Helen Czerski

Suggestion of the day (otherwise known as If Helen Ruled The World edict 127):

We should stop describing ocean fish populations as fish "stocks". They're communities of a living organism, not stacked up items in a pantry waiting for us to take them. Just the use of the word implies that they only have value if we take them, and we need to kick that habit. The natural world is not there only for us to extract/plunder/take/damage for short-term gain (and sometimes not even that).

#ocean #words

Apr 23, 2024 at 8:29pmWeb
Show threadkatlinApr 23, 2024

@helenczerski

"Livestock" is a similarly loaded term hiding in plain sight. Unfortunately there's no concise alternative which comes to mind.

Show threadkatlinApr 23, 2024

@helenczerski

Anyway... Vote 1 ☑️ Helen for World Ruler!

Show threadGorgeous na Shock!Apr 24, 2024
@katlin @helenczerski Domesticated animals? Colonized animals? Enslaved animals?
Show threadkatlinApr 26, 2024

@indigoparadox @helenczerski

The problem is that "domesticated animals" can also refer to pets, while "enslaved animals" can also refer to racehorses and racing dogs, farmed fish, circus animals and so on, and "colonized" is also ambiguous. So they're more like hypernyms for "livestock".

Show threadkatlinApr 26, 2024

@indigoparadox @helenczerski

Maybe "farm animals" comes close as a synonym, with "ruminant" added to the description if desired, though sometimes livestock are raised outside of a traditional farm setting. I'd say "farmed animals" but that might include farmed fish as well. I could be overthinking this.

Show threadrelogiApr 24, 2024
@helenczerski
yes... words matter... human beings word their world, often not seeing the thing in front of their face because the words they use filter their senses
Show threadPetraPandaApr 24, 2024
@helenczerski
That said, we have done nothing but pillage and rape the planet for a very, very long time.
She should strike back more often. The problem is that when she strikes, it is largely not the perpetrators that are affected, but their serfs on whose back the perpetrators amassed the wealth to further rape and pillage, and the ever obliging consumers, who are fooled into buying insurance cover for the damage we can expect from her striking back in response to our over consumption.
Show threadChris DudleyApr 24, 2024
@helenczerski The concept has been useful for organizing conservation.
Show threadDopeGhotiApr 24, 2024
@helenczerski
Based strictly on that I would be interested to see your other Edicts, if they've been collected. (:
Show threadAndy WoottonApr 24, 2024
@helenczerski Not just that but that it is acceptable to deplete them to an unspecified level. We know it isn't. The EU acted just in time to prevent the UK doing irrecoverable damage to its own fishing industry.
Show threadgeofurbApr 26, 2024
@helenczerski Stocks also makes it sound like they don't follow population dynamics, which might involve catastrophic collapse below a certain threshold and faster replenishment when kept at a certain level. Even from a self-interested perspective, it's good to describe things as they are.
Show threadChookMother 🇦🇺🦘Apr 27, 2024
@helenczerski It's a relic of colonial times, when all of nature was seen as to be shot, trapped, cut down, pulled out of the water and shipped back to the mother country. It was the bounty god had provided for man, specifically the white man.
Show threadMy camera shoots fascistsApr 30, 2024

@helenczerski

Imagine if corporations proposed using giant nets between helicopters to "harvest" migrating bird "stocks", or giant steel nets being dragged through the forest by massive bulldozers to "harvest" all the deer in a valley. The outrage would be fierce, yet this is exactly what happens with the oceans.