Mischa gave me a wonderful birthday gift, How to Speak Whale by Tom Mustill. I've just finished reading it. Basically, Mustill, a filmmaker (you can see some of his superb films here) was breached on by a humpback whale and that launched him on a quest to discover if we could speak to whales.
The book charts the history of whaling, whale science, the study of animal communication, philosophical views of animals and the burgeoning AI. It's superbly researched and very readable.
Towards the end he acknowledges that our past use of increasingly sophisticated tech has tended to be disadvantageous to other animals and suggests that we should listen first, to what they have to say.
A good point. But here's my view: don't we, really, know what animals would say if they could? It goes like this.
Stop killing us.
Stop destroying our homes.
Stop taking all our food.
Stop keeping us in cages, pens, exhibitions, stables, sheds, terraria, vermaria, and aquaria. [And houses? - Ed.] [Yeah, guess so. - Crone] And houses.
Stop poisoning the land, air, and water.
Stop feeding us stuff that is bad for us.
Stop experimenting on us.
Stop taking away our children.
Stop cutting off our genitalia and tails.
Stop disturbing us with watching us and with monitoring us. [And photographing us? - Ed.] [Alright! Jeez. - Crone] And with photographing and filming us.
Stop telling us what to do and where to go.
Stop telling us when and when not to have sex.
Stop destroying our societies.
Stop the light pollution.
Stop the noise pollution.
Stop taking up all the space.
Stop fencing off our migration routes.
Stop speaking to us in baby voices.
Stop discussing whether or how much we matter to you. We matter to US. That is enough.
Just fucking STOP already!
Who made YOU God???
And if we heard them say all this, would it make a difference? Or would we say, "Oh they just don't understand the economic/social/legal imperative to continue as we are"? Or would we just say, "Yeah, whatevs. I want a new iPhone."
Some say that more of us care. Maybe.
But every year, more habitat is destroyed and more animals are farmed. Our feelings are irrelevant: it's only collective action that will make a difference. And that takes huge political will... can you, really, see that happening?
I fucking can't.
So, to cheer us up. Divo eating and a video of the Unbraves, being unbrave.
I'm glad you included the wonderful crows for something cheery, because yes, the state of the world is dismal. But that's a very interesting whale article from the Guardian!