When we experience progress firsthand, don’t you get so excited? I remember when Taco Bell started paying its tomato pickers fair wages and I was so excited to get a quesadilla from The Bell again! From the Global Gag Rule to passing endangered species laws to getting harmful chemicals banned, we will certainly take what we can get and celebrate every step forward.

It’s the steps backward that make us outraged.

In a move that Greenpeace simply describes as “baffling,” the International Whaling Commission—scratch that, not the entire Commission itself, but a teeny tiny group within the group—is trying to save the whales by reinstating commercial whaling.

That’s like getting people to lose weight by offering them all-you-can-eat buffets every day.

The rule would also allow commercial whalers to have a quota of how many whales they’re allowed to catch—which might (though likely would not) be effective if it were based on some semblance of scientific data—say, number of whales left minus how many it would take to keep the population going divided by countries, etc. etc.

Of course, that number would be miniscule. So the quotas, if instated in this ten year plan, would be based on politics. Wow, what a refreshingly new way to handle such direly important matters! Remember how well that went with climate change?

And naturally, the proposal itself is the result of several closed-door meetings held by fishery bureaucrats around the globe. Businesses taking the lead in running the rest of the world—again, a fun change.

We all know that this proposal is a load of s***. We know that it’s about the whaling industry itself and keeping it alive and thriving. Currently, the ocean area in question is considered a whale sanctuary. Whales that swim its waters are protected from harm; if commercial whaling is allowed to occur in the region, a bloody warfare on the whales will be sure to ensue, further decimating their numbers and driving them to the brink of extinction.  

If you’ve made it this far through my obvious rampant disgust, please consider taking action today against this ridiculous move. You can click here to send a letter to your representative through the International Fund for Animals website. The United States will pick a position and announce it later in the week at an IWC meeting in Florida; it’s crucial that they hear from you today.