Wronging the Rights

White House tries to interfere with right whale protections

Posted at 6:27 AM on 01 May 2008

Photo: noaa.gov

The White House has attempted to stymie a rule that would help protect the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale, documents show. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientists recommended that large ships off the Atlantic coast be required to slow their speed to 10 knots (11.5 miles per hour) during certain times of the year to avoid deadly collisions with the whales. Roughly three North Atlantic right whales are struck each year, and fewer than 400 remain. Since February 2007, the Vice President's Office and the White House Office of Management and Budget have been pushing experts at NOAA to alter their conclusions linking ship speed and whale mortality, according to documents. NOAA scientists so far have stood their ground, writing in response to pressure, "The basic facts remain that (1) there is a direct relationship between speed and death/serious injury, and (2) at vessel speeds at or below 10 knots the probability of death/serious injury is greatly reduced."

sources: Associated Press, The Washington Post, The New York Times

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Comments: (5 comments)

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What life could be like One year for now..

This article is about the same White House that was trying to disprove Global Warming as recent as 18 months ago. What's the surprise?

It's been a lonnngggg 8 years...

If you haven't seen the Union of Concerned Scientist report surveying members of the EPA you really should:

"...the Union of Concerned Scientists just conducted a report in which they surveyed 1,586 people working for the EPA, and they found the following:

889 report that they have personally experienced political pressure in the course of performing their duties.
400 said that they had observed EPA administrators, appointed staff, and higher-ups misrepresenting their findings
285 said that they had observed incomplete or biased information used to justify policies and management decisions."

8 more months.. 8 more months.. 8 more months....

enjoy only two cosmetics

by gregoryralich at 8:55 AM on 01 May 2008

Stop Global Trade

This shows another of the numerous environmental and ecological harms caused by global trade, not even considering the harms caused by the race to the environmental bottom.

Steamship companies are psychotically hysterical when it comes to slowing down their ships, even for a short period of time. They cry about how much money it costs to slow down a bit for a short distance, despite the billions of dollars they make, and have absolutely no consideration for the natural environment or the beings that live there. I experienced this personally when, in 1995, some of us tried to get large ships to slow down to ten knots inside San Francisco Bay.

The only logical conclusion is that we have to move away from long distance trade and toward local economies, until long distance trade is completely, or at least virtually, eliminated. Screw money and business, Earth First!

by Wolverine at 12:39 PM on 01 May 2008

barely 400 left; Calvin

The horrible thing about this is, the Bush administration, and the shipping companies, surely understand all this, about the fatalities of Northern right whales, so vulnerable in waters off the east coast of the US.

But they just do not care.

Our government's people, and the people who oddly have tied themselves slavishly to the businesses with whom we daily do business, are so hard-hearted, not to say evil-hearted, but certainly supremely morally stupid, that their conscience is simply discarded, as something inefficient, or inconvenient.

E.g., counter to pro-life, pro-family, and pro-biblical-creation values, which Christians such as George W. Bush (perhaps, lightly, insincerely) profess, God's precious few creatures in this helpless family are being abandoned to their murderers.

Jesus, honorifically and not unmeaningfully called Christ, the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity, the Word of God, the Logos, through whom all things are made, then assuming all of human nature in the womb of the young Jewess Mary, without whose assumption of human nature none of us would be saved, is NOT HAPPY, regardless of all of George W. Bush's heterodox evangelical middlingly Christian bible-studies.

(Throw-away line: Evangelical Christians are NOT orthodox Christians. They have utterly missed the boat on radically important Christian doctrines.)

Just ask the North Atlantic right whales, moving patiently up the eastern US coast, and into Canadian waters, the Bay of Fundy. The picture in front of my eyes constantly is that of a right whale named Calvin -- the connexion is to the ever-resourceful cartoon character, not to the Reformation founder; and in fact Calvin is a "she."

Last weekend, at the Go Green Expo in NYC at the Hilton on 6th Avenue, while I was volunteering at the Oceana booth, I am glad that I brought along my book on spotting cetaceans, and had the chance to point out what a right whale looks like, to a few visitors. That is especially so with one kid who seemed impressed. I told him, "There are barely 400 of these guys alive." I should have added, to make it clear to him, "Just consider how many people are alive right now; right here on the floor of this building, there are 400 people at least, probably more, bopping about, buying stuff."

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

by caniscandida at 8:22 AM on 02 May 2008

Wouldn't slowing down also save gas and money

Other articles from Grist have mentioned that some ships are slowing down to save gas, hence saving money. I would think that would make it more profitable for the global shippers if they would comply with the proposed rule. I guess we are really experiencing the death of common sense.

"For as long as space endures, and for as long as living beings remain, until then may I too abide, to dispel the misery of the world." - Shantideva

by mtvyfan at 10:36 AM on 02 May 2008

Wronging the Rights

There's nothing common about sense.

by krlk27 at 12:06 PM on 02 May 2008

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