Allow me to get the disclaimers out of the way, first. The idea for this originated at Interior when Bruce Babbit -- a Democrat -- was there. Fishing interests blocked the idea at that time, and it's taken a while to work out a deal with them. Further, I'm not so naive as to imagine that this wasn't done now in response to AIT and the upcoming Fall elections. Finally, Bush sucks and this one act can't begin to compensate for all the environmental damage that he's caused. But let's forget about that and focus on what's happened.
And what's happened is very good indeed. As BBC reports, yesdterday, the United States government "designated a swathe of Hawaiian islands as a US national monument, making them the world's largest marine sanctuary. [Bush] signed a law on Thursday which will give the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands the highest protected status in US law. The area, nearly as big as California, supports more than 7,000 species, a quarter of which occur nowhere else." Further, BBC notes that, "'This is really for the first time saying the primary purpose of this area of the ocean is to be a pristine, or nearly pristine, kind of place,' David Festa, director the ocean programme at Environmental Defense, told the New York Times. 'It would take it off the books as a fishing ground. That's really the first time we'll have done that in any kind of sizeable area,' he said."
As tne NYT editorialized, "Some in Hawaii call them the "kupuna islands," using the Hawaiian word for elders, since they teach people what the Pacific was like before plundering and pollution. Sharks, not fishing boats, are still at the top of the food chain. Ancient colonies of living coral reach heights of 80 feet. A quarter of the 7,000 marine species there exist nowhere else.
These islands are distant, but not undisturbed. The monk seals are endangered. Black-lipped pearl oysters were wiped out 75 years ago. The lobster fishery crashed in the 1990's. The islands' bottom-dwelling fish, snappers known on Hawaiian menus as opakapaka and onaga, are in serious decline."
This is good. This is very, very good. We need lots more like this.
3 comments:
Rather than give Bush credit for something he didn't have to do, you open by trying to DISCREDIT him and give Democrats the credit. But a Dem didn't make the decision - a Republican did. Clinton could have, but didn't either. And if you really want to go back in time, Republican Teddy Roosevelt was the first to protect the area in 1909 by proclaiming most of the area a national wildlife refuge! If you want Republicans to be more supportive of the environment, then don't open by telling them why they don't deserve credit!!
Greenpop,
If you think that this wasn't a cynical move by Bush to try to help Republicans running in November counter AIT, you're far more gulible than my three-year old neighbor. Just sayin'
This move proves two things:
1. How desperate Bushco must be to try to ensure a some sort of positive note in the legacy. They know they're failing.
His presidency, with the support of a Republican Congress, has brought about a neverending WoT that has led to the debacle in Iraq; the worst budget deficit ever; accelerated erosion of our medical system, prison system, and education system; plummeting world opinion of the U.S.; record profits for oil companies and Halliburton . . . This is the reality.
2. The administration understands the implicit support humans have for protecting the environment and could have been building a tremendous record of energy innovation and environmental protection at a dire time, when the US could have been a leader --yet such has not been the case under this President.
I pity the fool, as Mr. T would say, but I'm happy for the indigenous people of the islands whose ancestors are being protected, as well as the marine life for which this nat'l monument may provide a base from which to survive.
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