We Are Living With Whales

People eat pork, chicken, beef and many other kinds of meats. It depends on the country, but the most common meats are the three I just mentioned. But I like to eat whale meat, hours meat and others, but when I say that to my friends they get really surprised. How different eating whale and beef? They are both animals and we need to eat meats to live. Now in world whale hunting is becoming a big topic of discussion. Should we allow countries to keep hunting whales or not?. Some countries are saying all species of whales should not be hunted anymore, and some countries say the world should allow countries to hunt some kinds of whale. I agree with the second idea. There should be a freedom for hunting some species of whales and it is worth fighting for.

Whale hunting has been condemned as an act of barbarism from some countries. But is it so? The people who say it's an act of barbarism doesn't have a culture to eat whale. That's why they say it's an act of barbarism. But for me, not trying to understand other culture is more an act of barbarism. That's just a prejudice. Not having whale hunting in your own culture doesn't mean it's an act of barbarism. How do you feel if your own culture was condemned as barbarism? For some countries, they don't have a culture of eating animal meats such as pork and beef. And if they say eating animals are barbarism because they don't have culture to eat them, do you think you will accept that opinion? Also condemned whale hunting as an act of barbarism, without even trying or having experiment doesn't make any sense. How can you tell it's barbarism or not about something you never tried before? People should first start to understand each others culture. A girl lives in Lofoten Island says "I've grown up with whale hunting" , whale hunting itself is already a culture for some countries. However, the main reason people use as evidence to embargo whale hunting is that the number of whales are decreasing. But in recent days there are interesting facts that scientists have found out.

The number of whales in the sea are actually increasing since people started making laws tightly to protect them. Not all of them but some of the whales number are increasing. Like minke whales, sei whales and finback whales. There are not accurate but minke whales increased there number, in 1979 number of minke whales were about 110000 and them increased to 690000 and now the number of minke whales are more than 1000000. Therefore, if the number of whales are actually more than the time we were still hunting whales, what is the reason to stop whale hunting? Countries that have hunting whales, are not complaining about the restriction placed on the protection of endangered species; they just want to hunt whales that are not endangered. Just allowing few whales that increased their numbers will be a great help to keep the culture that are connected to whales. Additionally, now there are almost no whales are endangered. Few of the whales such as family of right whales and platanistoidea need to be protected since their population is less than 10000, but they are completely protected and are slowly starting to increase their numbers. Therefore, whales are not decreasing their numbers because of humans and their life is not threatened as before. But now they are facing a new crisis, called the change of ecosystem.

Whales are the biggest predator in the sea ecosystem. Only the organism who eats whales are orcas and humans. But since the restriction was placed on whale hunting, humans were no longer their predator. As a result number of whales increased and whale itself started to become threatening to sea ecosystem. Whales usually eat 4% of their weight in one day. It depends on the species but most whales average weight is about 15~20t. Means that they eat about 600kg~800kg. You might think it's not a big deal but this number is only for one whale, and also there are some species that has more than 100t weight like humpback whales. Also there is a fact that amount of fish that whale eats are about triple to quintuple of world's fishery productions. As the whales number increase more, the sea ecosystem will be more effected. Hunting too much whales will affect the ecosystem, but also not hunting at all will also effect the ecosystem.

Because of all these reasons; whale hunting itself is already a culture, the number of whales are actually increasing and the whales are effecting the ecosystem. Whale hunting should not be prohibited. Of course I think a few kinds of whales should still be protected since their numbers are not increasing, but the others should be free to be hunted. It is important for the hunters to think about the numbers of whales and not to over fish them. But if they are not, we should not prohibit whale hunting. For this topic, there are some difficult problems to solve, people’s feeling. Some people have empathy to kill whales. But to take in meats, we should kill animals, that’s how we take in pork and beef. Every thing we eat are lives. We cannot live without killing another life. I'll say even eating vegetables are killing life too. They are living every day, growing and making seeds to pass on the next life. It's a sad thing but the truth that we have to kill lives to live are unable to change. That’s why we thanks to the food, to the life that animal and plants gave to us. Do you still think whale hunting should be prohibited or do you think it should be allowed for some species of whales?

Town of Atomic Energy Filled with Sorrow

                                                                                                    picture of Fukushima power station　　　

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　

“If there were no atomic-energy power station... ”  

                                                                       by the people in Fukushima

On March 11th at 14:46, 2011, the Touhoku Earthquake happened. Suddenly, buildings started to shake and no one could stand. Dishes fell from shelves and roofs started to drop. People were panicked. Then the tsunami came. No matter how strong the buildings were the tsunami easily toppled everything. In only a few minutes, people lost everything they owned. It claimed more than ten thousand lives. Not only people were killed, at the same time many animals, especially pets, were claimed and also separated from their owners. The effects of the earthquake were many, but I am focusing on the effect of the damaged atomic-energy power station. The earthquake attacked the power station in Fukushima, and huge amounts of radioactive substances that could effect the health of human and animals escaped the power station. Japan was in a panic. No one wanted to buy the vegetables and food came from east Japan. People were worried about the electricity since the Fukushima’s power station was responsible for the huge amount of electricity in Japan including Tokyo. No one felt safe to drink the water. Radioactive substances quickly spread inside the prefecture. People lost their houses and their hope. The argument exchanged after the earthquake, was about the atomic-energy power station. People need electricity and atomic power generation is the most low-impact way of producing electricity, and it can be used for ever. This was a technology that every one dreamed, although their dangers are too great to permit their continued use. Water, sea, soil, plants, everything was polluted. People lost their way to live by the power station. People should reflect about the way we’re getting the electricity and begin a new way that has low- effect to the environment and also can be used for ever.

We shouldn’t use atomic-energy power any longer, a radioactive substance quickly spread to the land. When a nuclear disaster occurs, the land is contaminated. This effects all the living thing on earth. Plants suck water from the soil. If the soil absorbs radioactive substance, then naturally the plant will going to absorb radioactive substance. This effected all the farmers in Fukushima. Some parts of the land, luckily, had not been damaged by the earthquake, but farmers couldn’t cultivate the land to plant because there was a possibility that the plants will suck up the radioactive substance and effect the people. Farmers lost their income source. Also, stockbreeders lost their income source too for the same reason. The animals were contaminated as well. Milk, meats all the byproducts that people were getting contained radioactive substances. Stockbreeders destroyed them with tears. Almost every single animal was contaminated. There are animals that are still fenced in and haven’t been feed since the radioactive substance exposure problem. Horses and cows are all stressed, thin dogs are looking for food. No one can help them. The ‘town of nuclear energy’ became a ghost town. The debris of the atomic-energy generation caused chaos. The domino effect of the radioactive waste is too ghastly to legitimate the use of atomic-power generation.

In a natural disaster such as an earthquake, much rubble is created and needs to be cleaned up to restart life. However the rubble is also contaminated. There was no place to put the rubble that had been contaminated. People didn’t even want to touch it. Think about the situation that the people of Fukushima were put in. The people had done nothing; it was the damage to the power station that caused all misery. It is terrible, no one could get any hope. Furthermore, the rubble was contaminated so that meant the other prefecture can’t help cleaning up. Since there are possibilities that the radioactive substance might spread, the government couldn’t move the rubble from where it was. People in Touhoku are still living in the dust and rubble, this effects people’s health. The atomic-energy power station didn’t only effect the land, it also hold off the reconstruction of the town. After the earthquake happened, the requisite thing is ‘help’ from people and prefecture, but the radioactive substance stood in the way of people who were trying to help.

Earthquakes are not that unusual in Japan, so people know what supplies disaster areas need, but this time because of the radioactive substance, people couldn’t help. People can get easily contaminated by radioactive substance in short time, effecting your health. You might get different kinds of cancer and other diseases that will not heal easily. Therefore, no one is able to provide supplies. Disaster areas need supplies and since the earthquake had happened there is almost nothing left that people can use. People from other prefectures like people living in the south part of Japan, donate money and we can buy supplies, but the supplies can’t reach the place. Conditions of the disaster area are not improving.

For all these reasons, we should start getting electricity a new way. One way we can get electricity is solar energy generation. The energy of the sun can be used for ever and it has lower-effect on the environment. Deserts will be the best places to get energy. But yes, we can’t get energy on cloudy days or rainy days. So the countries where it rains often, they use water power to provide electricity, which is known as hydro-power generation. There are many natural sources that we can use to provide electricity and not effect people’s health. But leaning on only one way to produce electricity is dangerous, so we should get electricity by using many different ways. Expanding the possibility of getting electricity will allow us to adapt to circumstances and will improve the quality of our life. No one should be harmed by our own creations, and if harm is the result of our choices, our mistakes must be correct and improved.

What Can We Do for Trees?

　by Joakim Kaminsky and Maria Poll

Have you ever noticed how many papers we use? We are using papers every day - to study, to remember something, to write a letter. Look at the things around you- newspapers, notebooks, even tissue, it's all made from paper. 390 million tons of paper are made in one year and this is about using 250kg of paper per person. And of course we need trees to make paper. That means many trees were cut down by humans to make paper. It is difficult to estimate how many trees we need for one paper because it depends on how tall the tree was and also depends on what sizes and type of paper. Many people agree that we are cutting too many trees so, people decided to make paper from old papers! This is the recycling of paper. But is it really good for the environment?  Some people think so, but some people do not. The most easiest thing is to reduce the amount of paper. But paper is becoming a imperative thing in our daily life so it’s hard to reduce the amount of paper. So,my question is, is it better to use recycled paper, or is it better to use new paper and plant new trees?

People who believe recycling paper is the best solution, are claiming that if we use recycled paper, we don't need to cut down as many trees, and as a result we are saving the environment. If we use one ton of recycled paper, we save about 17 trees. That's a lot because we are using a million tons of paper in one year. However there are limits to using recycled paper. We can’t recycle the same paper more than 15 times, so we still have to cut down trees, but they are saying it is better than not recycling.


If many believe that recycling is a solution then why do some people think recycling paper is not good for the environment? And saying, recycling paper is making global warming much worse. Most of the people who are claiming this are scientists that researching about the effect of carbon dioxide to the environment.They are claiming recycled paper creates two times (new paper 42%, recycled paper 83%) of carbon dioxide than normal paper. This is effecting the environment and changing the temperature of Earth which means destroying the environment. If the reason of using recycled paper is to save environment, the fact of carbon dioxide shows recycled paper is not accomplishing the aim. So they are saying it is better to make paper from trees, but plant a new tree to keep the amount of trees the same. How ever if we plant a new tree, it takes more than 30 years to grow to adult. So it takes a long time to equal the amount of trees we cut and for the result, it's not keeping the amount of tree on Earth the same


It is better to make new paper and plant a tree, even though trees need a long time to grow. The advantage of this way is that we can get byproduct that can allow us to change the way that how we are getting the energy now. The biggest reason causing the global climate warming or some kind of environment problem is humans increased too much amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. And that is caused by producing electrics and burning substance by oil.  I think that is important than only focusing on paper because we can connect it to other things to help environment. Like by using black liquor it cause less carbon dioxide than burning oil. So it bring about an enlargement of possibility to improve our lifestyle. But What I think is we cannot continue this forever. If trees take long time to grow and if we can't keep the amount of trees same even if we plant trees, that means we still have to figure out the other ways of making papers. The first time when people made papers, they used straws and those kind of grasses. But tree was best suited to make paper so people started to use trees. But from the history we can know trees are not the only way to make paper. We have much better technology so maybe we can make good papers from straw that was impossible in older days. I think using many different kinds of solution together will make the best way of helping environment.

Many people thought about the environment and try to get a best solution and argued many times and showed evidences to prove their opinion. But still we are struggling with the solution. But the thing is we are thinking about the environment. And trying to have a solution. Thinking and arguing is worth fought for. What do you think is the best?

 

The Thing Persecute Does

Norman Mineta is the person who disagreed of Racial profiling. This was a government's policy after 9.11 to tighten the inspection of the Arab and Islamic people in the airport security system.  The general director of protecting the sky saying this acquired large backlash by people in America. But Norman Mineta claimed "Not all the Arabs are terrorist and being Arab doesn't mean being a terrorist. Turn one's wrath against Arabs is not the thing we should.". This concept was based on his experience. 

During World War two, Norman Mineta lived in America. And in that time, America made a concentration camp for Japanese and Norman Mineta lived in Heart Mountain Relocation Center  until the war ended. All the Japanese are sent away to the concentration cam which was placed far away from the town. From this experience Mineta thought this shouldn't happen again. He never sell out his will. He didn't want to let this happen again.


He fought for his own will and for eliminating persecute. Of course if some thing happens in our own country and the criminal was from other country, you might be scared of that country's people. But that doesn't mean you can persecute them.　Every human has same authority and no one can change it. What ever the reason is people shouldn't discriminate each other, they should respect each other and that makes the society work.


Additionally it is important to fought for because persecuting people will destroy their cultures and it is too late when you notice it. In Japan, people lived in the Middle island persecute people lived in North island who were called Emishi. They started a war and killed people and that destroyed lots of specific culture that they had. Now in Japan people are trying to figure out about their culture but many of them were gone by the war. Persecuting people will effect the future.


But if you didn't reflect enough with your will it will be just a applesauce, that doesn't make sense. You have to think carefully without any of your emotion and think from third party's view. 


Norman Mineta told us how important fought for your own will and eliminate the persecute. If he didn't act up to his will maybe the Racial Profiling was actually started. By knowing Norman Mineta, i thought I want to be a person who can act up to my own will. But it should be after you reflected enough. Other wise it will be just a applesauce.    

Think Individually

 Norman Mineta claimed,  "."
Norman Mineta was trying to tell people discrimination won't make anything good only makes sadness and anger in people's heart. He thought not making discrimination is worth being fought for. 

Fair society is important to fight for because discrimination wan't make something better. There were no example that discrimination made something better, it just caused a war or made something terrible happen. During the World War 2 German made a concentration camp to put all the Jews in their, Japan occupied Korea and made people what the government wanted to do and America made Japanese interment for those who lived in America during the war, but they didn't made a concentration camp for Germans. Even from much older age still had discrimination, European used people of South America as a slave. In many years people were discriminated by their looks and their religions. Then what does fair society allows us? It allows us to have human rights and that allows us to have choices. Think about a society is not fair and all your actions were constraint. You can't choose a job that you want, you have to pay extra fee to ride a plane. If those came from discrimination, you will think it is an fair. So to live as how you want fair society is　be absolutely imperative.    


Additionally it is important to fight for because with out a fair, no one will get any advantage and the world will not work. Even the society won't work. How can the society work with out many kind of people are not allowed to do what they want. Every single job has to have workers and with out those job, our life won't be managed. If people few people were not allowed to chose their job, they won't feel content, and because of that if the people sop working, the world won't work at all. Oppressed people will insurgence at some future day. In old time Japan, people were divided in classes and because of this farmers and merchants who had aggrievement rise in a riot. 


Many people fought for a fair world but still there are discrimination. One people can't make a big change. But if each person tried, it will make some change in world. Individually we have to think about the problem and have to have a solution in our mind. Only keeping it in our mind is still better than having nothing. Now, we have internet to know, communicate and have discussions. We have to use that and make sure we don't do discrimination by ourselves. I think most important thing to make the world fair is to think and know by individually.

What is a freedom?

Robert Alan claimed, ''Freedom is the most basic of all human rights, and yet throughout history individuals and nations have had to struggle to be free."

                                                                                                    

Over many years, people have  stood up  to fight for freedom. But what is a freedom? In the dictionary it says freedom is  "being free; behaving as you like or without any constraints." I think freedom is important to people because it allows us to think, tell our opinion, and  question and stand up against something was think is wrong. I think being free of anything will make a peaceful society and fair society. So if given the opportunity to begin a New World, I would hope the society would be built around a freedom.


In Japan, we had two types of government. Which is made by the Emperor or the samurai. First, all the powers were at the Emperor but after few years, samurais and some of the farmers stand up against the Emperor and they got the political power. But this didn't continue for long time.  It was destroyed by the people who were run out of patience of tyranny. Japanese history is a repetition of this. Not only Japan, also in France, 1792 to 1802 the French Revolution happened. It was by the people who complained about the mechanic of the absolute monarchy. From these examples we can know many governments that did not allow people to have a freedom of think, question and show their opinion often fail. 


In the history there are many examples that freedom made a good society. Think free, will allows us to develop our thoughts more good ways. If only few person were allowed to think free, they only get a few ideas. But if everyone can think, talk and show their opinions without any constraint, we can get many ideas and then we can discuss about it and decide what is the best idea. If nation didn't want that idea, they could  say that to the government and also question the way of government. Freedom would make the world peaceful and equitable world. It might be not a comfortable world for every one but still they have a choice and a freedom of showing their opinion. I think it's much better than living with having a constraint.


Additionally, it is important fr a society to built around freedom. Without a freedom of showing their opinion what happened in the history? For example, from 1933 till 1945 in Germany Nazi Germany got the administration and tragedy happened. But their were people who had dissent to Nazi.　But in that time they didn't had freedom to show their opinions to others. Some of them did and killed by the government. If there were freedom, maybe someone could stopped it. Deciding something by only few people would be a lot of load for human. That's why letting the ideas coming up from the others are important. 


But without a responsibility, freedom will  be a dangerous thing. John Stuart Mill claimed  "The liberty of individual must be thus limited; he must not make himself a nuisance to other people.".
Being free, having a freedom doesn't mean we can act what ever we want. Without a any responsibility freedom can't be a freedom. That is just a self-centered behavior and that can only be a nuisance. Having a freedom is also same as having a responsibility. Anything you said, you have a responsibility of that. People must think what is a freedom and have a responsibility to their action. Otherwise the world based around freedom will be a world without a peace.


As mentioned earlier, Robert Alan once claimed, "Freedom is the most basic of all human rights, and yet throughout history individuals and nations have had to struggle to be free. Much progress has been made in helping to win freedom for all. But even though all nations agreed to uphold the Universal Declaration of Human rights for the citizens, many people are not allowed these basic liberties." meaning individuals should struggle to get their free and that's the most basic human rights.                                                                                              

The Hat

I was made by an old handmade factor which is far away from this place. I was in the shop waiting to be bought by some one, and one day a little girl bought me for her mother's birthday. Her mother was a farmer, and I was used for many ways, like collecting the harvest, to block the sunlight, bring the tools for farming. I was always being with her. But one day I was blown by the wind and the wind took me from her head. She and I felt so mournful. She tried to catch me but the wind was too fast, and when I notice I was on the field. There was no one near except for a friendly migratory bird. I spoke all the story about what happened to myself, of course I asked the bird to take me back to the little girl's mother, but the bird and also I didn't know where is the place. The bird tried to find the place but it was too difficult in the huge world. The bird felt so sorry to me and he told me about the world. He knows lots of things around the world because he travels many places. I notice that what I knew was a tinny bit of the world. In the bird's speech, I was so interested about the sea. Blue clear water continues so far, and many animals lives in the sea in their own ways. I can't imagine that, and because of that it is a very interesting place. He took me to the sea for me and I saw the sea finally. Now I feel so warm and bright on the sand. I still miss the family lives in the mountain, but at here there are many organisms. Sometimes crab family uses me as a shelter and sometimes group of migratory bird have me as a conversation partner. Now I learned a lot of thing that life is not easy and in a short life there are many adieus and also many encounter to, like the family and the bird. My life started at a small handmade factory and now I'm looking forward about what's going to happen next!