First Do No Harm

Primum non nocere, first do no harm, a Latin phrase that has been around since before the Hippocratic oath was drafted.  How curious that our thoughts for centuries on how we harm ourselves have been applied to direct harm upon the physical human body with no thought to early intervention, early prevention even though we clearly had the language and intelligence to make that logical connection.

In this blog I expect most of my posts to reflect on the indirect harm we cause ourselves by allowing harm to those others we share the planet with, our fellow earthlings.  I expect most of them will reflect on our ability to harm our friends in the oceans.  I hope a few will inspire others to join with my growing family of Sea Shepherds to first do no harm and then maybe, just maybe, we can start repairing some of the damage we have caused.

Picture credit:  Srikant  Jakilinki

Sooner or later, harm to our planet, especially harm to our oceans, does cause real physical harm to us, it just takes rather longer to show than the harm caused by a medical blunder.  But even if it causes no immediate physical harm, it causes real emotional harm for anyone willing to open their eyes and see what is going on.  For those not willing to open their eyes, it has harmed you already, you are trapped in your own, private, mental panic room - it might not be able to harm you in there, but you can't get out either.  It's called a panic room for good reason.

So welcome to my blog, I hope it will be an interesting journey for us all and remember, first do no harm.