and the world looks on, cringingly.

Maybe most of us subconsciously consider it a step forward in the intellectual and spiritual advancement of our species that just because we can kill these powerful and spiritually loaded creatures without wiping them out entirely, just because there might be enough of them to chop up a few hundred for a snack, doesn’t mean we actually should.

One of the arguments I used to have with my former coworker was about global warming and the environment and what the human race was doing to facilitate the former and trick-fuck the latter. His assertion, which is true-as-far-as-it-goes, is that we can’t actually destroy the planet with global warming — we might wipe ourselves off the planet, and it might take ten thousand or ten million years for the Global Reset Button to finish it’s recycling, but the planet itself would still be here, and we would not — and if we fuck ourselves, then that’s that.

My counter-argument is that we are not alone on this ball of dirt, and while we might (arguably) be the first sentient species to have developed here, it’s unlikely (in fact, impossible) that evolution just stopped as soon as Man started walking and talking — we have a responsibility to those that come after us to make the beginner mistakes and learn from them without destroying their chances at “getting a turn” — our actions inform the future, and it’s not just about us.

It was one of the only times where I think I ‘won’ an argument like that with him, or really with anyone on a subject that volatile.

I read the looking-at-humpbacks and swimming-with- spinners articles and it occured to me: it's all about the water temperature. You can appreciate dolphins and whales where you can stick your head or your whole self in the water and groove with them. Hawaii, for instance, or the Med. The Japanese and Icelander traditions were formed by starving peasant fishermen freezing their balls off in little boats where getting in the water is lethal.

And while things have improved in both places, a thousand years of semi-starvation on resource-poor volcanic islands leave their mark.

Though I still agree that they're being assholes.

I think the US Navy started a good service by destroying that Japanese fishing boat off the coast of Hawaii. The Navy should torpedo Japanese whaling, shrimping and squid ships over 500 tons.

Of course, we simply don't tell anyone why those Japanese factory ship's keels are breaking and no one survives the accident.

It's not like WW1 and WW2 where someone would actually spot the LA and Seawolf class boats, a MK-48 can hit a target from over 20 miles away and be launched from 800 feet down.

As for global warming, ehh. I'll believe it when I see a computer model that takes into account everything, like why all the other planets in the solar system are also getting warmer at the same rate the Earth is, and why gee, the Sun is putting out more energy than before...

Could it all be a cycle? Could the Sun be a variable star, like the vast majority of stars we've seen?

No that's too simple, has to be SUVs warming the solar system.