When the pope has to interfere in your industry, you know you’re in trouble.
This is what happened over the weekend, when a confrontation between Pope Francis in the Vatican included Mauritius and called for respect for nature amid an emerging ecological crisis in the island nation of the ocean.The Pope asked for prayers for Mauritius after a primary oil spill and a failed cleanup that left 3 dead and nearly 50 whales stranded off the coast of Mauritius the following week.
This echoes last week’s call through Lloyds List, the 300-year-old shipping industry’s most reputable news release.In an opinion paper on Friday, they noted that “the greatest productive public relations reaction that the industry can media and an even larger population is the scholastic reiteration of arcane arcane covenants on responsibility.”
Mauritians were promptly angry after the oil spill over the unexpected number of media reports and legal analyses strategically published around the world explaining why the charge of total oil spill cleanup will be borne by taxpayers in the small island nation.the multibillion-dollar shipping corporations that consisted with those ships and were guilty of the oil spill and the next rescue or consistent with the facts.Mauritius’ average source of earnings is $1,000 consistent with the month ($33 consistent with the day) for a country with a population of 1.3 million and an annual government budget of only $3 billion.Mauritius’ total GDP equivalent.MOL refuses to answer express questions about inconsistent cleaning despite a strong cash presence in Mauritius, adding the status quo of a workplace in the country.
“It is unacceptable for a poor global third government to get only tens of millions of dollars in reimbursement for a cleanup that will charge heaps of millions of dollars to undertake,” Lloyds List said.”Even if it’s legally true, it’s morally wrong.”
In a week that saw some of it before the huge iron ore sent Wakashio belonging to Japanese intentionally sunk, nearly 50 whales and dolphins were found dead off the coast of Mauritius, and now the deaths of 3 Mauritian members of a rescue team involved. on the Wakashio when their shipment also sank (the captain is still missing) Array, the island country of the Indian Ocean is in a state of surprise and national emergency. To say that the following month’s chances are unprecedented is an understatement. This is the first primary oil spill in Mauritius. It has been found and comes at a time when more attention is being paid to protecting biodiversity, the climate crisis and the context of a global coronavirus pandemic.
What, like a maritime incident, has now caused a primary political crisis, the moment the political crisis broke out through shipping in a month, after the explosion of Beirut Harbour on 4 August.in the Red Sea and Venezuela in August, even Virgin founder Sir Richard Branson joins calls for great adjustments.brought to the global shipping industry.
Instead of seeing the global shipping industry intensify ethical intervention and help a poorer country through a primary trade shift of fate caused through its industry, many in Mauritius were surprised by what they saw in the global shipping industry.he has increased his head to Mauritius with many well-paid army specialists of maritime insurance advisers, global crisis communications firms, lawyers and a developing list of anonymous ”technical” experts to clean up oil spills that appear to be behind rescue operations that have gone from one destrous outcome to another.I fix under the complete gentleness of the global media and an attentive and nervous island population.
It seemed that millions of dollars were spent on this army of outside experts on flights, hotels, logistics, gadgets and consulting fees, where small NGOs in Mauritius manage with volunteer time, small wooden boats and makeshift bird cages to some of the world’s rarest animals such as pink.These NGOs and volunteers with clinical and local wisdom have been absolutely ignored by these foreign experts, in scenes reminiscent of the worst aid interventions, as many economists have pointed out.
The secrecy behind the poorly controlled rescue and cleanup operation provoked the wrath of thousands of other people who took to the streets of the capital, Port Louis over the weekend, greater accountability and unsusable transparency (crowd estimates exceeded 100,000).The clumsy attempts to hide the effects of global shipping do not paint in the virtual era where radical environmental transparency is imaginable and demanded through a new generation of sustainable-minded global citizens.
Here are ten reasons for the collapse felt in the island country in the case of Wakashio.
Let’s start by saying this isn’t a herbal mess.It is not an “act of God” caused by a hurricane, cyclone, earthquake or volcano.It is a preventable synthetic disaster, through a shipment that was not even intended to prevent in Mauritius.It is a shipment for which the global shipment had insisted on the “innocent right of way” in the waters of Mauritius.Small islands like Mauritius have little to say against the harsh sending of organizations such as the UN IMO that are heavily seized in favor of the giant sending countries.
Like a guest entering your home, this shipment and its owners were expected to have every device imaginable to make sure they don’t cause damage and go blank without causing further environmental, physical or social damage.
Instead, they may simply not have selected a more catastrophic location: the center of Mauritius biodiversity parks on Aigrettes Island, Blue Bay Marine Park around the world, and Esny Point mangroves.This is where some of the rarest species on the planet, discovered only there, were raised thoroughly to be released into the wild.
Instead of sending the world’s most productive and brilliant clinical minds to protect without delay and fiercely this fragile nature from a poisonous oil spill, Mauritius’ poorest villagers and volunteers had to take out their fishing boats to create artisanal oil.protective prey opposed to sugar cane leaves and even cut their hair following shared online examples of oil spills in Louisiana.
While the local government has been criticized for poor preparation for oil coverage booms, it should be noted that Mauritius does not allow oil and fuel exploration in its waters (unlike the neighboring islands of Seychelles, Madafuelcar and Comoros), neither Mauritius has mines. .industry – Wakashio was a giant iron ore carrier whose raw fabrics are used to make steel, so asking island taxpayers in an island state focused on tourism and biodiversity to invest in oil spill covering gadgets for a shipping industry that can’t even offer this. Protection devices on their own ships result in another ancient story of return privatization and risk socialization.
40 days since the accident, and even the top fundamental questions remain unanswered, such as the amount of oil actually poured into the lagoon (there has been no update since August 11 despite daily media questions), what the long term is.an effect of this oil on human and marine life (the UN regulator legalizing this IMO fuelArray, cannot give a long-term response to Wakashio fuel in the tropics where there had already been express warnings through scientists who were ignored), if poisonous chemical dispersants would be used as a component of cleaning plans (no officials of the Government of Mauritius or the Maritime Regulatory Agency of the United Nations IMO has only been done on these issues, even if ordinary citizens are asking for it and greater transparency is not easy).
Ignoring Mauritius’ local experience (not everyone in government), it has provoked the wrath of a population in Africa’s richest and most informed country.Mauritius had positioned as the Singapore of Africa and has a well-informed population and diaspora.a famous oceanographic institute – the Mauritius Oceanographic Institute – a study institute – Mauritius Research Council – a national fisheries studies laboratory – Albion Fisheries Research Centre – several of Africa’s leading universities, such as the University of Mauritius, as well as many major biotechnologies and food processing corporations that act as regional centres for Africa and have access to provide the right technologies for a primary oil spill reaction without delay and environmental rehabilitation in the region.
All this experience has been ignored and marginalized, preferably to a small secret organization of specialists and representatives of the public sector of the IMO, the state of the panama pavilion, Japan, where the owner of the ship resides, and even the government.Mauritius., all of whom have a keer interest in minimizing the effect and the media on this crisis.This is serious. People are dead. Protected species died (49 whales in the last count).The long-term ecological and fitness consequences of this type of oil spill are not known, as (IMO showed in a Forbes on 19 August).
Instead of engaging in a mature discussion about the long-term recovery of the coastal and marine habitat of a single island country and its exclusive biodiversity, founded on independent science, it is the secret aspect of the shipping industry that has manifested itself, seeking to minimize the situation, distort the facts and, even more seriously, not to make the right science that had been affirmed since the first day of this crisis There is no room for this aspect of the shipping industry in 2020, and the silence of other global shipping corporations and maritime insurance corporations that have sold their sustainability credentials is equally damning.
At a strange time, a series of well-placed quotes has given the impression in publications around the world such as the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany, Japan, specialized journals, publications in Asia, even in the United Nations and in foreign law.companies, making the same unexpected technical points. All described in meticulous technical detail why Mauritius can only be eligible for one form of payment instead, based on the Japanese maritime insurance rules e-book (called Japanese P
This surprised many other people in Mauritius, who were at the front line of what was obviously an oil spill, and who had not even discussed reimbursement at the time.These islanders have focused more on preventing poisonous heavy oil from infiltrating the lands where they have lived for more than 3 centuries since they escaped slavery and contract work, and protected the environment, even with a wonderful threat to their health Why would legal analysts suddenly struggle so hard to publish the main technical points of what is thought or not thought?such as an oil spill and offer recommendations on how to avoid paying for primary insurance a few days after the catastrophic leak and division of a primary ship.Is this the conduct of a moral industry that can be trusted with gentle self-regulation of the industry?
In the very important early days, when independent science has guided collections of biological samples (as demonstrated by the reaction to all primary oil spills in the world), a number of excuses were heard that the Mauritius government was waiting for Japanese government scientists to be on the ground in Mauritius.
So while Mauritians had access to some of the latest sciences and generations to trace the oceans after an oil spill, they had to observe, regardless of what was originally advertised as Japanese biodiversity scientists, it had been noticed diving in the waters in August.24 (the same day that the Wakashio was intentionally sunk), doing manual studies of corals (which transparently is not scalable in the 27 square kilometers of corals that had been affected by the oil spill), telling the media that they had not noticed any damage.nor evidence that adequate refrigerated biological samples have been prepared with transparency chains for genomic sampling of fish species such as lagoon clownfish.In other words, no genuine science was being carried out about a month after the ship’s failure, through foreign specialists claiming to be experts in oil spills.
It was not until September 1 (38 days after grounding) that it was later revealed that there were no coral, mangrove or biodiversity scientists in the first two groups sent through the Japanese government.According to the Japanese government spokesman, the first rescue team composed of officials from the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Japan Coast Guard and JICA (Japanese aid agency), sent from August 10 to 23 to carry out oil extraction activities. A seven-member crisis assistance team sent to Mauritius, adding officials from the Ministry of the Environment and the National Institute of Environmental Studies, to help cover up the oil and perceive the environmental damage caused by the incident.Mauritius, despite the foreign aid of the world’s leading experts today.
This has alarmed several local conservation groups in Mauritius, who now wonder what basis were made the statements of Japanese groups that made visits to the boxes to the media that “coral reefs did seem to be affected”.
It was only two days before some 50 whales and dolphins appeared dead on Mauritius’ beaches, and a press convention on 26 August chaired by Mauritius’ Minister of Environment, government fisheries scientists and what was purported to be an impartial whale.a vigilante NGO that gave the impression that all whales and dolphins had died from “natural causes,” leading to widespread disbelief across the country.
It turns out that this is only a third six-member team sent on Wednesday, September 2, including marine or biodiversity scientists familiar with the unique species discovered in Mauritius waters.It’s 40 incredible days after a primary turn of destination in a global biodiversity hotspot and when donations were made from the world’s leading scientists around the world, adding NOAA.
Japan’s slow reaction has been heavily criticized internationally, where the first reaction to the Mauritius oil spill from a senior Japanese official came just five days after oil began flowing from Wakashio when Japan’s Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Minister Kazuyoshi AkabaArray said on August 11 that “We are causing wonderful considerations and disorders (on oil leakage).We will do everything we can for (Maurice)” and only Japanese technologies are glimpsed for combat opposed to the oil spill, when there are more fashionable technologies in the world.
So why was independent science intentionally suppressed in the first 40 critical days after the accident and oil spill?It is one of the most exclusive biodiversity hotspots in the world, with several in the world’s nature reserves.Mauritius has independent scientists within local environmental NGOs, as well as a former president who is an eminent biodiversity scientist, all of whom had requested investments in independent and independent clinical interventions.The U.S. government has not been able to do that. The U.S. and NOAA have been providing independent clinical assistance since August 13 (by comparison, NOAA’s ocean science budget is higher than the rest of the global combination), however, all of this appears to have been ignored or set aside.
In an industry that prides itself on its ambitious announcements on the protection of marine biodiversity, a decade of sustainable action at a prominent United Nations Ocean Summit (ODD14) and promises for UNESCO’s decade of ocean sciences, it is transparent that words are much cheaper than action.
Japan was already facing a backlash in Mauritius for what gave the impression of being a series of secret deals for tuna access rights and maritime security assistance in recent years, and questions have also been raised. raised in connection with the $ 11 million that Japan had granted to Mauritius for the acquisition of radars (given that the maximum radars in Mauritius gave the impression of being out of order on the day of the accident). A controversial 2018 agreement on fisheries and maritime protection between Japan and Mauritius, signed through Japan’s Foreign Minister Masahisa Sato with Mauritius Foreign Minister Vishnu Lutchmeenaraidoo, has proven highly unpopular with protests from fishermen in Mauritius who had complained about the unsustainable tuna fishing strategies of the Japanese fleets. in Mauritian waters and questioned Japan about its sustainable whaling practices and policies. Fishermen in Mauritius have also criticized a deal with the EU in 2017 that allowed giant Spanish fleets to enter Mauritian waters for poorly tracked tuna fishing.
For tuna sold in Japanese markets between $3 and $10 according to the kilogram, Mauritius receives only $0.20 to $0.30 according to the kilogram (less than 10% of the final retail price), which has been a component of growing frustration around justice and sustainability worldwide..tuna source chain. This occurs when Japanese media reported on the so-called backdoor, a “quick transaction” for a hundred fishing boats for $34 million, which was being discussed behind closed doors.
As Japan attempts to use diplomatic force with several small island and African states amid developing geopolitical tensions in Asia, the suppression of the science of the most productive goals and practices in a small island state after a primary oil spill caused by a primary Japanese shipping company can many more.Countries are twice thinking about whether Japan cares about their interests.
Trying to create an even greater reliance on Mauritius on Japanese science and generation after a primary oil spill related to some of Japan’s largest corporations has also been a troubling development.
Mauritius’ media outlets and protesters have widely criticized the Prime Minister of Mauritius’ statements that it is based on external “experts” provided through the oil spill industry.The Mauritius public wanted to listen to “expert advice” without hearing anything about their ratings or prospects for the spill for 40 days. This army of specialists (tens of at least five companies) arrived in the country at the start of the spill and presided over some of the worst environmental damage the country has experienced in virgin grassy areas.
These experts promptly began taking over the operation, but without a single press conference.Mauritius has a well-educated population with identified leaders around the world in spaces directly similar to a primary oil spill.To marginalize the local experience of fishermen and tour operators.who understood the wind and currents of the region (it was also a famous place to practice kitesurfing), scientists from NGOs who had worked in the domain for decades and Mauritians with foreign experience in the applicable fields, considered very arrogant through these foreign experts.
The Prime Minister of Mauritius is now under pressure on 31 August that it was SMIT Salvage’s resolution (advised through French experts) to intentionally sink the Wakashio, without any transparency around the resolution and cry of the Mauritians and internationals.
How can these experts who can only enter another country and make vital decisions that have had more damaging consequences, without being subject to the same criteria of transparency and accountability that are expected of them in their country?
The shipping industry has had a bad reputation for years for its poor human and environmental safety.He continued to operate with an air of impunity: “Trust us, we know what we are doing” has been his de facto mantra.Single-hull shipments have been banned in Antarctica due to pressure from environmentalists.In the Arctic, the IMO had been criticized for delaying enforcing a similar ban on shipments known to be harmful since the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989 and each and every turn of primary bunker fuel destination since then, such as Cosco Busan in 2007.there was, exactly this kind of boat that dragged 1 km along Mauritius’ rugged coral reefs for 12 days that despite each and every one went through the reservoirs and spilled oil into the lagoon.If the shipment had been double-hulled, this devastation would not have happened.
Instead of being a proactive regulator, the IMO has moved slowly and reluctantly toward a new law on ballast water, poisonous hull paints, marine pollutants (Marpol), shipment recycling, and even seabed mining laws, all of which have been criticized for being too weak.The industry’s style of self-regulation for global shipping seems to be broken, however, there is no global leader to do so, despite other commitments on ocean sustainability.
Global shipping also turns out to be an industry disconnected from the direction the world is taking: the last dinosaurs of a bygone era of fossil fuels In the automotive sector, all primary car manufacturers now have giant electric vehicle divisions A new generation of electric drones Urban mobility has noticed a proliferation of new features with rechargeable battery scooters , which is at the origin of the largest Cambbic explosion of innovation in maritime transport since the first days of theft and motor vehicles.However, there is one industry that is strangely on the sidelines: global shipping.
That is, in particular, worrying when the global shipping regulator allows for a type of fuel, as observed in Mauritius, when it does not even know how harmful it is to human or environmental health (by the way, this raises even more questions about the overly confident statements of Japanese government advisers in Mauritius on August 24, even though regulators themselves have under pressure the need for more science on this fuel in the reef systems of Mauritius coral).
The shipping industry has self-eliminated from the Paris Agreement on climate change. When they were forced to set voluntary targets, they were criticized for being too flexible and too far away.As a global regulator, the IMO does not even collect the knowledge needed to show how serious global shipping is with respect to climate change, such as the verifiable number of annual investments in electrification or R
In recent years, these were very tough establishments that seem to have noticed that their sustainability narrative was hijacked through teams with special interests to maintain the “status quo” in an industry that generated $3 trillion in 2019 alone.Money is not the challenge in an industry where one in two ships is registered in local hostels.
Corporations associated with a deep wallet under the appearance of public-private partnerships have given the impression of many activities, without much concrete progress or responsibility.whether concrete sustainability movements to keep the fossil fuel industry away, or whether the maritime industry’s own desires have been prioritized.
Elsewhere, tough heads of state sit on panels on ocean sustainability, but the focus is more on “illegal fishing” than on legal and commercial overfishing, which poses a much greater risk to the ocean.he was summoned through Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg and also included Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.This panel is intended to help sustainability and a healthier long term for the ocean.The scene of the oil spills in Mauritius.A closer look at the movements made through these members of the High Level Group shows an attractive trend.
Among the panel’s leaders, Norway’s existing administrations have veted the creation of a marine domain in Antarctica in 2018, the Japanese prime minister began announcing whaling in 2019, the Kenyan government is building a huge coal power plant next to the UNESCO World Heritage Site.Protected coral reefs on the lamu coast, the Australian prime minister brazenly supports the largest coal mine in the Great Barrier Reef, making it a double death sentence for this exclusive and global environment, and the island nations of Kiribati and Nauru.have been strong advocates of seabed mining opposed to protests in their own country.These are not the sustainability references to which Jacques Cousteau or Greta Thunberg would be proud to associate.
Several primary Western environmental NGOs have also remained silent on the stage in Mauritius, which is a component of the link between climate change, biodiversity loss, foreign progression and corporate responsibility.have provided sound, public and practical advice.
For years, environmentalists have warned of the effects of giant ships traveling at top speeds in sensitive ocean spaces; however, small investments in the global shipping industry have been true to significant research.
Analysis of navigation routes around Mauritius shows that ships were moving at a pace across many whale feeding spaces during the vital winter in the southern hemisphere, when large-scale migration and reproduction took place around the Mauritius coast.In the front segment of the Wakashio, a resolution was taken to do so, and within a few days, about 50 dead whales and dolphins appeared off the coast of Mauritius.
Once again, questions are raised about the seriousness of the global shipping industry to prevent damage to marine mammals that have been on endangered species lists for decades.
While the global transport industry is outraged, mauritius’ government will also be held accountable.Has there been any wrong step in the Mauritius government on the Wakashio case?
The current crisis could possibly stem from shipping, but it has been compounded by poor decision-making and institutional clutter (unfortunately, this is increasingly happening in middle-income countries around the world).
No country is the best right now (Bill Gates noted in April this year that “few countries will get an A score in response to coronavirus”).However, some of the most demanding situations Mauritius faces over the past month go beyond that and include:
These are problems of democracy and national governance, international governments that have naively ventured, such as France, which has intervened without recognizing the local converter scenario, have burned their hands, as they also saw when President Macron intervened in Beirut and faced a strong reaction.of a frustrated local population.
This does not relieve the global shipping industry of the ethical, and not just legal, duty to ensure that this preserved domain (in its entirety and not the maximum remote domain that is being considered lately) is restored to its pristine state in the past. and to all patrimonial domains. they are completely restored.
A simplified monochrome look at an immediate moving dynamic is a component of the problem.There has been a lack of sophistication in the component of several governments and corporations in reaction to the oil spill that shows how disconnected these organizations and industries are.
In a world where corporations quickly got on the train of social problems like ‘Black Lives Matter’, after George Floyd’s death, they issued statements ‘with a purpose’ about foreign milestones such as UNFPA week or Davos, praising the handful of examples of some young people having an effect on investments, it has been instructive about what efforts are being invested and not reversed and whether those are genuine steps for a deep replacement or simply efforts led by marketing and public relations.
Turns out that all spaces with a comfortable touch that don’t have fundamental business operations get a lot of cash in marketing, however, when it comes to making a genuine replacement and taking courageous action, those business leaders seem to be wasting their voice and courage.He’s the real one responsible for doing business, and it’s the poorest people in the world who have to pay.
If the maritime transport and insurance sector cannot solve these disruptions on its own, it may be time for national and foreign regulators to intervene and do their job.If existing laws, regulations, and procedures are not smart enough, write down those that are tailored to your goal.Covid-19 showed how global it is imaginable in a global emergency.Mauritius now has part of as many deaths as in wakashio as in Covid-19.
Ordinary people call for bolder interventions, and the time has come for radical interventions that the world will have to make.
There is much at stake with the oil spill in Mauritius, a middle-income country, once a style for Africa and other island nations, which relies heavily on biodiversity for tourism, subsistence fishing and coastal protection.it has also been a pillar of smart governance and democracy in Africa for many years.
The Wakashio incident is a wake-up call to the toughest nations on Earth to make sure their corporations cannot cause this form of harm to the herbal world and to make some full, no-situation transparency to the situation.
Every year, for 12 years since the 2008 monetary crisis, the world’s elites gathered in Davos to talk about how global capitalism wants to change, despite the ability to influence billions of dollars, marketing and investment budgets, and some of the world’s top-paid.inequality has continued to grow internationally and all signs of sustainable skills have declined during this period.
New faces have given the impression in the environmental movement: GretaThunberg of Sweden, Vanessa Nakate of Uganda, these are the faces of a new green revolution.They had to interfere when G20 world leaders didn’t.Canada attempted a G20 statement on oceanic plastics in 2019, but kept quiet about 200,000 to 300,000 gallons of heavy oil divided in Mauritius’ Coral Lagoon, as protests took place across Canada among Mauritius’ giant diaspora.
With a major UN agency, the IMO, very concerned about its inability to reform temporarily enough, is: what will the G20 do with this industry?
The G20 had decided on key issues on which to take a position, such as tax havens (2011), climate replacement through the G20 Working Group on Climate Financial Disclosures (2015) and Plastic in the Ocean (2019). In just two months this year, in Beirut, Venezuela, the Red Sea and now Mauritius, global shipping has created greater economic, health, ecological and geopolitical risks.
If the Pope’s ethical authority is needed to mobilize and communicate on this situation, when will we see the G20 leaders also their strength or voice?Or will this industry continue to be allowed to get away with flags of convenience, lax protection criteria and no commitment to the sustainability measures we fight around the world.
In a Covid world, the EU is committed to rebuilding better.Democrats are calling for a green New Deal, the UK is talking about putting sustainability at the center of its recovery, China has talked about an ecological civilization.The atypical case in all this has been the global shipping industry, which has just published common places to deal with any media storms, before returning to normal.
But will leaders influencing 80% of the world economy step forward and carry out reforms?
Only 4 movements are needed
What are the G20 leaders for? Divine intervention?
I am a progressive economist oriented to innovation, sustainability and moral economic growth.Lately I’m working with leading generation corporations in Silicon Valley in
I am a progression economist focused on innovation, sustainability, and moral economic expansion. Lately I am working with leading generation corporations in Silicon Valley on sustainable expansion opportunities, that is, targeting low-income countries. WEF Global Network of Experts and member of the CCICED China Council. My e-book on Sustainability in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, Soul of the Sea in the Age of the Algorithm, focuses on a renaissance of the oceans and climate and draws on me as an economic and innovation advisor to governments and CEOs Fortune 500 Globals. I have a degree in progression economics from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and the University of Cambridge.