Planet over Profit

For those of you who don’t follow the plight of the Bluefin Tuna this story may get you interested.

Bluefin tuna are the giant fish of the sea and one of the only fish species to colonize every ocean due to their ability to regulate their temperature. A novel ability among marine fish.

Bluefin tuna are also highly prized for sushi and are continuously fished beyond their natural limits because of their value. Governments around the world continue to set catch limits above the recommendations of fisheries scientists. Without greater conservation and a reduction in the global catch, the future for the Bluefin tuna is not bright.

The story of Bluefin tuna is a good example of how an economic system that has no grounding in the natural limits of the planet is wiping out one of the truly magnificent creatures of the ocean despite the significant efforts of many people to stop it.

Find the story at this link:
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/giant-bluefin-tuna-sells-record-high-396-000-20110104-191741-215.html

“The Economics of Happiness,” produced by the International Society for Ecology & Culture (ISEC). According to ISEC:

“Economic globalization has led to a massive expansion in the scale and power of big business and banking. It has also worsened nearly every problem we face: fundamentalism and ethnic conflict; climate chaos and species extinction; financial instability and unemployment.
There are personal costs too. For the majority of people on the planet life is becoming increasingly stressful. We have less time for friends and family and we face mounting pressures at work.

“The Economics of Happiness describes a world moving simultaneously in two opposing directions. On the one hand, government and big business continue to promote globalization and the consolidation of corporate power. At the same time, all around the world people are resisting those policies, demanding a re-regulation of trade and finance—and, far from the old institutions of power, they’re starting to forge a very different future. Communities are coming together to re-build more human scale, ecological economies based on a new paradigm – an economics of localization.”

The film will be officially released in January, and a number of special screenings have been scheduled in Seattle, Berkeley, Portland, Toronto, New York, Cork, Oslo, London, New Delhi, Tokyo and Hong Kong.

Related Links for the documentary, screening schedule, screening updates and hosting opportunities, and ISEC follow:

http://www.theeconomicsofhappiness.org/

http://www.theeconomicsofhappiness.org/find-a-screening-near-you

http://www.theeconomicsofhappiness.org/email-newsletter

http://www.localfutures.org/