Reading in today's Telegraph about the British fishermen who, having already decimated stocks of cod (with the help of their European colleagues), are now busily wiping out juvenile haddock, it is hard not to feel a sense of despair at human kind (Cod-ban trawlers are wiping out young haddock, 23 February 2001).

No rational being (Homo sapiens indeed!) would knowingly destroy the basis of its own existence, yet this is precisely what our fishermen are doing. Are they mad?

Of course they are mad - but no madder than the rest of us. What is happening to the fishing industry is merely a prelude to what in coming decades will happen on a far greater scale with the entire world economy, as it seeks to take from our planet more than it has to offer - just as today's fishermen are seeking to take more from the North Sea than it has to offer.

The situation of the fishing industry and the irrational - potentially fatal - behaviour of our fishermen, which is plain for all to see, should serve as a dire warning to us all.

Those in charge reassure us that the problem of sustainability has been recognised and is being faced up to, but in reality we have not even begun to appreciate the magnitude of the problem and the threat that it poses. 

Faced with such a dire threat and seeing no solution, it is a natural reaction to turn away and pretend that it is not there. This is what we are currently doing. And time is quickly running out.
 

Recognising limits - and cod is just the beginning! (11 Nov 2000)