Climate Change Conference Debacle

The Copenhagen Climate Change Conference of 2010 has turned into a circus of the unhappy, frightened, clueless, well meaning, and just plain goofy.

ClimateGate - the hacking and posting of climate scientists e-mails - led the parade of the dubious. Clearly climate experts did not want data that contradicts their climate models to be given credibility and publicity. All of science has been tainted with this revelation of the arrogance and pettiness (and lack of trustworthiness) of scientists.

Ten there were the angry Third Worlder's - ""All week we have heard a string of excuses from northern countries [read: rich countries] to make adequate reparations for the ecological crisis that they have caused," said Lidy Nacpil, of the Jubilee South Coalition. "We are taking to the streets to demand that the ecological debt is repaid to the people of the South [read: poor Third World]," she said in a statement."(http://www.cumberlink.com)

The developing countries "... rejected as "insignificant" an EU pledge of 7.2 billion euros (10.6 billion dollars) to help them tackle global warming."

"The Group of 77 developing nations -- actually a caucus of 130 states that includes China -- said the proposal fails to address the issue of setting up long-term financing mechanisms. "I believe they are not only insignificant, they actually breed even more distrust on the intentions of European leaders on climate change," said Lumumba Stanislaus Dia-Ping of Sudan." (AFP news report)

Anti-capitalist demonstrators, the usual so-called "anarchists" were swarming to Copenhagen. Danish police used helicopters, dogs, and all manner of law-enforcement tools to prevent these folks (who attend, disrupt, and use violent protests ant every major international meeting) from coming into the country.

So, the only economies that have the capital to help with climate change ARE the capitalist economies! Wassup with that?

Here is the other mess - According to Agence France Press - "The draft text also leaves open three possible targets for an overall reduction of global carbon emissions by 2020, compared with 1990 levels -- by 50 percent, by 80 percent and by 95 percent. Industrialised countries favour the 50 percent goal, but major emerging economies led by China balk at any such target unless it is made clear that rich countries will assume the near totality of the burden. The US Congress has yet to pass a comprehensive plan on climate change but it is taking action on one front -- ordering an in-depth "carbon audit" of the tax code which some fear offers Americans incentives to be polluters."

Coastal Insurance Issues

One of the biggest concerns for coastal policy, planners, developers, and researchers is the issue of coastal property insurance. We have developed extensive material in the Coastal Policy and CZM course.

There was an interesting development in North Carolina that I wanted to share with you.
Here is the headline:

The North Carolina House blew through legislation fixing an underfunded coastal insurance program with steps that include tacking an extra charge on every property insurance policy in the state if there is a disastrous storm season.
As always I'd like you to read the story for yourself at NC House passes fix to coastal insurance plan

As you know there is a lot of hand wringing on insurance because coverage leads people to take big risks with their coastal building. Stay tuned!

Navy Ship Hits Reef.

We saw this headline when a navy submarine hit the reef off Ft. Lauderdale, Florida several years ago. Now we have a new ship and a different reef. A Navy warship, the AEGIS cruiser USS Port Royal (see official Navy picture above) was grounded a half-mile off Honolulu for four days. It had been stuck in coral reef, not rock and sand as military officials previously reported.

"The Pacific Fleet and the state of Hawaii said in a joint statement Thursday that they were assessing the extent of damage to the reef. State land department chairwoman Laura Thielen says surveys show the ship had grounded in coral reef. She says divers from the state and Navy are working to ensure no further damage occurs. The finding is the second embarrassing revelation for the Navy. It had failed to notify the state that the ship had discharged 7,000 gallons of wastewater when it was grounded."

It's fascinating that no one has asked the question how a ship such as this with paper and electronic charts, a trained crew, and every piece of electronic gear available to any sailor can hit a well charted reef.

In any case, divers are now trying to remove all the broken pieces of the reef which, when tossed around by waves pose a constant threat to the living reef.

Again it sounds like Ft. Lauderdale, Florida where an "artificial reef" of rubber tires was lain out years ago. the cables rusted and broke and the tires became "reef smashers", one of the most efficient machines to destroy what's left of that old reef! The Navy and enviro groups finally have started to "round up" all the rouge tires and get them off the bottom.

Ah human beings. Ya gotta hate em if you are a reef!

Bush Establishes Massive Pacific Island Protected Zone 2009

The story reads like this:

WASHINGTON -- President George W. Bush plans to designate three remote Pacific island chains as national monuments in what will be the largest marine conservation effort in history equal to an area roughly the size of Spain. The three areas -- totaling some 195,280 square miles -- are expected to include the Mariana Trench along the Northern Mariana Islands, Rose Atoll in American Samoa and seven islands in the central Pacific Ocean. These areas are made up islands, reefs, atolls and underwater mountain ranges that are home to countless species. Large migratory, resting and feeding sea birds, and endangered animals such as sea turtles will also benefit from this new protection.

Picture courtesy of NOAA

These areas will be designated as marine national monuments under provisions of the 1906 Antiquities Act, which is used to protect scientific and historical sites.

"The monuments will prohibit resource destruction or extraction, waste dumping and commercial fishing," President Bush said.

The designations prohibit commercial fishing inside the monument boundaries. Sport fishing, scientific research, and other types of activities require case-by-case permits. The goal is preservation and the ability to sustain marine life and the quality of these ecosystems.

Potential problems according to the CSM include " ... interagency squabbles and the money needed to monitor activities in the remote monuments and enforce regulations." CSM.com

The opponents of this action include the sports fishing industry as well as those who want to drill for oil and gas. Here is a typical comment:

"Clearly, the purpose of nationalizing 335 thousand square miles of the South Pacific seabeds was to place thousands of miles of unowned seabeds off limit by preventing entrepreneurial oil speculators from tapping into some of the richest oil and natural gas properties in the world."

The author goes on to further discuss this:

"In the seabeds around the Mariana Trench and Rose Atoll National Monuments, geologists have identified hard minerals like phosphorite, abyssal manganese, ferromanganese, cobalt, sulfide, olivine, feldspar, clinopyroxene, opaline, silica, and pyrite as well as hydrathermal deposits of gold and silver and the world's richest deposits of baryte (barite). In addition, under the seabeds in the Pacific Remote Islands is the world's largest oil and natural gas reserves. Preliminary estimates suggest the oil and natural gas reserves under the Pacific Remote Islands Monument will dwarf the combined reserves under the North Slope or Alaska and the Arabian Peninsula.. In 2005 Standard Oil entered into an IPO with China National Oil [CNOOC] to further explore and develop the oil and natural gas deposits in the seabeds under the Pacific Remote Islands Monument and the Rose Atoll Monument." http://www.newswithviews.com/Ryter/jon269.htm

This case is an excellent example of the continuing fight between environmentalists and those who believe that these types of natural resources are there to be put to economic use in mining, fishing, and oil and gas.