Treehugger Articles
I just recently read two blog posts from Treehugger.com and I was amazed and equally annoyed to find comments of resentment towards Canada regarding northern issues, specifically the seal hunt and the narwhal cull in Pond Inlet. Mostly, I was amazed at how quickly people misjudged the issues without any research other than basing information on one-sided journalism by Treehugger. In some of the comments, people actually announced their shame to be Canadian. Fickle, I say. It reinforces my feeling that news via the internet is a significant source of disjunction in our daily reading of the world. Compared to televised news, the internet let’s you “choose your own adventure”, often resulting up a creek.
Regarding the Narwhal cull: The government approved that approximately 200 narwhals be shot near Pond Inlet, instead of letting them drown. An ice-breaker would have scared the animals away and would have drowned anyways, so they decided to end their suffering and make use of the animals instead. The author from Treehugger attempts the most pathetic fact-less smearing of the whole story, and 20 or so comments that followed bashed Canada relentlessly. I submitted a civilized comment criticizing their biased news reporting and they filtered it out, but somehow allowed the Canada-bashers through. Compare the CBC story with Treehugger’s.
The second article about the annual seal hunt: The Humane Society and thousands of grocery stores and restaurants in the US have decided to protest and attempt to finally put an end to the annual seal-hunt in Newfoundland by boycotting Canadian seafood. The motion itself is moot, considering they are opposed to the supposed inhumane practice, which in this decade has become completely humane and sustainable — perhaps moreso than the slaughtering of livestock. Read the Fisheries and Oceans website for a complete breakdown of the process. This comes around every winter, so it’s not a shocker story. It’s kind of ridiculous when there’s 5.7 million of those things swimming around devouring the fish population (up from 5.5 M since 2000).
Treehugger was a progressive site to me when I first found it, but disingenuous stories written like these make lose my faith in its integrity. A departure for me, and my rant for the day.
