Earth Equity News

Obama's Chance For a Blue Legacy. Commentary by Vikki Spruill, WashPost, January 6, 2009. "Today, President Bush will begin for the ocean what President Theodore Roosevelt did when he created the National Park System. The administration is announcing plans to create a national monument that will protect 195,000 square nautical miles of the Pacific Ocean -- bigger than the size of California and almost 50 percent larger than all U.S. national parks combined. Sweeping areas of the ocean's most pristine treasures, including spectacular corals and the deepest canyon in the world, will be protected by law and given the chance to become stronger. Yet what is most significant about this move is the opportunity it creates for President-elect Barack Obama. Covering 71 percent of the planet, the oceans are our life-support system... We at the Ocean Conservancy urge the Obama administration to build on President Bush's step forward by strengthening ocean protections that ensure the health of our planet. Obama could begin building a truly blue legacy with the following steps: 1) Mandate that every action on climate change include consideration of its impact on our oceans... 2) Focus on the Arctic... [which] is already experiencing some of the most severe effects of climate change... The interior secretary should immediately suspend any further planned lease sales and commence a multiagency public review and assessment of the Arctic, its peoples and its resources... 3) Bring order to the oceans... We urgently need a comprehensive plan for the oceans' many uses, in a way that sustains our oceans' resources." Vikki Spruill is president and chief executive of Ocean Conservancy.