The oceans are dying. A recent report by an international team of researchers, in the journal Science, predicts that our planet has “‘Only 50 years left’ for sea fish.”

Now, after 30 or more years of environmental catastrophism, a little skepticism may be in order.

But take a step back: The biggest failures of environmentalist prediction in the past have been over world population and poverty. In the ’60s and ’70s, quite a few environmentalists predicted mass starvation by the ’80s and ’90s. Didn’t happen.

Why? Because most of our food comes from farms. Which are private property, for the most part. Which depend on markets. And markets have pretty good feedback systems, allowing for progress.

But the seas? There’s scant “private ownership of the means of production” in the oceans. Fisheries basically just harvest nature’s bounty.

Which leads to OVERKILL. Just as common ownership of farmland led to what’s called “the tragedy of the commons” — private over-grazing of commonly held fields — common ownership, or downright non-ownership, of ocean beds and waters can’t help but lead to over-fishing.

Steve Palumbi, a Stanford researcher, claims that “this century is the last century of wild seafood.” We must “fundamentally change the way we manage” the oceans, he says.

Scientists may very well be right that large no-fishing zones should be established. But if we don’t also establish workable private enterprise in the oceans, these warnings will be like Cassandra’s: futile.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Here’s a story that I really, really hope is not the start of a trend. A mom calling the cops on her kid, a 12-year-old boy, having him arrested and taken away in handcuffs.

Why? Robbery? Arson? Dope?

Robbery of a sort. The South Carolina mom, Brandi Ervin, called the police because her son allegedly rummaged through his grandmother’s things for his Christmas present, a Gameboy. Apparently he has played with this game repeatedly.

Just played with the Gameboy again and again. Before Christmas. Sounds like “Godfather IV,” doesn’t it?

The mom says, “My grandmother went out of her way to lay away a toy and paid on this thing for months. It was only to teach my son a lesson.”

I don’t know the daily life in this home. I can imagine that the kid often acts like a brat and does not obey his mother. The mom seems to have a problem disciplining the boy and on that score she has my sympathy.

But I mean, gee whiz, couldn’t she just throw away the present after her son broke the rules? And do it the very first time he played with the game, if he has a history of bratty behavior? If she is overwhelmed, a pastor or friend of the family is the one to go to, not a man with handcuffs.

‘Cause none of us will enjoy the police state that will come about if all parents with disciplinary problems have their kids arrested.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

I, for one, like beauty. So this headline caught my eye: “Spending Cap May Block Beauty.” The subhead went on to inform that: “Improving City’s Blank Canvas Could Require Art of Politics.”

Is it just me? Somehow I’ve never thought of politics as art.

And you’re probably wondering: What city? What city can we pretty much consider a “blank canvas” devoid of any beauty?

Well, the city is our nation’s capital: Washington, D.C. Yes, somehow when it comes to any cap on government spending, even a city with the White House, the Capitol, memorials and monuments, can be considered a “blank canvas” desperately in need of a taxpayer-funded transfusion of beauty.

Simple story: Washington DC government is spending $611 million on a stadium for the city’s new privately-owned baseball team, the Nationals. That is the absolute limit the City Council is willing to spend in public funds. Fiscal tough guys: $611 million and not a penny more.

Which means the stadium beautification planned by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities — at the additional cost of $2 million — cannot be done. DC residents will be stuck with a $611 million stadium that Washington Post reporter David Nakamura calls “a cold slab of concrete and glass.”

I know the feeling. Why just the other day I found I could afford the plain version of an item, without any beauty added. But for an extra $2 million, I could get it absolutely teeming with beauty.

It wasn’t fair. I didn’t have the $2 million.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

The headline reads: “In New Congress, Pork May Linger.” It might, huh? Even though campaigning Democrats railed against the Republican “culture of corruption”?

“Weather May Continue.” That’s what I expect the next New York Times headline to be. “World Is Shocked, Shocked.”

I mean, come on, New York Times guys. How about “Pork Ain’t Goin’ NOWHERE!!”?

I sure want it to go. But although it’s soon to be Democrats running Congress, we’re not seeing Politico careerus hit the endangered species list. When asked about their attacks on dubious GOP practices, the new leadership pointedly refuses to say that those practices will now be scrubbed and scotched.

David Kirkpatrick’s reporting lays it out much more firmly than the tentative headline. He notes that many Democrats leapt to the support of porkbarreler extraordinaire, Republican Senator Ted Stevens, when bad publicity called attention to the senator’s earmark for an expensive overpass.

You remember the Alaska senator, of the “bridge to nowhere”? Stevens is a buddy of Democratic Senator Daniel Inouye. Both “deliver to their states more money per capita in earmarks — the pet projects lawmakers insert into major spending bills — than any other state gets.”

Inouye says earmarks aren’t going anywhere. And Senator Patty Murray, another Democrat about to chair a powerful subcommittee, says “What is good for the goose is good for the gander.” Don’t go after anybody else’s earmark or yours may be next.

In short, to heck with the taxpayer. Culture of corruption, full speed ahead.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

What’s government for? To answer, I go back to the basics. Emergency help in response to crime, that’s a good example. We need that. Just the other day I praised the 9-1-1 emergency number system as a very good idea, a worthy government program.

But government can’t do everything. We have to protect ourselves, too. Though most communities have a government-provided ambulance and fire system, as well as a police response system, does that mean we should just stop there, and let the professionals handle everything?

No. Take smoke alarms. Very useful devices. Prudent home owners have them. And we have every reason to want to make them MORE useful.

Did you know that some hearing-impaired people can’t hear the most common types? Did you know that many people sleep too deeply to be wakened by most smoke alarms?

A recent study, reported by Reuters, demonstrated that children are far more likely to wake up and successfully exit their rooms — and go through proper emergency procedures — when the smoke alarms issue a pre-recorded warning message and instructional commands with their own parent’s voices instead of the usual shrill squeal.

I can tell you, I’ll be looking for that kind of smoke alarm, when available.

It’s just part of being a good homeowner and parent. Perfecting the means of emergency response is not something we leave to the fire and police departments. It’s something we should demand . . . of ourselves.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.