Flirting with Apocalypse (for the CARD project at the British Cartoon Archive) is nearly done. This sample section on whaling was completed today along with a final piece on natural disasters. Carl Giles on whaling. Who'd have thought it?
On Tuesday 21 July 1981 the International Whaling Commission met at Brighton's Metropole Hotel for their annual conference. On the agenda was a worldwide ban on the commercial killing of whales. Japan led a successful opposition to the proposals, and despite nations voting 16-8 in favour of a ban with three abstentions, the requirement of a three-fourths majority ensured the ban did not pass.
On Tuesday 21 July 1981 the International Whaling Commission met at Brighton's Metropole Hotel for their annual conference. On the agenda was a worldwide ban on the commercial killing of whales. Japan led a successful opposition to the proposals, and despite nations voting 16-8 in favour of a ban with three abstentions, the requirement of a three-fourths majority ensured the ban did not pass.
(c) British Cartoon Archive, University of Kent, Carl Giles, Daily Express, 21 Jul 1981.
Carl Giles, in his typically apolitical style, comments on the situation with compassion, sympathy and jollity. "I'm afraid that whale the gentleman's been giving the kiss-of-life to for the last half hour happens to be one of these 'ere rubber ones" says a seaman. Yet the eye is drawn to the energy with which the anti-whaling campaigner goes about his task, and the broad, warm, satisfied smile of the 'rubber' whale he is trying to save. Campaigners, Giles tells us, may occasionally have more passion than sense, but the beasts they are trying to save are worth every ounce of effort.
A year later the IWC meeting voted through a complete ban on commercial whaling. Environmentalists celebrated their first major international political triumph.
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