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Numerous thoughts rushed to mind. First, I had to scour my brain to remember what I had written. Rats, after all, are not something I write or think about often. Second, I was pleased to discover that someone was reading my column – especially one written over five years ago.
The FAO’s 2024 State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture Report revealed that of the 185.4 million tonnes of aquatic animal production worldwide in 2022, 94 million tonnes was from aquaculture and 91 million tonnes was accounted for by wild catch.
The paradox is that this restoration cannot necessarily rely on “retail” communication through mainstream international media, but instead on “wholesale” communications, most of which occurs out of the public eye, beyond the immediate reach of hothouse politics.
The narrative is enticing, plausible and wrong. And it is being ruthlessly exploited to justify protectionism on a scale unprecedented since the 1930 Smoot-Hawley Act, which eventually imposed mountainous tariffs on more than 20,000 imported goods.
Her call for more cooperation in particular between the US and China is of course very welcome. But it would be more welcomed if and when the lecture-like rhetoric is matched by concrete action.
Talk to the UN world tourism organisation – since January rebranded as UN Tourism – and the message is that international tourism is well on the road to recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic. But talk to tourism officials in Hong Kong, South Korea, mainland China or Thailand and the story is: not so fast.
By 2100, just six of the world’s 204 economies will still have growing populations. All of them are small. Three of them are in poverty-stricken sub-Saharan Africa. The rest – including all of the largest economies – will for many decades have been living with shrinking birth rates and steadily ageing populations.
The question has relevance when the US human rights organisation Freedom House warns of a “crucial test” for democracies in 2024, recording that democracy has suffered an aggregate decline in every one of the past 18 years. Its Freedom in the World Report 2024 records that political rights and civil liberties were diminished in 52 countries last year while only 21 countries experienced improvements.