The media has been covering a remarkable story. Apparently 15 young North Sea Sperm Wales washed ashore in Germany. The news outlets have reported that they starved because their stomachs were full of plastic, including car parts.
This sounded a bit over the top to me, so I did a brief bit of research. Almost every article was the same, suggesting that the wales were literally so full of plastic that they could no longer eat. And then I found an article from oceandefenderhawaii.com (an environmentalist website, so biased, if anything, in favor of wales and against pollution.)
It states:" Four of the whales had plastic and a few other marine debris in their stomach, but most had empty stomachs, they were starved. To conclude that all whales died from plastic pollution in the ocean is not accurate in our opinion."
So the reports jumped from four out of 15 whales having plastic in their stomachs, to all 15 dying from stomachs full of plastic. Clearly that is a far more sensationalistic story.
Of course what followed were the demands that drastic action be taken to clear our oceans of all of this plastic that is filling sea creature near to bursting. And thus a risk, and a mitigation are created from whole cloth in order to save an agenda.
IF this happened only in the media, it would be one thing, but clearly this happens on a smaller scale within organizations as well. As the old saying goes, In God we trust. With all others, verify.
Always check the facts before assuming a risk is as presented.
This sounded a bit over the top to me, so I did a brief bit of research. Almost every article was the same, suggesting that the wales were literally so full of plastic that they could no longer eat. And then I found an article from oceandefenderhawaii.com (an environmentalist website, so biased, if anything, in favor of wales and against pollution.)
It states:" Four of the whales had plastic and a few other marine debris in their stomach, but most had empty stomachs, they were starved. To conclude that all whales died from plastic pollution in the ocean is not accurate in our opinion."
So the reports jumped from four out of 15 whales having plastic in their stomachs, to all 15 dying from stomachs full of plastic. Clearly that is a far more sensationalistic story.
Of course what followed were the demands that drastic action be taken to clear our oceans of all of this plastic that is filling sea creature near to bursting. And thus a risk, and a mitigation are created from whole cloth in order to save an agenda.
IF this happened only in the media, it would be one thing, but clearly this happens on a smaller scale within organizations as well. As the old saying goes, In God we trust. With all others, verify.
Always check the facts before assuming a risk is as presented.
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