This is an editorial (720 kB) that appeared recently in ultraMARINE magazine, a bi-monthly publication in the UK for aquarists.
The cover of this issue is also one of my images, photographed in the Eastern Fields of Papua New Guinea.
A scientist in the US claims to have found a way to burn saltwater. If true, this would clearly be among the most disruptive technologies ever to be invented/ discovered, leading to a complete recalculation of the energy-economics underpinning oil-based economies.
But of course, we’ve seen wild claims like this before, with cold fusion coming to [...]
Not everything I come across underwater is pleasant. On an evening dive at Batu Angus in Lembeh, my dive guide and I ran across what I can only describe as a full-blown invasion of crown-of-thorns starfish (Acanthaster planci).
As the sun set and we started to surface, I spotted first one, then two, then five, then [...]
Perspective is an editorial column I write regularly for FiNS Magazine. This installment is entitled “Crying Wolf”:
Wisdom is an illusory concept. More often than not, we’re not aware of the wisdom we lack until we reflect on situations in hindsight. As such, the quantum of wisdom we possess often falls short of the level we actually require. It seems the fate of humanity to profit from experience mostly in retrospect, and [...]
Amazon.com is one of the most successful internet companies in existence, and is supposedly quite a progressive company. It’s amazing to find that Amazon is facilitating the sale of shark fin on its website, via third party Pacific Rim Gourmet, which is also a US company.
The practice of finning sharks is illegal in US waters, [...]
Eco-minded people around the world know that promoting destructive eating habits like consuming shark fin is a common problem in Asia. Reviews of shark fin restaurants (read: advertisers) in newspapers often appear with glowing praise for shark fin soup.
Fortunately, in recent years, the frequency with which these types of blatant promotion appear seems to have [...]
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO, part of the United Nations) has released a report indicating that cattle are a more significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions than the entire transportation industry.
I recently came across the text from a lecture that Michael Crichton gave a few years ago. Crichton’s discussion pertains to rationality, in particular as applied to the modern-day phenomenon of “science by public consensus”, which is of course not science at all, but mob rule by another name.
Crichton takes the unpopular and un-politically correct [...]
Here’s a response to Dr. Giam from Bernard Harrison, former CEO of Wildlife Reserves Singapore (which runs the Singapore Zoo, Jurong Birdpark and the Night Safari), which was published only in the online edition of the Straits Times:
This article appeared in the main newspaper in Singapore. The author, Dr. Giam Choo Hoo is well known in conservation circles as a proponent of wildlife consumption.
You can send feedback and comments to the paper at: stforum@sph.com.sg
Please include your full name, address and contact number if you write in.
Perspective is an editorial column I write regularly for FiNS Magazine. This installment is entitled “Food for Thought”:
