With his days as president coming to a close, George Bush has done something surprisingly un-Bush like. He's backed many drilling and mining projects has poorly regulated industrial pollution, and has done much to weaken the Endangered Species Act (grrr) (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/22/AR2008032202204.html). Recently though, George Bush has been trying to grant national party status to a huge chunk of pristine ocean in the center of the Pacific.
The president has considered the possibility of increasing protection for up to 700,000 square miles of ocean (3 times texas) which would the Northern Mariana Islands and the Mariana Trench which harbors hundreds of exotic marine species.
The president has considered the possibility of increasing protection for up to 700,000 square miles of ocean (3 times texas) which would the Northern Mariana Islands and the Mariana Trench which harbors hundreds of exotic marine species.
For now, there is almost no fishing, mining or drilling in the central Pacific however, George bush has the power to prohibit any future attempts from doing harm to the region by most likely fishing for tuna and sharks there.
However, despite current public opinion in facor of such an act, the Northern Marianas House of Representatives voted against monument designation because of fears over future fishing restrictions.
I find this measure a very positive thing because so little of the ocean is protected. Even in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, one of the world’s largest protected areas, only 33 percent is closed to fishing while many maritime nations don't have any marine reserves at all. The oceans are getting hard, overfishing is running rampant and very little is actually being done. This could be a crucial first step to trying to preserve beautiful and mystifying oceans that we have and ultimately, assuming if this passes and remains in place, it could provide a wonderful place for future generations especially considering millions of creatures living there. I for one hope that this area becomes a national monument and that one day, i can go there and see the many currently endangered species still alive and well.
4 comments:
Well, its an adventurous move on George Bush's part to be sure...
I really cant help but wonder though what the benefit is to George of fighting so hard for areas of "pristine ocean" out in the middle of nowhere. I mean sure, its a noble cause that I would love to see continued. But why stop at Ocean that nobody in the U.S. other then conservationists really care about? Well because that requires that you actually go through people with significant interests, and thats just too hard.
Thats probably because Bush is covering his ass. I see this as a half-hearted attempt to please everybody while making little to no concessions from his own side. There are sections of wilderness in Alaska, California, Michigan, marshes in the southern belt, and chaparral along the U.S. coasts that are in horrible shape that get little to no attention from the president. And while I find it touching that this huge plot of water found it way into George's heart, I think that Mr.Bush is right in this case for the entirely wrong reasons. And frankly, I think that even if this gets made into some sort of preservation law it wont be able to reverse Bush's long history of environmentally irresponsible policy making.
I agree with Rick; Bush's attempts here are definately not genuine. He just wants to make a name for himself and improve his legacy as president. He realizes that people just see him as someone who started the Iraq War, and he's scared. He doesn't want to go down in history for that...as a result, he's trying to come up with a whole bunch of last minute programs to boost his image. I'm sorry, Mr. President, but I'm not buying it.
Also, I'm not that surprised that the House of Reps voted against monument designation. The ocean has a lot of resources (fish!) that will be necessary in the future. The world population is growing, and there isn't going to be enough land for farming soon. We'll have to depend on the oceans a lot more, and taking out a big chunk of our possible food source just doesn't seem wise.
According to Jesse, the protection plan will include Mariana Trench - that's the deepest part of ocean in the whole world (almost 7 miles deep). In my opinion, this is the 8th wonder of the world and needs to be protected and conserved. It's not everywhere that you find a place this deep.
I think that it is important for us to protect our natural resources. If we continue to pollute like we do, there will be none. Fish are extremely important to us, and I understand that many people are concerned about the fishing regulations the bill might pass, but we need to preserve the little we have left. If we keep on polluting and over-fishing, then soon enough there will be no more fish left. I think it is wiser to have regulations now than to deplete our resources. And if we actually start taking care of our environment, there might be more fish to catch.
Now regarding Mr.Bush, this is not a sincere act of concern on his part. I think he's just trying to gain some popularity points before he's kicked out. It might also be a way to get him noticed. Nobody has been paying much attention to him since the election results. Like Anastasia said, I don't think he wants to be remembered for his actions in Iraq.
Whether Bush is being sincere or not about the preservation act, it is still doing something good for the environment if it gets passed. It certainly will not harm anything. I just think that being able to enforce the act would be very difficult because of the huge size of the area being protected. And if a fishboat is fishing for a source of food, I would think that it would be pretty unfair to punish someone for doing that. Overall, I don't think it is a very important subject. The ocean is so huge it's almost impossible to pollute it into critical condition anyway.
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