Posted on 04/19/2002 11:35:27 AM PDT by cogitator
Coastal Development Threatens Ocean Health
WASHINGTON, DC, April 18, 2002 (ENS) - Development along the U.S. coastline is linked to the declining health of the nation's ocean habitats and resources, a new report shows.
Within 15 years, an additional 27 million people are estimated to live in coastal counties, which comprise just 17 percent of the nation's area. A new report prepared for the independent Pew Oceans Commission and released this week links this growth along the coasts to declining ocean health.
"Americans have long enjoyed living, working, and playing along the coasts," said Leon Panetta, former White House chief of staff and current chair of the Pew Oceans Commission, which is conducting the first independent review of national ocean policies in over 30 years. "However, we see increasing evidence that this love of the coasts and oceans comes at a cost to the very beauty that attracts us there in the first place."
In the report, "Coastal Sprawl: The Effects of Urban Design on Aquatic Ecosystems in the United States," Dana Beach of the South Carolina Coastal Conservation League details the effects of urban design and land use practices on aquatic ecosystems in the United States. Beach presents new strategies and tools that communities may use to preserve the same ecosystems that attract residents, tourists, and businesses to the coasts.
"Although the problems associated with coastal sprawl are complex, the solutions are straightforward, " said Joseph Riley, mayor of Charleston and chair of the Commission's coastal development committee. "Communities need to make active decisions about where and how to grow if they are going to protect their quality of life."
Beach reports that runaway land consumption, ill planned suburban development and exponential growth in automobile use lead to pollution and habitat degradation on the coast. Some large coastal metropolitan areas consume land 10 times as fast as they add new residents.
Across the country, driving has increased at three to four times the increase in population. Beach concludes that if today's land consumption trends continue, more than one-quarter of the coast's acreage will be developed by 2025 - up from 14 percent in 1997.
"These trends are a prescription for severe ecological damage," said Beach. "Abundant research on rivers and estuaries confirms that when impervious surfaces cover more than 10 percent of a watershed, the rivers, creeks, and estuaries they surround become biologically degraded. If today's growth trends continue, many healthy watersheds will cross that threshold over the next 25 years."
More information is available at: http://www.pewoceans.org
So you would generally agree with the article's gist. Where are the least-altered areas around Tampa Bay?
They will drop all of these rural/coastal/forest cleansing schemes and just start to kill all humans who dare to live in the druid cathedrals.
Eco enviralists threaten the Americans in America who dare to live in the druid cathedrals!
Remember Earth Day is next Monday. So every Green Nazi Lie that has been dragged around for 3 decades will be trotted out by the Enviral Nazis. The Green Enviral Nazis hate Americans who dare to be alive!
Leon Panetta, former White House chief of staff and current chair of the Pew Oceans Commission, which is conducting the first independent review of national ocean policies in over 30 years."
To make the claim that Pew is an independent commission with Leon Panetta as chairman is a lie, so the conclusions and information contained in the article must be lies as well.
You don't have to be an environazi to realize we need to build and develop responsibly.
That's easy, The EU/UN/NATO people makes the decision!!!
Is the ocean dead as per their previous prediction? If not why believe this prediction. BTW we could reasonibly limit growth i ncoastal by getting rid of federal subsidies for coastal homeowners insurance.
Sell the coasts to the highest bidder. Private individuals care more about their property than public interests.
You haven't read everything I post, obviously.
Yeah, I'm a conservative. I think taxes are too high. I think government intrudes in our lives too much. I think the State of Maryland is the most socialist state in the nation. I think the public schools are doing a poor job of serving our kids and something needs to be done about it.
But I'm also environmentally conscious, and I have a deep concern about particular environmental issues. One of them is the preservation of the coastal environment. It's hard to live in Maryland and not be concerned about the health and welfare of the Chesapeake Bay, particularly given the pressures of urban growth around it. I also realize that coral reefs, a unique and beautiful environment, are endangered. So I diverge from the hard conservative line on the environment in many cases.
I washed out of a chemistry Ph.D. program because my math skills weren't adequate, but I part-timed in some interesting geochemistry and geophysics classes while learning some information technology skills that could keep me employed. That's why I'm interested in determining the real scientific view on issues like climate change.
And... I live on the periphery of an growing urban area, Frederick, Maryland, that I hope doesn't get too much bigger, or it's going to infringe on the semi-rural community I live in. So issues like sprawl (particularly the sprawl in Northern Virginia, just a few miles south across the Potomac River) also interest me. Frederick is an interesting case history in itself because last year they basically terminated future developments because the water supply infrastructure can't handle more.
Finally, I am very concerned about the plight of children in Third World countries that are suffering due to what may be preventable diseases, like cholera, that they die from due to environmental degradation. I don't know the exact numbers, but I know that thousands, perhaps tens or even hundreds of thousands of children die each year from diseases that we don't even think about because our water and air are clean and healthy.
So I think it's possible to be environmentally conscious and to examine these issues for ways that conservatives can support improvements. I hope that's OK for you.
Leon Panetta is still connected with the government in some official way? News to me.
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