"Look, I love whales," said the President with a smile as he shook my hand.
Yesterday, on Earth Day, I thought I would be calling on the President to push legislation that would actually solve the climate crisis. No such luck. Instead, I found myself on the national mall leading a march on the White House to stop the President from his back room attempts to undo the 35 year moratorium on whaling.
Later that afternoon, I was invited to the White House to meet with the President. I asked my team what I should ask the President. The funniest suggestion was to give him a fist bump and say "drill, baby drill." As much as I wanted that on film, I decided to ask him about the reversal of his written campaign promise to Greenpeace to end commercial whaling.
He walked person to person, saying hello, as advocate after advocate threw him softball questions. I shook the President's hand, and said:
"Mr. President, I am Phil Radford from Greenpeace. We are concerned that your administration is overturning the ban on whaling."
"I know" he replied. "I've seen your ads in the papers."
"Great," I replied. "What is your plan to change your administration's position?
"Look," said the president, sounding like his Saturday Night Live doppelganger, "I love whales. I will do what I can to protect them."
"Will you reverse your administration's position?" I asked.
The President responded "Oh come on, don't lobby me here right now..."
I'd made our point. There was no point in lobbying the President more. After all, Earth Day should remind us that lobbying played a minor role in securing the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and ban on commercial whaling. People taking action made the difference. The 200 million people in the streets on the first Earth Day are who brought about the change. We'll be in the streets again until President Obama lives up to his written promise to end commercial whaling.
Follow Philip Radford on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Phil_Radford
AND SIGN every single petition you can find against the possible removal of the moratorium against killing of whales and their families. It does not matter the species. One day we just MIGHT decide to stop acting like the most ignorant species on the planet. Let's start now.
So don't just comment or blog or argue about it! CALL! WRITE! FAX and share this story and action oriented information.
No voice, No action, No result = dead whales and dead whale families.
If you follow the link to the WaPo article, you'll see that the renegotiated agreement will reduce the number of whales killed from 1700/year to 1200/yr. That is a 30% reduction, which should be a win in anyone's book.
Some people won't be happy until the number is 0. I suppose I can respect that passion, but it's completely unrealistic. If this deal goes through, it will save 1000 whales over the next 10 years. That should be something to celebrate, but of course the PUMAs and the Obama-haters need yet another excuse, so facts be damned...
Change occurs bit by bit. This is one of those bits that will make the world just a little bit better.
The link and article you refer to is not accurate when it comes to number of whales that are currently killed and the ones that will be killed if the ban is lifted.
You are right about one thing thought....change occurs bit by bit. But the whales must have a voice and right now the only voice they have is the people that want to save them or kill them. You are obviously in support of killing them.
Everyone is entitled to their view and it is what makes this world exciting and diverse and challenging as it should be. However until you are swimming with your family in the ocean and a harpoon is violently thrust into your body and you are hauled backwards onto a ship and sliced open from your nuts to your throat, your blood spilling down the ships track and back down into the water....I really don't think anyone in support of killing whales knows what the hell they are actually supporting.....chaos and insanity in a mismanaged world.
I'm still waiting for him to lead, but all of us will need to join together to push him. One thing you could do is call Congress and the White House and call for 30% of all cars to be plug-in electric by 2020 and 90% by 2030. Here's how it could work -- http://bit.ly/bEylO2