Globalisation Fisheries and Business as Usual - Term Paper Example

Globalization Fisheries and Business as Usual and Section # of Business as usual was a concept associated with the British Prime Minister H. H. Asquith in the times of the First World War, its underlying philosophy stated that it is necessary to maintain a pre-war social order and functioning in order to stabilize the economy in times of war; thus proposing that the civilians should view war as a ‘business as usual (BAU)’ and continue with their daily routines (Cassar, 1994, 23). The Stern Report of 2006 was created by Nicholas Stern on the demand of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, to help him develop a sustainable economic policy (The First Post, 2006, 1). This paper focuses on the stance of the Stern Report of 2006 pertaining to BAU, and extending to analyze whether contemporary treatment of fish stocks under globalization is a suitable example of Stern’s warning regarding BAU damages to the climate. Furthermore, this report will illustrate on the future of fisheries in this deplorable environmental crisis and how it can be prevented. Nicholas Stern claimed that climate change is a global matter since nobody would enjoy exclusion from its detrimental implications, hence despite the variations in effect; the entire international community must jointly contribute to prevent environmental degradation that provokes climate change. If the economy continues to operate according to the philosophy of BAU, and the climate change is ignored, then the average temperatures would rise by more than 5 degrees. This would affect the entire ecosystem- changing the physical and human geography of the earth, and leading to natural disaster s such as droughts and floods. The world GDP would fall by a dramatic 20% since each tonne of carbon dioxide produced today is causing a damage to the environment valued at 85$ and even more; the future costs of unabated climate change are way more than the current mitigation costs which stand at 1% of the current global GDP (Sigss, 2010). The world’s advent into the contemporary era marked by globalization, it is almost impossible to evade its penetrating effects; these implications also scar the fish stocks of today. The technology and efficiency with which which were caught traditionally has been upgraded as a result of globalization, which has allowed the exchange of new technologies which has hiked the capability to grow, process, market and sell the fish stocks at an unbelievably high speed throughout the world (Taylor et al., 2007, 31). Globalization of fisheries has urged companies to adapt unsustainable practices which harm the environment of the world, such as 300million pound payment made by EU to the Mauritian Government to fish in its water from 2001 to 2006, despite the stocks being already depleted. United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) claims that foreign fleets (inclusive of European fleets) are causing dramatic reduction in fish stocks of West Africa and South America; these foreigners are uprooting the domestic fishery system and removing fish from local markets. While the Governments of poor countries are left with no choice but to sell fishing rights to these global giants, leading to overfishing of their waters, depletion of fish stocks, changes in the ecosystem, and drastically negative implication on the climate change; which is exactly what Stern warned of in the Stern Review 2006 (Yami, 2005). Rare fishes today are on the verge of extinction owing to overfishing practices, such as the Atlantic Bluefin Tuna, the market being fuelled largely by the global demand of sushi and sashimi (Lieberman, 2010). The recent awareness of this environmental hazard has led to setup of online organizations such as ‘www.Fishonline.org’ which aim to create awareness and guide the people of the world into consuming seafood in a sustainable manner (Fish Online, 2010). Globalization has erased the need for the old fashioned multinational corporations which master the mixing of local tastes with global in order to produce best results, and as a result the demand for standardized products did not reach alarming rates. However, the shift to global corporations due to homogenous demand of products throughout the world has increased the demand for standardized products, leading to shortage of supply as stocks become insufficient, so technology is involved to fulfill the demand (Tomkins, 2003). In the fishing industry this translates into excessive fishing in order to fulfill the global demand of fish. This detrimental effect of globalization on the fishing industry means that by 2048, seafood would be off the menu, since fish supply would run out as a result of overfishing. The depletion of fishes from the oceans would have negative effects, which includes the deterioration of the water quality, reduced protection of shorelines, a decrease in the oxygen quantity, and an ever increasing number of toxic algal blooms, as in accordance with the research by Guardian Unlimited (Mulholland, 2006). If the world operates according to BAU under globalization and its needs, then the feared climatic change is likely to take effect, this would in turn impact the future of fisheries as well. The fish resource available would reduce, requiring more advanced technological systems to catch the desired amount of fish, which would disable poorer firms to operate, hence fishery dependant poor domestic communities would suffer in terms of less stable livelihoods. Furthermore, sales prices would go up which is likely to reduce demand, coupled by the environmental campaigns which would require eco-friendly fisheries to run only, leading to increased costs for firms and a more environmentally safer fish production (Garcia and Rosenberg, 2010). Despite the massive downturn in the fish resources owing to globalization, and the bleak picture of the future that it sketches, it is still not late to consider the development of environmentally friendly fisheries and fishing practices which could save the world from the emerging environmental catastrophe and simultaneously provide fish as food to the seafood consumers. The global governance system must be strengthen in order to regulate laws and policies regarding sustainable fishing practices, this should support rights-based management thus removing any illegal fisheries from operating. The plans should be aimed at protecting the eco-system, such that the supply does not run out and overfishing is not practiced as a result. Awareness campaigns should be initiated which popularize the consumption of sustainably caught seafood, thus forcing firms indirectly through consumers to shift to environmentally friendly fish catching methods. In addition, perverse subsidies should be scraped, and be replaced by reforms which do not harm the fish capacity of the world. The fisheries should be required to provide a full account of their catch and area of operations, in order to maintain a proper check in balance, furthermore modern fishing techniques which do not distinguish between mature and immature fish must be banned, and be replaced by older traditional methods of fishing. It is necessary to define fishing zones, thus certain areas which are house to the marine life that is on the verge of extinction should be excluded from the fishing zones, and rather they should be converted into marine protected areas, this would protect the fishes and provide them time and environment for reproduction to restore their quantity. The staff involved in fisheries must be properly trained in order to avoid any overfishing due to lack of knowledge of sustainable fishing practices (Tamelander et al., 2010). It is necessary to provide the fishes a proper area where they can spawn and reproduce, therefore the dredging activities should retain the logs, slumps and boulders etc. which are used as cover by many of the fish species. In addition to this, the aquatic plants are necessary for the healthy development of the fish, they also play an immensely significant part in keeping the lakes and rivers healthy, fishes rely on these plants as spawning sites, as a cover, and also as food, hence the removal or deterioration of the aquatic plants can have detrimental impact on the fish life and quality, this would also affect the fish population. Therefore, it must be ensured that rare or endangered plant species in the water are never removed, in order to avoid extinction, and removal of plants by mechanical means must also be avoided (Land Owner Resource Centre, 2000). The protection of the fishes in the waters would help stabilize the ecosystem, which in turn would slower the rate of climate change that is under process. In light of the entire argument it can be rightly concluded that climatic change as according to the Stern Review of 2006 warns the humans to discontinue their ‘business as usual’, and rather transition to a more environmentally safe mode, under which environmental degradation is, if not zero, then at least minimal. The climatic change would adversely affect the ecosystems, and is likely to lead to the extinction of many endangered species, which also include much of threatened aqua life, hence in order to evade the harmful implications of the globalization and technological progress as a result of it, the world should undertake proper mitigating efforts, which involves not only the developed nations but also the developing ones, since the hazardous implications of climate change would spare no one. Refernces Cassar. G H (1994) Asquith as War Leader- 1st Edition. Great Britain. Cambridge University Press Fish Online (2010) Fish to Avoid. Accessed December 26, 2010 from Garcia. S M and Rosenberg. A A (2010) Food security and marine capture fisheries: characteristics, trends, drivers and future perspectives. The Royal Society. Accessed December 26, 2010 from < http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/365/1554/2869.full> Land Owner Resource Centre (2000) Extension Notes- Protecting Fish Habitat. Accessed December 26, 2010 from Lieberman. S (2010) Time to Save the Tuna. Accessed December 26, 2010 from Mulholland. H (2006) Vanishing Seafood Study Dismissed. Accessed December 26, 2010 from < http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2006/nov/03/fishing.politics> Sigss (2010) Stern Review: The Economics of Climate Change. Accessed December 26, 2010 from Tamelander. J; Cohen. H; Gjerde. K and Simar. F (2010) Adapting Fisheries to Climate Change: an NGO perspective. Accessed December 26, 2010 from Taylor. W W; Schechter. M G and Wolfson. L G (2007) Globalization: Effects on fisheries resources- 1st Edition. United Kingdom. Cambridge University Press The First Post (2006) ‘Time to get Stern on Climate Change’. The Week. Accessed December 26, 2010 from Tomkins. R (2003) Happy Birthday, Globalization. Financial Times- World Business Newspaper. Accessed December 26, 2010 from < http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/happy-birthday-globalisation> Yami. B (2005) Globalization and Fish Stocks. Accessed December 26, 2010 from Read More