Opinion: Need to create an oceans policy
By David Helvarg, Sierra
Thirty-three years ago, President Ronald Reagan established the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), stretching 200 miles out from our shores. At 3.4 million square miles, it’s more extensive than our continental landmass.
But unlike our lands, our public seas belong to all of us, and right now they are in trouble. The ocean is at risk from a cascading series of environmental disasters including industrial overfishing, pollution, loss of coastal and offshore habitats, and climate change.
Faced with these threats, it’s hard to fathom why this crisis in our seas has received no attention in the 2016 presidential campaigns. Hillary Clinton has pledged not to drill for oil in the Arctic Ocean or off the Atlantic coast but has no position on the Gulf of Mexico, where 17 percent of domestic oil production takes place. By calling the science of climate change a hoax, Donald Trump has made it clear that he’d be unlikely to address climate-linked ocean threats such as sea level rise, ocean acidification, and harmful algae blooms intensified by warming ocean waters—such as we’re now seeing on the coasts of Florida.
No one has called climate change a hoax. We feel its effects every day. The question is how much influence man has on climate variation. Most honest scientists believe man has very little influence on climate change.
For instance, what and who caused the climate change that allowed large trees to grow at the bottom of what is now Fallen Leaf Lake. Since there were no SUV’s or oil wells how could this happen? And this occurred less than a 1000 years ago.
Human life span is say 75yrs and that is being generous.
Nature does not respect HUMAN CYCLES…period
Those trees in Fallen Leaf Lake did not grow under water…there was no water there when they grew there….common people!
The reason the water in the Gulf of Mexico is ‘heated’ is because there are probably BILLIONS of gallons of black oil on the bottom.
Everyone knows ‘they’ lied about how much oil is probably still leaking all over the floor of the gulf and black absorbs heat.