Back In Business

Very glad to see that James Hook Lobster is back in business.  The website is up and running and, if you’re looking for great lobster and seafood, look no further: http://www.jameshooklobster.com/

There is still no cause determined for the fire, but arson has been ruled out.  The family also pledges to rebuild on the same site, and will not bow out to the multi-million dollar offers being thrown at their feet.  It’s clear to see why this business has lasted three generations, and inspiring to see that they will continue to operate for even more. 

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/06/12/officials_rule_out_arson_in_blaze_at_hook_lobster/

Don’t Look Now

Apparently our Administration’s pledge to save polar bears and insatiable thirst for oil are mutually exclusive.  Just a few weeks ago the Bush administration declared polar bears a threatened species due to habitat loss caused by global warming.  Last week, the Bush administration gave legal protection to oil companies searching for oil in Alaska’s Chukchi Sea for any possible, ensuing environmental harm their exploration may cause.   So, if we see a decline in the polar bear population, or of any other species native to this Arctic region, don’t blame the oil companies, it’s not their fault.  If we see an even greater increase in Arctic temperature, don’t blame the oil companies, they’re not liable.  Who is to blame for the current damage, for the need to declare polar bears threatened?  Blame global warming.

“The oil and gas industry in operating under the kind of rules they have operated under for 15 years has not been a threat to the species.  It was the ice melting and the habitat going away that was a threat to the species over everything else.”  –H. Dale Hall, Director, Fish and Wildlife Service.

Startling rationale, Dale.  Or do you prefer to be called H?

This is part of an Administration initiative to limit “frivolous” lawsuits.  If polar bears disappear it will not be the fault of any man made occurrences, it will be the result of environmental occurrence.  Fault can not be assessed, the environment is beyond our control.  This is the kind of protection $2.6 billion buys, that is the amount 7 oil companies, including Shell Oil Co. and ConocoPhillips Co., paid for the lease to explore the Chukchi Sea.  Quite an insurance policy. 

The operation will require drill ships, barges, ice breakers, helicopters, and the creation of hundreds of miles of ice roads along the coastline.  None of that heavy machinery should lead to an increase in greenhouse gases in the area.  Those gases are already there.  None of the animals in the area should be harmed by this innocuous, and necessary, intrusion.  Don’t worry, the bears will be fine.  And those in the Bush administration really want to do everything they can to save them. 

Final question, at what point will the fruits of this labor bring the cost of gas below $4/gallon?

http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/green/articles/2008/06/15/oil_companies_get_ok_to_annoy_bears/

 

 

One Thing Leads To Another

An upcoming report in the journal Geophysical Research Letters warns that, as Arctic sea ice melts more rapidly, permafrost as far as 900 miles inland will also experience accelerated melting.  Consequently, various ecosystems throughout Canada, Russia, and Alaska are imperiled.  That may not make for a significant headline in the minds of those who still persist in flouting the reality of global warming, but some of those eco-systems at stake include one that may affect their pocketbook and for some, their constituency.  Alaska is already displaying signs of environmental fracture–the average Arctic overland temperature from August to September 2007 rose by a record of 4 degrees over the average recorded from 1978-2006.  As a result, parts of Alaska have seen the ground give way beneath their feet.  Pockets of soil collapse as the ice they contain melts and, as they do, highways crumble, houses sink into the ground, trees slant to create uneven, “drunken” forests and, lastly, oil rigs buckle and break.  This last consequence should be especially pertinent for those in our current Administration advocating the need for further oil drilling in Alaskan wildlife preserves.  This is part of their proposed solution to our current oil crisis.  Beyond the fact that such an excavation would not yield an increase in oil supply for many years, it may be physically impossible due to the environmental havoc our industrialism has already created.

 

Hopefully, that should prevent the proposed oil exploration from taking place, but that is not enough.  The current situation is so severe that the Geophysical study predicts that this autumn’s Arctic temperatures could rise by as much as 9 degrees Celsius.  That is a staggering figure, 350% greater than the figure hypothesized by other models.  To put the number in perspective, consider that NASA climate scientist James Hansen theorizes that it is a mere 2 degree temperature increase represents a point of no return for our planet.  To drive that point home, read Mark Lynas’ Six Degrees: Our Future On A Hotter Planet, if you don’t have the time to read, you can watch the National Geographic documentary on the same subject.  These works display the devastation global warming has already wrought across the globe: stretches of the Nile that have dried up, glaciers melting in Greenland and Antarctica, and the massive death toll of 2003’s European heat wave.  These events are the results of 2 degree global climate increase, and both works examine the possibilities of a future 6 degree rise in temperature.  I watched the Six Degrees film just a few months ago, and am dumbstruck not only at the reality of 4 degree rise in the Arctic, but at the prediction of an impending nine degree change.  There are those that continue to deny the reality of global warming and, though their numbers are waning, there is no need to debate its existence.  It is time to unite captains of industry and heads of state worldwide to find a solution to save us now, before the discussion of saving our future generations is moot.   

A couple of followup links:

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/06/arctic-melting-inland-warming.php

 

http://www.amazon.com/National-Geographic-Degrees-Could-Change/dp/B0012Q3T72

 

 

Let Me Stand Next To Your Fire

Last Friday in Boston, James Hook Lobster Co. (http://www.jameshooklobster.com/) suffered a devastating early morning fire that destroyed not only their entire supply of fresh fish and lobster (valued at over half a million dollars), but also the prized waterfront location that has housed this family business since 1925.  This building is a fixture in the landscape of the Boston waterfront.  Sandwiched between luxury hotels to the left and right, offering a gateway to the Seaport District that many hail as the future of the city, James Hook Lobster Co was a refreshing reminder of honest hard work.  The modest structure was little more than a rusted roof shack propped up by harbor pyres, but it was the undisputed home to all those in the know as the premiere supplier, both wholesale and retail, of the freshest catches delivered into Boston Harbor. 

My immediate response to the news was one of dismay, not only for the members of the family and for the employees, but for the loss of a great local business.  In an age when we become increasingly desensitized to the onslaught of corporate development, and meekly watch as our local coffee shop is morphed into another Dunkin’ Donuts (to meet the demand of customers not being served by the Dunkin’ Donuts across the street), I feel increasingly drawn to the independent business owner whose enterprise thrives on quality, consistency, and determination.  Those are instrumental values of any successful business, but it is not as though the corporations of the world have exclusive right to that formula.   Many of us know better, that corporate dominance  does not represent superior quality.  A name brand certainly carries weight, but the key to a capitalist society is competition and variety, not homogeny.  We need more choices of vendors, rather than choices of corporate locations.  ‘Should I go to my local florist?  Or to the KaBloom across the street?’  In many city neighborhoods we no longer even have that choice.  Need flowers?  It’s KaBloom.  Want coffee?  It’s Starbucks or, Starbucks.  Sometimes we do have a choice.  For example, need a drug store?  There’s CVS or Duane Reade, maybe Walgreens.  But our choices are becoming fewer and fewer.  

Over the weekend I thought about the fate of that scarred portion of Atlantic Avenue and the heartache and financial pain that had been wrought on the Hook family and their employees.  What would they do for work?  Would this bring an end to the generations of hard work and success?  What monstrosity might replace James Hook on this prized doorway of the waterfront? 

Today brought heartening news.  Not only was the business determined to persevere, but they found help from their immediate competitors, namely PJ Lobster and James Nagle Co. (http://news.bostonherald.com/business/general/view.bg?&articleid=1098032&format=&page=2&listingType=biz) 

To see that your generations long competition was the first to come forward and offer tank space for your supply, and hours for your employees, thinking, ’what if this happened to me,’ I feel tremendously inspired by this rare example of honor, humanity, and understanding in business.  To see a tragedy met with unity, with a shared collective understanding, I hope this is a story that reaches the upper echelons of so called big-business.  Not only by the current executives, but also by the current students at all levels that aspire one day to lead, or be a voice within a company, regardless of the industry.  We spend most of our days being bombarded with astronomical figures designed to stagger us and separate us: hundred billion dollar acquisitions, multi-million dollar salaries, luxury toys.  As if those are supposed to be our benchmarks. 

At a time when our struggling economy is witnessing oil executives explain away on Capitol Hill that they cannot be blamed for astronomical gas prices, nor be brought to question for record profits and salaries, just as finance executives are amiss at the thought of a paycut in spite of our national mortgage crisis, let’s focus attention on examples of good business.  Expose the corruptors for who they are, but bring the spotlight equally to shine on those that struggle to do what is right.  Sharing their resources, offering aid, and considering good business first and profit second.