EDITORIAL Save the whales, dont buy
Mitsubishi
You probably would not think twice,
when shopping for an electronics product or automobile, if you had to decide
between a Mitsubishi and some other brand.
But you should.
You should make some new connections -- between a beautiful
Mexican lagoon, its population of gray whales and the giant Japanese
conglomerate.
San Ignacio Lagoon is a heavenly preserve to which wintering geese
flock. Herons, egrets and other birds swoop down to feed in the shallows. It is
also a breeding ground for gray whales where tourists come to see the beautiful
giants spout mist and jump from the water.
This protected place, tucked about halfway down the Pacific Coast
of Mexicos Baja California peninsula, is the last untarnished winter
refuge of the gray whale, a once-endangered mammal that journeys to these
southern waters each year from Alaska to mate and give birth.
For six years now, a company jointly owned by the Mexican
government and Mitsubishi has proposed to build a sprawling salt-producing
facility on the shore of the lagoon. The project would be the largest of its
kind in the world. It would be devastating to the whales and other
wildlife.
In the latest effort to save this pristine refugee from
development, the National Resources Defense Council and the International Fund
for Animal Welfare have launched the Mitsubishi. Dont buy it!
campaign. It is aimed at forcing the multinational giant to abandon its plans
to build the plant.
It is said the lagoon is the only remaining location where gray
whales can mate, give birth and nurse their young in a wilderness setting, free
from deadly predators, shipping traffic and human pollution.
Environmentalists say Mitsubishis planned salt factory would
turn 116 square miles of the lagoons tidal flats into a wasteland of
diked evaporation ponds, fed by giant engines pumping 6,000 gallons of water
out of the lagoon every second. They say the ponds would produce 1 billion
gallons of deadly brine waste each year, and ocean-going tankers would dock at
a new mile-long concrete pier, risking fuel spills and collisions with
migrating whales.
Last year a group of 34 scientists, including nine Nobel
laureates, after studying the controversy, concluded that Mitsubishis
scheme would pose an unacceptable risk to the lagoons
biological resources.
This is a most transcendental precedent, Alberto
Szekely, a Mexico City lawyer and career Mexican diplomat who is representing
the coalition of environmentalists opposed to the San Ignacio project told the
Houston Chronicle recently. The future of environmental justice
will depend on [it].
Consumers are being asked by the National Resources Defense
Council to sign pledges not to buy Mitsubishi products until it abandons the
plan. For more information, visit the councils Web site at
www.nrdc.org
National Catholic Reporter, March 10,
2000
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