LAT: Panel Presses New Ocean Safeguards ("grim report")

[DeepModem Mom]

THE NATION
Panel Presses New Ocean Safeguards
A grim report urges the U.S. to take steps to save its ailing waters, including curbing pollution and checking development.

By Kenneth R. Weiss, Times Staff Writer


A commission authorized by Congress and appointed by President Bush has issued a gloomy report on America's oceans, urging the government to intervene in hundreds of ways — from curtailing pollution to controlling coastal development — in order to nurse the ailing waters back to health.

The 450-page report from the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy details what has gone wrong: seafood contaminated with bacteria and chemicals such as mercury and dioxins; urban runoff laden with oil, trash and human waste; farm runoff that causes blooms of algae that suffocate all life and create oceanic "dead zones"; and rising sea temperatures that are killing coral reefs and spreading water-borne viruses.

The report lays blame on a variety of human activities. It singles out commercial fishermen who deplete fish stocks and discard up to a quarter of their catch.

It also faults poorly planned coastal development that degrades estuaries and wetlands and puts people in the path of violent storms....

***

"Everyone agrees the oceans are in trouble," said commission Chairman James D. Watkins, a retired Navy admiral, referring to the 16 panel members, who included oil and shipping executives as well as scientists and government officials. "We know if we don't get moving now, in 10 years we may not be able to recover."...


http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-oceans21apr21,1,6535488.story?coll=la-home-nation

[dbt]

1. Down the Memory Hole with this pack of truth!

How long until this commission "appointed by bu$h" is discredited and its findings labeled Junk Science?

:freak:
dbt

Boy, if you're this far gone, there's nowhere left to go.

[DeepModem Mom]

2. Some thought the report didn't go far enough-- but I was surprised

to see it at all from a Bush-appointed panel!

[dusty64]

3. I'm sure this commission

will be purged and replaced with corporate "scientists" and a "revised" report issued soon.

[xchrom]

4. bush doesn't care what they recommend

or how bad the findings are -- it's full steam ahead with the destruction of planet earth.
what does it matter to people who live in ''castles'' -- they figure they can buy whatever bit of green space they need.

[donsu]

5. it's too late

nt