Cultural whaling, commodification, and culture change

Whaling is back on the international stage as pro-whaling interests push to reopen commercial whaling by overturning the moratorium imposed in 1986. P roponents of ending the ban are using two strategies: (1) appealing to publ ic sentiment that supports indigenous subsistence whaling by attempting to cloak commercial whaling in the same guise and (2) maintaining that reopeni ng commercial whaling is the "scientific" option. I reject both ploys, and instead shift the focus for global debate to scrutinizing the industrial ec onomic model that Western culture is currently imposing on the rest of the world, a model which ultimately reduces all life forms to mere commodities for the marketplace.