Bush lets trash collect on ocean sanctuary he promised to protect

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http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/analysis/353


In 2006, President Bush established 140,000 square miles of Hawaiian island and surrounding ocean as a national monument, citing the need to protect the extensive reef and the 7,000 rare species living there. Two years later, officials say the clean-up efforts were better before Bush's designation.

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The archipelago, now known as Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, is plagued by huge amounts of debris that wash up on the islands' shores. In 2005, before its designation as a national monument, the area received a $2.1 million cleanup budget. Through 2008, the Bush administration requested only $400,000 per year and though Congress has added to that, dozens of tons of debris remain.

Marine conservation experts have expressed disappointment with the effort.

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The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) is charged with maintenance and cleanup of the monument and they take one or two 15 to 30-day cleanup expeditions yearly. When the islands received more funding, additional contracted ships and crews took 90-day cleanup expeditions.

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As tons of trash sit on the largest protected marine sanctuary we wonder how the NYT editorial board feels about the "compassionate conservationist" hero they wrote about. After "Iraq has weapons of mass destruction," "We'll be greeted as liberators" and "You're doing a heck of a job, Brownie," should we have ever believed "I'm going to protect the oceans?"
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more and more with less and less

[kestrel91316]

1. On a positive note, eventually plastic will become so expensive to make that

it will be unthinkable to use it for disposable crap that gets tossed into the wind.

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2. scientist in the UK discovered that ocean movement breaks up

the plastic into such small particles that we are breathing, drinking and eating them.

what that does to us is yet to be determined.

[kestrel91316]

3. I'm not so concerned about what those particles will do to me. I am

VERY concerned what they will do to the microscopic life which forms the basis of our nutrient cycle.

What happens when we kill off the very things that make higher life possible?