the ocean are plastics? Yup.

And the biggest garbage dump site on earth is floating in the Pacific Ocean. It's called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and is the size of Texas, USA.

Plastics can't biodegrade. Over years, they will break into smaller and smaller pieces but will still exist on Earth. As smaller bits and tiny particles, they'd be eaten by wildlife, marine life and tiny micro organisms such as plankton which is at the bottom of the food chain. So, imagine the plantons ate plastic particles, fish ate the said planktons, bigger fish ate the said smaller fish and fishermen caught the bigger fish. No prize for guessing where that big fish end up. On our plates! And into our tummy. Yuck.

So, be a conscientious consumer. Use only reusable plastics.