1NC
Topicality
A. Interpretation--- Ocean development is use of ocean resources, space, and energy
JIN 98 JIN Japan Institute of Navigation 1998 "Ocean Engineering Research Committee"
http://members.j-navigation.org/e-committee/Ocean.htm
What is ocean development? Professor Kiyomitsu Fujii of the University of Tokyo defines ocean
development in his book as using oceans for mankind, while preserving the beauty of nature. In the
light of its significance and meaning, the term "Ocean Development" is not necessarily a new term.
Ocean development is broadly classified into three aspects: (1) Utilization of ocean resources, (2)
Utilization of ocean spaces, and (3) Utilization of ocean energy. Among these, development of marine
resources has long been established as fishery science and technology, and shipping, naval
architecture and port/harbour construction are covered by the category of using ocean spaces, which
have grown into industries in Japan. When the Committee initiated its activities, however, the real
concept that caught attention was a new type of ocean development.
Exploration is systematic discovery of all aspects of the ocean
National Academies 9 National Academies – National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of
Engineering,Institute of Medicine, and National Research Council 2009
of National Academies Reports http://dels.nas.edu/resources/staticassets/osb/miscellaneous/exploration_final.pdf
Ocean Exploration Highlights
What Is Ocean Exploration?
As defined by the President’s Panel on Ocean Exploration (National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration, 2000), ocean exploration is discovery through disciplined, diverse observations and
recordings of findings. It includes rigorous, systematic observations and documentation of biological,
chemical, physical, geological, and archeological aspects of the ocean in the three dimensions of
space and in time.
The ocean starts at the surface
Knight 13 J.D. Knight, Sea and Sky 2013 The Sea Creatures of the Deep Sea"
http://www.seasky.org/deep-sea/ocean-layers.html
Layers of the Ocean
Scientists have divided the ocean into five main layers. These layers, known as "zones", extend from
the surface to the most extreme depths where light can no longer penetrate. These deep zones are
where some of the most bizarre and fascinating creatures in the sea can be found. As we dive deeper
into these largely unexplored places, the temperature drops and the pressure increases at an
astounding rate. The following diagram lists each of these zones in order of depth.
B. The affirmative interpretation is bad for debate
Limits are necessary for negative preparation and clash. The plan allows for space
development which would be a rehashing of the topic 3 years ago which means they
allow for two topics together which blows the lid off the topic.
C. T is a voter because it is necessary for good, well-prepared debating.
Europe CP
Counterplan Text: The EU should develop and implement an integrated European
Ocean Observation System.
Integrated European observation is needed for global data--- they’ve got the tech it
just needs to be utilized.
EMD 2014 (Report from the EUUROGOS/EMODNET/EMB/JRC Workshop at the European Maritime
Day. May 19th, 2014. “The importance of an integrated end-to-end European Ocean Observing System:
key message of EMD 2014” http://eurogoos.eu/2014/06/09/eoos-at-emd-bremen-2014/ MV)
Ocean observations are essential for marine science, operational services and systematic assessment of
the marine environmental status. All types of activities in the marine environment require reliable data
and information on the present and future conditions in which they operate. Many maritime economic sectors (e.g. oil and gas
exploration, maritime transport, fisheries and aquaculture, maritime renewable energy) directly benefit from easily accessible
marine data and information in several ways: improved planning of operations, risk minimization though increased safety, improved
performance and overall reduced cost. Other activities, such as deep sea mining and marine biotechnology, also benefit from specialized deepsea observations that were not feasible until recently. The
complexity and high density of human activities in European
seas and oceans result in a high demand for marine knowledge in the form of data, products and
services to support marine and maritime activities in Europe, stressing the need for an integrated
European approach to ocean observation and marine data management (Navigating the Future IV, European Marine
Board 2013). While Europe already has a relatively mature ocean observing and data management
infrastructure capability, this is largely fragmented and currently not addressing the needs of multiple
stakeholders. Mechanisms for coordinating existing and planned ocean observations using a system
approach are needed for more integrated, efficient and sustained observations under the framework of
a “European Ocean Observing System” (EOOS) following international practice (systems developed by USA, Australia and Canada) and the
call of the EurOCEAN 2010 Conference Declaration . The integration of different national and local marine data
systems into a coherent interconnected whole which provides free access to observations and data, as
pursued by the European Marine Observation and Data Network (EMODnet) is of key importance for maritime sectors like
fisheries, the environment, transport, research, enterprise and industry. However, much work still needs to be
done in close collaboration with end-users, in particular industry, to further develop EMODnet into a fully functional, fit for
purpose gateway to European marine data and data products taking into account requirements of multiple users. There is a need for scienceindustry partnerships to stimulate innovation and develop a successful EOOS that will further enhance the contribution of marine observations
to economic activities relevant for Blue Growth in Europe. Innovative
technologies, developed in collaboration between research
given several solutions during the past years for more robust, multi-parametric
and systematic observations. This, in turn, is leading to new and more reliable operational services that
support a wide range of maritime economic activities: fisheries and aquaculture, offshore oil and gas, marine renewable
energy, maritime transport, tourism etc. Other services address the sectors of marine safety, climate and weather
applications, as well as marine environmental assessment. At the end of the marine observations, data to knowledge
scientists and the industry, have
cycle, activities and tools are needed to create added value products for specific stakeholders, including the wider public, such as the European
Atlas of the Seas which allows professionals, students and anyone interested to explore Europe’s seas and coasts, their environment, related
human activities and European policies. At the same time, it is critical to evaluate whether we are monitoring/observing what we actually need.
Regional assessments such as performed by the newly established EMODnet sea-basin “checkpoints” could provide relevant information,
among others to advise Member States about requirements for essential and optimal observation capability
Europe already has an infrastructure for data sharing in place.
Papale 2013 (Dario Papale, University of Tuscia and Department for innovation in biological, agrofood and forest systems. June 26th, 2013. “IPSL Data sharing across the Atlantic: Gap analysis and
development of a common understanding” http://www.coopeus.eu/wpcontent/uploads/2013/12/Carbon-data-sharing-gaps-06-12-2013-D31.pdf MV)
The global need to develop large, cross continental environmental datasets has been recognized*'. To
address this issue, COOPEU5 is a joint US National Science Foundation (*4SF) and European Commission
FP7 (in the frame of the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures, ESFRI) supported project
initiated in September 2012s. Its main goal is creating a framework to develop interoperable einfrastructures across several environmental and geoscience observatories in Europe and US. The
National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON in the US, www.neoninc.org) and the Integrated
Carbon Observatory System (ICOS in the EU, http://www.icos-infrastructure.eu/) are two of these
governmental supported observatories. Here, the data products from these two observatories are
centered around greenhouse gas (GHG) concentration, carbon and energy flux observations, and the
surface micrometeorology surrounding these measurements. The objective of COOPEUS is to coordinate
the integration plans for these carbon observations between Europe and the US. Even though both ICOS
and NEON have the ability to collaborate on effective issues, we fully recognize that this effort cannot be
effectively accomplished without the engagement of many other partners, such as; National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration's Global Monitoring Division (US NOAA GMD), the Group on Earth
Observations (GEO, www.earthobservations.org) and the Group of Earth Observations System of
Systems (GEOSS), World Meteorological Organization (WMO, www.wmo.int), the Belmont Forum
(www.igfagcr.org), ^SF- supported EarthCube (earthcube.ning.com)and DataOne (www.dataone.org)
projects, and a wide variety of regional-pased flux networks (i.e., AmeriFlux, Fluxnet). Of course as
COOPEUS continues to advance, this list of partners are not exclusive and are expected to increase.
COOPEUS aims to strengthen and complement these partnerships through a variety of governance
mechanisms, some informal and others formalized (e.g. Memorandum of Understanding), tailored to
each individual organizational governance structure. Several of these organizations (mentioned above)
have a history of collaborating and sharing of data. In this historical context, we also have recognized
what has worked, exiting limitations, and what can be improved in terms of data sharing and
interoperability. This COOPEUS work task is building upon these relationships and working history to
strengthen these approaches and collaboration.
Violation--- The plan centralizes the development of satellites in space. This does not
use the ocean for resources, space or energy or explore all the aspects of the ocean.
The ocean is the surface and the plan affects satellites in space.
The EU uses a US-based data platform--- the research will be available to the US, this
solves the aff
Geoghegan-Quinn (Maire Geoghegan-Quinn is a European Commissioner for Research, Innovation, and Science. June 24th, 2014.
“Science 2.0: Europe can lead the next scientific transformation.” http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_SPEECH-14-489_en.htm MV)
Science 2.0 also has the potential to improve the scientific method by letting researchers share and
verify data and findings at an early stage, before they publish, for example through sites like Research
Gate and Mendeley. On the one hand, this could mean writing erroneously and making mistakes public.
On the other, sharing information on failures can help others to avoid dead-ends and redirect research
into more promising areas. It can also make the whole scientific process more transparent. Researchers
are also using dedicated social media to connect and share information. Nearly nine million academics
have joined the US-based Academia platform to share their research, monitor its impact and follow
the work of colleagues. Vice-President Kroes and I have been very supportive of the trend towards
more openness in the research system. New approaches are addressing thorny issues such as the
slowness of the publication process, many researchers' frustration with the dominance of peer review
and the challenge of replicating research results. A recent independent study produced for the European
Commission showed that the global shift to Open Access to research publications has reached a tipping
point. Around 50% of scientific papers published across nearly 40 countries in 2011 are now available for
free. Clearly, Open Access is here to stay. Making research results more available contributes to better
and more efficient science, stimulates innovation and strengthens our knowledge-based economy. This
is why we have made Open Access to peer reviewed publications the default position across Horizon
2020.
PTX DA
1. Uniqueness: Obama’s push is key to NSA reform—follows the popular opinion
CBS News, 5-27, (“Obama administration wants Congress to reform NSA,” CBS News, March 27,
2014, http://www.cbsnews.com/news/obama-administration-wants-congress-to-reform-nsa/)//erg
President Obama wants to end the government's bulk collection of people's phone records, but he's
relying on Congress to pass legislation to do so. The president says Americans' phone records should remain with the phone
companies and not be held at the National Security Agency for five years, as has been the practice. The White House hopes Congress will pass
legislation "expeditiously," a senior administration official said Thursday. Mr. Obama promised to make changes to the controversial
surveillance program after the public was outraged to learn the extent of domestic collection. The details were revealed last year by NSA leaker
Edward Snowden. On Tuesday, Mr. Obama
said he's chosen an option that he thinks is "workable" and that
"addresses the two core concerns that people have." Firstly, he said, the government would no longer keep
bulk data in its possession. Obama, House leaders say they're in sync on NSA reforms Obama to meet with tech
CEOs amid continued NSA controversy "Some of the dangers that people hypothesize when it came to bulk data, there were
clear safeguards against. But I recognize that people were concerned about what might happen in the future with that bulk data," he said. "This
proposal that's been presented to me would eliminate that concern." Additionally, Mr. Obama said the proposal calls for judicial oversight into
each individual query into the database of metadata. "Overall,
I am confident that it allows us to do what is necessary
in order to deal with the dangers from the terrorist attack, but does so in a way that addresses some of the concerns that
people had raised," he said. "And I'm looking forward to working with Congress to make sure that we go ahead
and pass the enabling legislation quickly, so that we can get on with the business of effective law
enforcement." The current program, justified under Section 215 of the Patriot Act, comes up for reauthorization by the Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Court on March 28. Given that reform legislation will not be in place by then, Mr. Obama has directed the Justice
Department to seek from the FISC a 90-day reauthorization of the existing program. On Tuesday, the Republican and Democratic
leaders of
the House Intelligence Committee unveiled a bill that closely aligns with Mr. Obama's proposal. They
expressed optimism that Congress and the White House would be able to coalesce behind a single
plan.
2. Anti-environmentalism means the plan is a firestorm in Congress
Farr 2013 (Sam, Member of the House of Representatives (D-CA) Chair of House Oceans Caucus,
Review&Forecast Collaboration Helps to Understand And Adapt to Ocean, Climate Changes http://seatechnology.com/pdf/st_0113.pdf MV)
The past year in Washington, D.C., was rife with infighting between the two political parties. On issue after issue, the opposing sides were unable to reach a compromise on meaningful legislation for the American people. This division was most
noticeable when dis- cussing the fate of our oceans. The widening chasm between the two political
parties resulted in divergent paths for ocean policy: one with Presi- dent Barack Obama pushing the National
Ocean Policy forward, and the other with U.S. House Republicans under- mining those efforts with opposing
votes and funding cuts. Marine, Environmental Policy Regression The 112th Congress was called the "most antienviron- mental Congress in history" in a report published by House Democrats and has been credited for undermining the ma- jor
environmental legislation of the past 40 years. After the Tea Party landslide in the congressional elections of 2010,
conservatives on Capitol Hill began to flex their muscles to roll back environmental protections. Since taking
power in January 2011, House Republicans held roughly 300 votes to undermine basic environmental protections that have existed for decades.
To put that in per- spective, that was almost one in every five votes held in Congress during the past two years. These were votes to al- low
additional oil and gas drilling in coastal waters, while simultaneously limiting the environmental review process for offshore drilling sites. There
were repeal attempts to un- dermine the Clean Water Act and to roll back protections for threatened fish and other marine species.
There
were also attempts to block measures to address climate changes, ignoring the consequences of
inaction, such as sea level rise and ocean acidification.
3. Internal Link:
Obama’s support is key to encourage lawmakers
Condon, 3/25, (STEPHANIE CONDON, “Obama, House leaders say they're in sync on NSA reforms,”
CBS News, March 25, 2014, http://www.cbsnews.com/news/obama-house-leaders-say-theyre-in-syncon-nsa-reforms/)//erg
Months after President Obama called on the intelligence community and the Justice Department to come up with ideas for reforming the
nation's sweeping surveillance programs, the president is poised to announce the package of reforms that he is choosing to endorse. During a
press conference in the Netherlands Tuesday, Mr.
Obama said he's chosen an option that he thinks is "workable" and
that "addresses the two core concerns that people have." Firstly, he said, the government would no longer keep bulk data
in its possession. "Some of the dangers that people hypothesize when it came to bulk data, there were clear safeguards against. But I recognize
that people were concerned about what might happen in the future with that bulk data," he said. "This proposal that's been presented to me
would eliminate that concern." Additionally, Mr. Obama said the proposal calls for judicial oversight into each individual query into the
database of metadata. "Overall, I
am confident that it allows us to do what is necessary in order to deal with
the dangers from the terrorist attack, but does so in a way that addresses some of the concerns that people had raised," he said.
"And I'm looking forward to working with Congress to make sure that we go ahead and pass the enabling
legislation quickly, so that we can get on with the business of effective law enforcement." Back in
Washington, some lawmakers said they were encouraged by what they've heard about the president's
proposal. Play VIDEO NSA data collection: House intelligence leaders announce major reforms "They're coming in our
direction," Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., chairman of the House Intelligence Committee said of the White House Tuesday. Rogers remarks
came after he and Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger, D-Md., the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, described a bill called the End Bulk
Collection Act, which would follow the same basic principles for reforming surveillance that the president put forward. "We think we have
found the way to end the government's bulk collection of telephone metadata and still provide a mechanism to protect the United States and
track those terrorists calling in," Rogers said. The legislation, he said, would ban the government's bulk collection of electronic communication
metadata, which is currently justified under Section 215 of the Patriot Act. Instead, the government would have to obtain that data from the
communications companies (that are already legally obligated to retain the data for 18 months) after getting approval from the Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Court. Any information collected would then be subject to additional court review and would have to be
purged if it failed to meet the FISA Court standards of pertaining to a "reasonable, articulable suspicion." Rogers
and Ruppersberger
said they have been working with the White House and other congressman on the legislation and
expressed optimism about it, though they would not put forward a timeline for its passage.
4. Impact: The bill is key to NSA security—Congress would easily reject all NSA
surveillance
Sasso, 3/25, (Brendan, “Why Obama and His NSA Defenders Changed Their Minds,” National Journal,
March 25, 2014, http://www.nationaljournal.com/tech/why-obama-and-his-nsa-defenders-changedtheir-minds-20140325)//erg
It was only months ago that President Obama, with bipartisan backing from the heads of Congress's
Intelligence committees, was insisting that the National Security Agency's mass surveillance program
was key to keeping Americans safe from the next major terrorist attack. They were also dismissing privacy concerns,
saying the program was perfectly legal and insisting the necessary safeguards were already in place. But now, Obama's full-speed
ahead has turned into a hasty retreat: The president and the NSA's top supporters in Congress are all
pushing proposals to end the NSA's bulk collection of phone records. And civil-liberties groups—awash in their
newly won clout—are declaring victory. The question is no longer whether to change the program, but how dramatically to overhaul it. So what
changed? It's not that Obama and his Hill allies suddenly saw the error of their ways and became born-again privacy advocates. Instead, with
a critical section of the Patriot Act set to expire next year, they realized they had no choice but to
negotiate. SHARE THIS STORY If Congress fails to reauthorize that provision—Section 215—by June 1, 2015,
then the NSA's collection of U.S. records would have to end entirely. And the growing outrage prompted by the
Snowden leaks means that the NSA's supporters would almost certainly lose an up-or-down vote on the
program. Rep. Adam Schiff, a Democratic member of the House Intelligence Committee, said that looming sunset is what forced
lawmakers to the bargaining table. "I think what has changed is the growing realization that the votes
are simply not there for reauthorization," he said in an interview. "I think that more than anything else, that is galvanizing us into
action." Obama and the House Intelligence Committee leaders believe their proposals are now the NSA's best bet to retain
some power to mine U.S. phone records for possible terror plots. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne
Feinstein, another leading NSA defender, also indicated she is on board with the changes, saying the president's proposal is a "worthy effort."
And though the Hill's NSA allies are now proposing reforms to the agency, they don't seem particularly excited about it. At a Capitol Hill press
conference Tuesday, Rep. Mike Rogers, the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, and Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger, the
panel's top Democrat, often sounded like they were arguing against their own bill that they were unveiling. "I passionately believe this program
has saved American lives," Rogers said. Ruppersberger said if the program had been in place in 2001, it may have prevented the Sept. 11
attacks. But the lawmakers acknowledged there is
broad "discomfort" with the program as it is currently structured.
Weakened NSA destroys US cred—hurts key alliances
Tuccille, ’13, (JD, managing editor, “NSA Spying Torpedoes American Business Dealings in Europe,”
Reason.com, Nov. 1, 2013, http://reason.com/blog/2013/11/01/nsa-spying-torpedoes-americanbusiness-d)//erg
From the beginning of the NSA mass-surveillance scandal, revelations that the
U.S. spy agency was not only scooping up
international communications, but had conscripted American companies into the effort have opened
doors for foreign firms. Tech companies in other countries are relatively shielded from pressure by U.S. spooks (whatever their
relationships with spy agencies in their own countries) and some American entrepreneurs, like Ladar Levison of Lavabit, actively urge people to
avoid U.S.-based services. Worse, though, the NSA's connection to some companies is giving European politicians cover to discriminate against
American businesses. Never mind that Europeans do their own fair share of spying; they now have legitimate concerns to raise about the
security of data in the hands of Apple, AT&T, Google, and other familiar names. Reports Juergen Baetz of the Associated Press: BRUSSELS—
The backlash in Europe over U.S. spying is threatening an agreement that generates tens of billions of
dollars in trans-Atlantic business every year—and negotiations on another pact worth many times more. A growing
number of European officials are calling for the suspension of the "Safe Harbor" agreement that lets U.S.
companies process commercial and personal data—sales, emails, photos—from customers in Europe.
This little-known but vital deal allows more than 4,200 American companies to do business in Europe,
including Internet giants like Apple, Google, Facebook and Amazon. Revelations of the extent of U.S.
spying on its European allies is also threatening to undermine one of President Barack Obama's top
trans-Atlantic goals: a sweeping free-trade agreement that would add an estimated $138 billion (100
billion euros) a year to each economy's gross domestic product. The Safe Harbor agreement allows companies to move data
around their networks as needed. In its absence, data from Europeans might have to be stored and processed only within the physical confines
of Europe—a huge expense and possibly insurmountable hurdle for many companies. Many
U.S. companies would effectively
be unable to operate in Europe if they were reachable by European law. Some companies could explicitly be barred
from expanding their presence in Europe out of fears that they operate as pipelines to the NSA. According to the Wall Street Journal's Anton
Troianovski: AT&T Inc.'s ambitions to expand in Europe have run into unexpected hurdles amid the growing outcry across the region over
surveillance by the National Security Agency. German and other European officials said any attempt by AT&T to acquire a major wireless
operator would face intense scrutiny, given the company's work with the U.S. agency's data-collection programs. Resistance
to such a
deal, voiced by officials in interviews across Europe, suggests the impact of the NSA affair could
extend beyond the diplomatic sphere and damage U.S. economic interests in key markets. AT&T Chief
Executive Randall Stephenson has signaled repeatedly in recent months that he is interested in buying a mobile-network operator in Europe,
highlighting the potential for growth on the continent at a time when the U.S. company faces headwinds at home. Some of this resistance to
American companies is legitimate; Europeans are as outraged as Americans about the spying scandal—quite possibly more so, given that
continent's long history with authoritarian regimes and secret police. And some
of these moves are just opportunistic; the
NSA has turned into a great excuse for European politicians to openly favor well-connected companie in
their own countries at the expense of U.S. firms.
These alliances stop Eurasian nuclear war
Brzezinski, 3 (PhD-Poli Sci & Former National Security Advisor to President Carter, “Hegemonic
quicksand,” Winter, http://nationalinterest.org/article/hegemonic-quicksand-563)
FOR THE next several decades, the
most volatile and dangerous region of the world--with the explosive potential
to plunge the world into chaos--will be the crucial swathe of Eurasia between Europe and the Far East.
Heavily inhabited by Muslims, we might term this crucial subregion of Eurasia the new "Global Balkans." (1) It is here that America
could slide into a collision with the world of Islam while American-European policy differences could even cause the Atlantic
Alliance to come unhinged. The two eventualities together could then put the prevailing American global hegemony at risk. At the outset, it is
essential to recognize that the ferment within the Muslim world must be viewed primarily in a regional rather than a global perspective, and
through a geopolitical rather than a theological prism. The world of Islam is disunited, both politically and religiously. It is politically unstable
and militarily weak, and likely to remain so for some time. Hostility toward the United States, while pervasive in some Muslim countries,
originates more from specific political grievances--such as Iranian nationalist resentment over the U.S. backing of the Shah, Arab animus
stimulated by U.S. support for Israel or Pakistani feelings that the United States has been partial to India-than from a generalized religious bias.
The complexity of the challenge America now confronts dwarfs what it faced half a century ago in
Western Europe. At that time, Europe's dividing line on the Elbe River was the strategically critical frontline of maximum danger, with the
daily possibility that a clash in Berlin could unleash a nuclear war with the Soviet Union. Nevertheless, the United States recognized the stakes
involved and committed itself to the defense, pacification, reconstruction and revitalization of a viable European community. In doing so,
America gained natural allies with shared values. Following the end of the Cold War, the United States led the transformation of NATO from a
defense alliance into an enlarging security alliance--gaining an enthusiastic new ally, Poland--and it has supported the expansion of the
European Union (EU). For at least a generation, the major task facing the United States in the effort to promote global security will be the
pacification and then the cooperative organization of a region that contains the world's greatest concentration of political injustice, social
deprivation, demographic congestion and potential for high-intensity violence. But the
region also contains most of the world's
oil and natural gas. In 2002, the area designated as the Global Balkans contained 68 percent of the world's proven oil reserves and 41
percent of the world's proven natural gas reserves; it accounted for 32 percent of world oil production and 15 percent of world natural gas
production. In 2020, the area is projected to produce roughly 42 million barrels of oil per day--39 percent of the global production total (107.8
million barrels per day). Three key regions-Europe, the United States and the Far East--collectively are projected to consume 60 percent of that
global production (16 percent, 25 percent and 19 percent, respectively). The combination of oil and volatility gives the United States no choice.
America faces an awesome challenge in helping to sustain some degree of stability among precarious states
inhabited by increasingly politically restless, socially aroused and religiously inflamed peoples. It must
undertake an even more daunting enterprise than it did in Europe more than half a century ago, given a terrain that is culturally alien, politically
turbulent and ethnically complex. In the past, this remote region could have been left to its own devices. Until the middle of the last century,
most of it was dominated by imperial and colonial powers. Today, to
ignore its problems and underestimate its potential
for global disruption would be tantamount to declaring an open season for intensifying regional
violence, region-wide contamination by terrorist groups and the competitive proliferation of weaponry of
mass destruction. The United States thus faces a task of monumental scope and complexity. There are no self-evident answers to such basic questions as how and with whom America should be engaged in helping to
stabilize the area, pacify it and eventually cooperatively organize it. Past remedies tested in Europe--like the Marshall Plan or NATO, both of which exploited an underlying transatlantic political-cultural solidarity--do not quite fit a
region still rent by historical hatreds and cultural diversity. Nationalism in the region is still at an earlier and more emotional stage than it was in war-weary Europe (exhausted by two massive European civil wars fought within just
three decades), and it is fueled by religious passions reminiscent of Europe's Catholic-Protestant forty-year war of almost four centuries ago. Furthermore, the area contains no natural allies bonded to America by history and
culture, such as existed in Europe with Great Britain, France, Germany and, lately, even Poland. In essence, America has to navigate in uncertain and badly charted waters, setting its own course, making differentiated
accommodations while not letting any one regional power dictate its direction and priorities. To Whom Can America Turn? TO BE SURE, several states in the area are often mentioned as America's potential key partners in
reshaping the Global Balkans: Turkey, Israel, India and--on the region's periphery--Russia. Unfortunately, every one of them suffers serious handicaps in its capability to contribute to regional stability or has goals of its own that
collide with America's wider interests in the region. Turkey has been America's ally for half a century. It earned America's trust and gratitude by its direct participation in the Korean War. It has proven to be NATO's solid and reliable
southern anchor. With the fall of the Soviet Union, it became active in helping both Georgia and Azerbaijan consolidate their new independence, and it energetically promoted itself as a relevant model of political development and
social modernization for those Central Asian states whose people largely fall within the radius of the Turkic cultural and linguistic traditions. In that respect, Turkey's significant strategic role has been complementary to America's
policy of reinforcing the new independence of the region's post-Soviet states. Turkey's regional role, however, is limited by two major offsetting considerations stemming from its internal problems. The first pertains to the still
uncertain status of Ataturk's legacy: Will Turkey succeed in transforming itself into a secular European state even though its population is overwhelmingly Muslim? That has been its goal since Ataturk set his reforms in motion in
the early 1920s. Turkey has made remarkable progress since then, but to this day its future membership in the European Union (which it actively seeks) remains in doubt. If the EU were to close its doors to Turkey, the potential for
an Islamic political-religious revival and consequently for Turkey's dramatic (and probably turbulent) international reorientation should not be underestimated. The Europeans have reluctantly favored Turkey's inclusion in the
European Union, largely in order to avoid a serious regression in the country's political development. European leaders recognize that the transformation of Turkey from a state guided by Ataturk's vision of a European-type society
into an increasingly theocratic Islamic one would adversely affect Europe's security. That consideration, however, is contested by the view, shared by many Europeans, that the construction of Europe should be based on its
common Christian heritage. It is likely, therefore, that the European Union will delay for as long as it can a clear-cut commitment to open its doors to Turkey--but that prospect in turn will breed Turkish resentments, increasing the
risks that Turkey might evolve into a resentful Islamic state, with potentially dire consequences for southeastern Europe. (2) The other major liability limiting Turkey's role is the Kurdistan issue. A significant proportion of Turkey's
population of 70 million is composed of Kurds. The actual number is contested, as is the nature of the Turkish Kurds' national identity. The official Turkish view is that the Kurds in Turkey number no more than 10 million, and that
they are essentially Turks. Kurdish nationalists claim a population of 20 million, which they say aspires to live in an independent Kurdistan that would unite all the Kurds (claimed to number 25-35 million) currently living under
Turkish, Syrian, Iraqi and Iranian domination. Whatever the actual facts, the Kurdish ethnic problem and the potential Islamic religious issue tend to make Turkey-- notwithstanding its constructive role as a regional model--also very
much a part of the region's basic dilemmas. Israel is another seemingly obvious candidate for the status of a pre-eminent regional ally. As a democracy as well as a cultural kin, it enjoys America's automatic affinity, not to mention
intense political and financial support from the Jewish community in America. Initially a haven for the victims of the Holocaust, it enjoys American sympathy. As the object of Arab hostility, it triggered American preference for the
underdog. It has been America's favorite client state since approximately the mid-1960s and has been the recipient of unprecedented American financial assistance ($80 billion since 1974). It has benefited from almost solitary
American protection against UN disapprobation or sanctions. As the dominant military power in the Middle East, Israel has the potential, in the event of a major regional crisis, not only to be America's military base but also to
make a significant contribution to any required U.S. military engagement. Yet American and Israeli interests in the region are not entirely congruent. America has major strategic and economic interests in the Middle East that are
dictated by the region's vast energy supplies. Not only does America benefit economically from the relatively low costs of Middle Eastern oil, but America's security role in the region gives it indirect but politically critical leverage on
the European and Asian economies that are also dependent on energy exports from the region. Hence good relations with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates--and their continued security reliance on America--is in the U.S.
national interest. From Israel's standpoint, however, the resulting American-Arab ties are disadvantageous: they not only limit the degree to which the United States is prepared to back Israel's territorial aspirations, they also
stimulate American sensitivity to Arab grievances against Israel. Among those grievances, the Palestinian issue is foremost. That the final status of the Palestinian people remains unresolved more than 35 years after Israel occupied
the Gaza Strip and the West Bank--irrespective of whose fault that actually may be--intensifies and, in Arab eyes, legitimates the widespread Muslim hostility toward Israel. (3) It also perpetuates in the Arab mind the notion that
Israel is an alien and temporary colonial imposition on the region. To the extent that the Arabs perceive America as sponsoring Israeli repression of the Palestinians, America's ability to pacify anti-American passions in the region is
constrained. That impedes any joint and constructive American-Israeli initiative to promote multilateral political or economic cooperation in the region, and it limits any significant U.S. regional reliance on Israel's military potential.
Since September 11, the notion of India as America's strategic regional partner has come to the forefront. India's credentials seem at least as credible as Turkey's or Israel's. Its sheer size and power make it regionally influential,
while its democratic credentials make it ideologically attractive. It has managed to preserve its democracy since its inception as an independent state more than half a century ago. It has done so despite widespread poverty and
social inequality, and despite considerable ethnic and religious diversity in a predominantly Hindu but formally secular state. India's prolonged conflict with its Islamic neighbor, Pakistan, involving violent confrontations with
guerrillas and terrorist actions in Kashmir by Muslim extremists benefiting from Pakistan's benevolence, made India particularly eager to declare itself after September 11 as co-engaged with the United States in the war on
terrorism. Nonetheless, any U.S.-Indian alliance in the region is likely to be limited in scope. Two major obstacles stand in the way. The first pertains to India's religious, ethnic and linguistic mosaic. Although India has striven to
make its 1 billion culturally diverse people into a unified nation, it remains basically a Hindu state semi-encircled by Muslim neighbors while containing within its borders a large and potentially alienated Muslim minority of
somewhere between 120-140 million. Here, religion and nationalism could inflame each other on a grand scale. So far, India has been remarkably successful in maintaining a common state structure and a democratic system--but
much of its population has been essentially politically passive and (especially in the rural areas) illiterate. The risk is that a progressive rise in political consciousness and activism could be expressed through intensified ethnic and
religious collisions. The recent rise in the political consciousness of both India's Hindu majority and its Muslim minority could jeopardize India's communal coexistence. Internal strains and frictions could become particularly difficult
to contain if the war on terrorism were defined as primarily a struggle against Islam, which is how the more radical of the Hindu politicians tend to present it. Secondly, India's external concerns are focused on its neighbors,
Pakistan and China. The former is seen not only as the main source of the continued conflict in Kashmir but ultimately--with Pakistan's national identity rooted in religious affirmation--as the very negation of India's self-definition.
Pakistan's close ties to China intensify this sense of threat, given that India and China are unavoidable rivals for geopolitical primacy in Asia. Indian sensitivities are still rankled by the military defeat inflicted upon it by China in 1962,
in the short but intense border clash that left China in possession of the disputed Aksai Chin territory. The United States cannot back India against either Pakistan or China without paying a prohibitive strategic price elsewhere: in
Afghanistan if it were to opt against Pakistan, and in the Far East if it allied itself against China. These internal as well as external factors constrain the degree to which the United States can rely on India as an ally in any longer-term
effort to foster--let alone impose--greater stability in the Global Balkans. Finally, there is the question of the degree to which Russia can become America's major strategic partner in coping with Eurasian regional turmoil. Russia
clearly has the means and experience to be of help in such an effort. Although Russia, unlike the other contenders, is no longer truly part of the region--Russian colonial domination of Central Asia being a thing of the past--Moscow
nevertheless exercises considerable influence on all of the countries to its immediate south, has close ties to India and Iran and contains some 15-20 million Muslims within its own territory. At the same time, Russia has come to
see its Muslim neighbors as the source of a potentially explosive political and demographic threat, and the Russian political elite are increasingly susceptible to anti-Islamic religious and racist appeals. In these circumstances, the
Kremlin eagerly seized upon the events of September 11 as an opportunity to engage America against Islam in the name of the "war on terrorism." Yet, as a potential partner, Russia is also handicapped by its past, even its very
recent past. Afghanistan was devastated by a decade-long war waged by Russia, Chechnya is on the brink of genocidal extinction, and the newly independent Central Asian states increasingly define their modern history as a
struggle for emancipation from Russian colonialism. With such historical resentments still vibrant in the region, and with increasingly frequent signals that Russia's current priority is to link itself with the West, Russia is being
perceived in the region more and more as a former European colonial power and less and less as a Eurasian kin. Russia's present inability to offer much in the way of a social example also limits its role in any American-led
international partnership for the purpose of stabilizing, developing and eventually democratizing the region. Ultimately, America can look to only one genuine partner in coping with the Global Balkans: Europe. Although it will need
Only
Europe, increasingly organized as the European Union and militarily integrated through NATO, has the potential capability in the
political, military and economic realms to pursue jointly with America the task of engaging the various
Eurasian peoples--on a differentiated and flexible basis--in the promotion of regional stability and of
progressively widening trans-Eurasian cooperation. And a supranational European Union linked to America would be less
the help of leading East Asian states like Japan and China--and Japan will provide some, though limited, material assistance and some peacekeeping forces--neither is likely at this stage to become heavily engaged.
suspect in the region as a returning colonialist bent on consolidating or regaining its special economic interests.
Oil DA
1. Oil prices are rising now and will stay high for the rest of 2014- assumes Middle East
issues
Ligato 7/15 (Lorenzo, editor of Yale daily news, Reuters energy reporter, “Oil inches up as signs of
healthy supply tempered by Libya”, http://in.reuters.com/article/2014/07/14/markets-oilidINL4N0PP1BN20140714, 7/15/2014)
LONDON, July 14 (Reuters) -
Oil prices ended slightly higher on Monday as traders weighed renewed violence in
Libya against broader signs of a global market well-supplied with crude. Last week, North Sea benchmark Brent
closed at its lowest in three months as easing tensions in Libya and Iraq mitigated fears of supply disruptions. But oil prices perked up a
bit on Monday as violence flared anew. "More violence in Iraq and Libya raises some questions about their ability
to keep production going," said James Williams, an energy economist at WTRG Economics in London, Arkansas. "But the
fundamentals of supply and demand continue to be fairly balanced." Fighting broke out between rival militias vying for
control of the airport in Tripoli on Sunday, killing at least six people in the worst violence the capital has seen in six months. The United Nations
announced on its website on Monday that it is temporarily withdrawing its staff from Libya. Meanwhile, protesters have shut down production
at the eastern Libyan oil port of Brega, state firm National Oil Corp (NOC) said on Saturday. No timetable was disclosed for resuming operations
at the 43,000-barrel-per-day facility. Brent
crude gained 32 cents to settle at $106.98 A barrel. It had dropped to $106.21
crude futures gained 8 cents to settle at $100.91 a barrel.
The spread CL-LCO1=R between the two benchmarks closed at $6.07. Oil prices spiked to a nine-month
high last month as an Islamist insurgency swept across Iraq.
earlier in the session, the lowest intraday price since April. U.S.
2. Satellite mapping finds oil- it increases production capabilities, which lowers prices
Short 11 (Nicholas M. Short, Sr is a geologist who received degrees in that field from St. Louis University (B.S.), Washington University (M.A.), and the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Ph.D.); he also spent a year in graduate studies in the geosciences at The Pennsylvania State University. In his early postgraduate career, he worked for Gulf Research & Development Co., the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, and the University of Houston. During the 1960s he
specialized in the effects of underground nuclear explosions and asteroidal impacts on rocks (shock metamorphism), and was one of the original Principal
Investigators of the Apollo 11 and 12 moon rocks. 2011, “Finding Oil and Gas from Space” https://apollomapping.com/wpcontent/user_uploads/2011/11/NASA_Remote_Sensing_Tutorial_Oil_and_Gas.pdf MV)
If precious metals are not your forte, then try the petroleum industry. Exploration for oil and
gas has always depended on
surface maps of rock types and structures that point directly to, or at least hint at, subsurface conditions
favorable to accumulating oil and gas. Thus, looking at surfaces from satellites is a practical, costeffective way to produce appropriate maps. But verifying the presence of hydrocarbons below surface
requires two essential steps: 1) doing geophysical surveys; and 2) drilling into the subsurface to actually
detect and extract oil or gas or both. This Tutorial website sponsored by the Society of Exploration Geophysicists is a simplified
summary of the basics of hydrocarbon exploration. Oil and gas result from the decay of organisms - mostly marine plants (especially
microscopic algae and similar free-floating vegetation) and small animals such as fish - that are buried in muds that convert to shale. Heating
through burial and pressure from the overlying later sediments help in the process. (Coal forms from decay of buried plants that occur mainly in
swamps and lagoons which are eventually buried by younger sediments.). The decaying liquids and gases from petroleum source beds,
dominantly shales after muds convert to hard rock, migrate from their sources to become trapped in a variety of structural or stratigraphic
conditions shown in this illustration:The oil and gas must migrate from deeper source beds into suitable reservoir rocks. These are usually
porous sandstones, but limestones with solution cavities and even fractured igneous or metamorphic rocks can contain openings into which the
petroleum products accumulate. An essential condition: the
reservoir rocks must be surrounded (at least above) by
impermeable (refers to minimal ability to allow flow through any openings - pores or fractures) rock,
most commonly shales. The oil and gas, generally confined under some pressure, will escape to the
surface - either naturally when the trap is intersected by downward moving erosional surfaces or by being penetrated by a drill. If pressure is
high the oil and/or gas moves of its own accord to the surface but if pressure is initially low or drops over time, pumping is required.
Exploration for new petroleum sources begins with a search for surface manifestations of suitable traps
(but many times these are hidden by burial and other factors govern the decision to explore). Mapping of surface conditions
begins with reconnaissance, and if that indicates the presence of hydrocarbons, then detailed
mapping begins. Originally, both of these maps required field work. Often, the mapping job became easier by using
aerial photos. After the mapping, much of the more intensive exploration depends on geophysical methods (principally, seismic) that can give
3-D constructions of subsurface structural and stratigraphic traps for the hydrocarbons. Then, the potential traps are sampled by exploratory
drilling and their properties measured. Remote
sensing from satellites or aircraft strives to find one or more
indicators of surface anomalies. This diagram sets the framework for the approach used; this is the so-called microseepage model,
which leads to specific geochemical anomalies:
3. New US oil production collapses Russia’s economy
Woodhill 14 [Louis, Contributor at forbes, entrepenour and investor. 3/3/14, “It's Time To Drive Russia Bankrupt – Again”
http://www.forbes.com/sites/louiswoodhill/2014/03/03/its-time-to-drive-russia-bankrupt-again/]
The high oil prices of 1980 were not real, and Reagan knew it. They were being caused by the weakness of the U.S. dollar, which had lost 94%
of its value in terms of gold between 1969 and 1980. Reagan immediately decontrolled U.S. oil prices, to unleash the supply
side of the U.S. economy. Even more importantly, Reagan backed Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker’s campaign to strengthen and stabilize the
U.S. dollar. By the end of Reagan’s two terms in office, real oil prices had plunged to $27.88/bbl. As Russia
does today, the old USSR depended upon oil exports for most of its foreign exchange earnings, and
much of its government revenue. The 68% reduction in real oil prices during the Reagan years drove the
USSR bankrupt. In May 1990, Gorbachev called German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and begged him for a loan of $12 billion to stave off financial disaster. Kohl
advanced only $3 billion. By August of 1990, Gorbachev was back, pleading for more loans. In December 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed. President
Bill Clinton’s “strong dollar” policy (implemented via Federal Reserve Vice-Chairman Wayne Angell’s secret commodity price rule system) kept real oil prices low
during the 1990s, despite rising world oil demand. Real crude oil prices during Clinton’s time in office averaged only $27.16/bbl. At
real oil price levels
like this, Russia is financially incapable of causing much trouble. It was George W. Bush and Barack
Obama’s feckless “weak dollar” policy that let the Russian geopolitical genie out of the bottle. From the end of
2000 to the end of 2013, the gold value of the dollar fell by 77%, and real oil prices tripled, to $111.76/bbl. It is these artificially high oil prices that are fueling Putin’s
mischief machine. The
Russian government has approved a 2014 budget calling for revenues of $409.6 billion,
spending of $419.6 billion, and a deficit of $10.0 billion, or 0.4% of expected GDP of $2.5 trillion. Unlike
the U.S., which has deep financial markets and prints the world’s reserve currency, Russia cannot run
large fiscal deficits without creating hyperinflation. Given that Russia expects to get about half of its
revenue from taxes on its oil and gas industry, it is clear that it would not take much of a decline in
world oil prices to create financial difficulties for Russia. Assuming year-end 2013 prices for crude oil ($111.76/bbl) and natural gas
($66.00/FOE* bbl) the total revenue of Russia’s petroleum industry is $662.3 billion (26.5% of GDP), and Russian’s oil and gas export earnings are $362.2 billion, or
14.5% of GDP. Obviously,
a decline in world oil prices would cause the Russian economy and the Russian
government significant financial pain.
4. Russian economic collapse spreads globally – risks nuclear war
Filger, 09 (Sheldon, Global economic forecaster, founder of GlobalEconomicCrisis.com, named one of
the most viable websites focused on global economic crisis, writer for Huffington Post, “Russian
Economy Faces Disastrous Free Fall Contraction”, Huffington Post, 5/10/09,
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sheldon-filger/russian-economy-faces-dis_b_201147.html, 7/17/14)
In Russia, historically, economic health and political stability are intertwined to a degree that is rarely
encountered in other major industrialized economies. It was the economic stagnation of the former
Soviet Union that led to its political downfall. Similarly, Medvedev and Putin, both intimately acquainted
with their nation's history, are unquestionably alarmed at the prospect that Russia's economic crisis will
endanger the nation's political stability, achieved at great cost after years of chaos following the demise
of the Soviet Union. Already, strikes and protests are occurring among rank and file workers facing
unemployment or non-payment of their salaries. Recent polling demonstrates that the once supreme
popularity ratings of Putin and Medvedev are eroding rapidly. Beyond the political elites are the
financial oligarchs, who have been forced to deleverage, even unloading their yachts and executive jets
in a desperate attempt to raise cash. Should the Russian economy deteriorate to the point where
economic collapse is not out of the question, the impact will go far beyond the obvious accelerant such
an outcome would be for the Global Economic Crisis. There is a geopolitical dimension that is even more
relevant then the economic context. Despite its economic vulnerabilities and perceived decline from
superpower status, Russia remains one of only two nations on earth with a nuclear arsenal of sufficient
scope and capability to destroy the world as we know it. For that reason, it is not only President
Medvedev and Prime Minister Putin who will be lying awake at nights over the prospect that a national
economic crisis can transform itself into a virulent and destabilizing social and political upheaval. It just
may be possible that U.S. President Barack Obama's national security team has already briefed him
about the consequences of a major economic meltdown in Russia for the peace of the world. After all,
the most recent national intelligence estimates put out by the U.S. intelligence community have already
concluded that the Global Economic Crisis represents the greatest national security threat to the United
States, due to its facilitating political instability in the world. During the years Boris Yeltsin ruled Russia,
security forces responsible for guarding the nation's nuclear arsenal went without pay for months at a
time, leading to fears that desperate personnel would illicitly sell nuclear weapons to terrorist
organizations. If the current economic crisis in Russia were to deteriorate much further, how secure
would the Russian nuclear arsenal remain? It may be that the financial impact of the Global Economic
Crisis is its least dangerous consequence.
Security K
Apocalyptic representations of climate change are an ineffective rhetorical strategy that
produces a self-fulfilling prophecy
Hulme (Professor of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia, and Director of the Tyndall Centre
for Climate Change Research) 6
(Mike, Chaotic world of climate truth, 4 November,
http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6115644.stm)
The language of catastrophe is not the language of science. It will not be visible in next year's global
assessment from the world authority of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). To state
that climate change will be "catastrophic" hides a cascade of value-laden assumptions which do not
emerge from empirical or theoretical science. Is any amount of climate change catastrophic?
Catastrophic for whom, for where, and by when? What index is being used to measure the catastrophe?
The language of fear and terror operates as an ever-weakening vehicle for effective
communication or inducement for behavioural change. This has been seen in other areas of
public health risk. Empirical work in relation to climate change communication and public
perception shows that it operates here too. Framing climate change as an issue which
evokes fear and personal stress becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. By "sexing it up" we
exacerbate, through psychological amplifiers, the very risks we are trying to ward off. The careless (or
conspiratorial?) translation of concern about Saddam Hussein's putative military threat into the case for
WMD has had major geopolitical repercussions. We need to make sure the agents and agencies in our
society which would seek to amplify climate change risks do not lead us down a similar counterproductive pathway. The IPCC scenarios of future climate change - warming somewhere
between 1.4 and 5.8 Celsius by 2100 - are significant enough without invoking catastrophe
and chaos as unguided weapons with which forlornly to threaten society into behavioural change. I
believe climate change is real, must be faced and action taken. But the discourse of catastrophe
is in danger of tipping society onto a negative, depressive and reactionary trajectory.
And, if successful, apocalyptic representations of climate change lead to great power war –
regional interventions and arms races
Brzoska (Inst. for Peace Research and Security Policy @ Hamburg) 8
(Micahel, “The Securitization of climate change and the power of conceptions of security” ISA Convention Paper)
In the literature on securitization it is implied that when a problem is securitized it is difficult to limit this to an increase in
attention and resources devoted to mitigating the problem (Brock 1997, Waever 1995). Securitization regularly leads to all-round
‘exceptionalism’ in dealing with the issue as well as to a shift in institutional localization towards ‘security experts’ (Bigot 2006),
such as the military and police. Methods and instruments associated with these security organizations – such as more use of
arms, force and violence – will gain in importance in the discourse on ‘what to do’. A good example of securitization was the
period leading to the Cold War (Guzzini 2004 ). Originally
a political conflict over the organization of societies, in the
late 1940s, the East-West confrontation became an existential conflict that was
overwhelmingly addressed with military means, including the potential annihilation of
humankind. Efforts to alleviate the political conflict were, throughout most of the Cold War, secondary to improving military
capabilities. Climate change could meet a similar fate. An essentially political problem concerning the
distribution of the costs of prevention and adaptation and the losses and gains in income arising from change in the human
environment might
be perceived as intractable, thus necessitating the build-up of military and
portrayal of climate change as a
security problem could, in particular, cause the richer countries in the global North, which are
police forces to prevent it from becoming a major security problem. The
less affected by it, to
strengthen measures aimed at protecting them from the spillover of
violent conflict from the poorer countries in the global South that will be most affected by climate
change. It could also be used by major powers as a justification for improving their
military preparedness against the other major powers, thus leading to arms races. This
kind of reaction to climate change would be counterproductive in various ways. Firstly, since more border
protection, as well as more soldiers and arms, is expensive, the financial means compensate for the negative economic
effects of reducing greenhouse gas emission and adapting to climate change will be reduced . Global military
expenditure is again at the level of the height of the Cold War in real terms, reaching more than US $1,200 billion in 2006 or 3.5
percent of global income. While any estimate of the costs of mitigation (e.g. of restricting global warming to 2°C by 2050) and
adaptation are speculative at the moment,1 they are likely to be substantial. While there is no necessary link between higher
military expenditures and a lower willingness to spend on preventing and preparing for climate change, both policy
areas
are in competition for scarce resources.
No risk of offence – Total environmental collapse is inevitable even if warming is solved –
their focus on warming trade off with broader environmental protections
Crist (Prof in Department of Science and Technology in Society @ Virginia Tech) 7
(Eileen, Beyond the Climate Crisis: A Critique of Climate Change Discourse, Telos 4 (Winter 2007): 29–55)
While the dangers of climate change are real, I argue that there are even greater dangers in
representing it as the most urgent problem we face. Framing climate change in such a
manner deserves to be challenged for two reasons: it encourages the restriction of proposed
solutions to the technical realm, by powerfully insinuating that the needed
approaches are those that directly address the problem; and it detracts attention from
the planet’s ecological predicament as a whole, by virtue of claiming the lime- light for the
one issue that trumps all others.
Identifying climate change as the biggest threat to civilization, and ushering it into center stage as the
highest priority problem, has bolstered the proliferation of technical proposals that address the specific
challenge. The race is on for figuring out what technologies, or portfolio thereof, will solve “the
problem.” Whether the call is for reviving nuclear power, boosting the installation of wind turbines,
using a variety of renewable energy sources, increasing the efficiency of fossil-fuel use, developing
carbon-sequestering technologies, or placing mirrors in space to deflect the sun’s rays, the narrow
character of such proposals is evident: confront the problem of greenhouse gas emissions by
technologically phasing them out, superseding them, capturing them, or mitigating their heating
effects. In his The Revenge of Gaia, for example, Lovelock briefly mentions the need to face climate
change by “changing our whole style of living.”_6 But the thrust of this work, what readers and policymakers come away with, is his repeated and strident call for investing in nuclear energy as, in his
words, “the one lifeline we can use immediately.”_7 In the policy realm, the first step toward the
technological fix for global warming is often identified with implementing the Kyoto protocol. Biologist
Tim Flannery agitates for the treaty, comparing the need for its successful endorsement to that of the
Montreal protocol that phased out the ozone-depleting CFCs. “The Montreal protocol,” he submits,
“marks a signal moment in human societal development, representing the first ever victory by
humanity over a global pollution problem.”_8 He hopes for a similar victory for the global climatechange problem.
Yet the deepening realization of the threat of climate change, virtually in the wake of stratospheric
ozone depletion, also suggests that dealing with global problems treaty-by-treaty is no solution to the
planet’s pre- dicament. Just as the risks of unanticipated ozone depletion have been followed by the
dangers of a long underappreciated climate crisis, so it would be naïve not to anticipate another
(perhaps even entirely unforesee- able) catastrophe arising after the (hoped-for) resolution of the
above two. Furthermore, if greenhouse gases were restricted successfully by means of
technological shifts and innovations, the root cause of the ecological crisis as a whole
would remain unaddressed. The destructive patterns of production, trade, extraction,
land-use, waste proliferation, and consump- tion, coupled with population growth,
would go unchallenged, continuing to run down the integrity, beauty, and biological richness of the
Earth. Industrial-consumer civilization has entrenched a form of life that admits virtually no limits to its
expansiveness within, and perceived entitlement to, the entire planet._9 But questioning this
civilization is by and large sidestepped in climate-change discourse, with its single-minded quest
for a global-warming techno-fix.20 Instead of confronting the forms of social organization that
are causing the climate crisis—among numer- ous other catastrophes—climate-change literature often
focuses on how global warming is endangering the culprit, and agonizes over what tech- nological
means can save it from impending tipping points.2_
The dominant frame of climate change funnels cognitive and pragmatic work toward
specifically addressing global warming, while muting a host of equally monumental
issues. Climate change looms so huge on the environmental and political agenda today that it has
contributed to downplaying other facets of the ecological crisis: mass extinction of
species, the devastation of the oceans by industrial fishing, continued old-growth deforestation,
topsoil losses and desertification, endocrine dis- ruption, incessant development, and so on, are
made to appear secondary and more forgiving by comparison with “dangerous anthropogenic
inter- ference” with the climate system.
In what follows, I will focus specifically on how climate-change discourse encourages the continued
marginalization of the biodiversity crisis—a crisis that has been soberly described as a holocaust,22 and
which despite decades of scientific and environmentalist pleas remains a virtual non-topic in society,
the mass media, and humanistic and other academic literatures. Several works on climate change
(though by no means all) extensively examine the consequences of global warming for biodiver- sity,23
but rarely is it mentioned that biodepletion predates dangerous greenhouse-gas buildup by
decades, centuries, or longer, and will not be stopped by a technological resolution of
global warming. Climate change is poised to exacerbate species and ecosystem losses—indeed, is
doing so already. But while technologically preempting the worst of climate change may
temporarily avert some of those losses, such a resolution of the cli- mate quandary will not put an end
to—will barely address—the ongoing destruction of life on Earth.
Our alternative is to reject the Aff’s representations of climate catastrophe
As communication scholars we have an obligation to determine effective rhetorical strategies
for our policy proposals – apocalyptic reps of climate change must be rejected as an utter
failure
Foust and Murphy (Assistant Professor in the Department of Human Communication Studies at the University
of Denver; doctoral student in the Department of Human Communication Studies at the University of Denver) 9
(Christina R. Foust & William O'Shannon Murphy, Revealing and Reframing Apocalyptic Tragedy in Global Warming
Discourse, Environmental Communication: A Journal of Nature and Culture, pages 151-167,Volume 3, Issue 2,
2009)
In conclusion, an apocalyptic structure permeates the global warming narrative in the
American elite and popular press, with the potential to force the predicted tragedy into being,
due to its limitations on human agency. We echo the call for communication scholars of all
methodological commitments to join environmental advocates, climate scientists, and
others, in their efforts to build a collective will to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (Moser &
Dilling, 2007). A great part of this effort is in reframing the way the press constitutes climate
change discourse (Boykoff, 2007b). These efforts also must extend beyond the media to include
other arenas in which an active public is aroused, from kitchen tables and water coolers, to board
rooms and classrooms. By providing the public, agenda-setting professionals (e.g., public
relations practitioners and journalists), and community leaders with ways to structure
communication that promote agency, rhetoricians might advance widespread public
action on climate change.The apocalyptic frame, particularly in its tragic version, is not an
effective rhetorical strategy for this situation. It has been developed over at least the last
decade of press coverage, a time in which the US has refused all but the most paltry
political action on greenhouse gas reductions. Tragic apocalyptic discourse encourages
belief in prophesy at the expense of practicing persuasion, even as it provokes resignation in the
face of a human-induced dilemma. Given the tragic apocalyptic frame's ineffectiveness at inspiring
action-or, at least its persistent evacuation of agency-we must promote more action-oriented rhetorical
strategies. Together, we may advance the climate change narrative from an apocalyptic tragedy to a
more comic telos for humanity.
Case
Solvency
Status Quo solves the aff, 3 reasons--First, IOOS already mapped sufficiently, it has the tech to keep going – the plan is
unnecessary
US IOOS Report to Congress 13 (US IOOS Report to Congress. 2013. “U.S. Integrated Ocean
Observing System (U.S. IOOS) 2013 Report to Congress.”
http://www.ioos.noaa.gov/about/governance/ioos_report_congress2013.pdf MV)
Gliders and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) are buoyancy -driven vehicles that vertically profile
the ocean and can travel great distances over long time periods without servicing . These characteristics , along
with advancements in sensor technologies, are making gliders more and more important as tools for collecting ocean data. Gliders are
used to monitor water currents, temperature , and biological information such as dissolved oxygen and
nitrate. This information offers a more complete picture of what is happening at and below the ocean
surface , and may allow scientists to detect trends that otherwise might have gone undetected .
Gliders are assuming a prominent and growing role in ocean science due to their unique capabilities for
collecting data safely and at relatively low cost in remote locations, both in deep water and at the
surface . An advantage of gliders is that they ca n be quickly deployed to areas of greatest need. A National Glider Asset Map
was deployed by the U.S. IOOS program in 2012 and will include all historic and current glider flights
once it is completed . The map shown on the right includes data from glider missions since 2005 from Southern California (SCCOOS), the
Pacific Northwest (NANOOS), Central and Northern California (CeNCOOS) and the Mid - Atlantic (MARACOOS) regional glider operations. The
glider asset map can be viewed at : http://www.ioos .noaa.gov/observ ing/observing_assets/glider_asset _map.html.
Second, agencies solve the plan
Gulledge 10 (Dr. Jay Gulledge a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security and is the Senior Scientist and
Science and Impacts Program Director at the Pew Center on Global Climate Change. April 2010. “Lost in Translation: Closing the Gap Between
Climate Science and National Security Policy.”
http://www.cnas.org/files/documents/publications/Lost%20in%20Translation_Code406_Web_0.pdf MV)
For example, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Ames Research Center in California is
using a new “cubebased” approach to modeling the climate system that improves the resolution and accuracy of ocean
circulation models. […] The intelligence community continues to declassify one-meter resolution images
taken from its satellite systems, giving climate scientists access to images 15 to 30 times sharper than
the next- best systems controlled by NASA and commercial entities such as Google. 25 These and a
plethora of other advancements have produced a greater understanding of the Earth’s climate system
as well as the affects of human activities (or anthropogenic influences) on the climate system. The amount of
observational data and output from climate models is growing quickly. For example, there are terabytes of highly credible
climate change projections now available from the IPCC’s Fourth Assessment Report that have never been examined in detail –
particularly with regard to local and near-term projections, by decade, to the end of the century and beyond. The sheer volume of
available but unanalyzed data creates the potential for many policy-relevant questions to be
answered today, if only decision makers were aware of the data, knew how to access it and could
make sense of it – and if more scientists understood the needs of decision makers and were motivated to provide it to them in a more
useful form. In the future, as even more data become available, new efforts are emerging to handle the onslaught of information . NOAA is
leading one public sector effort, the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System
(NPOESS), which will orbit the Earth every 100 minutes, “providing global coverage, monitoring environmental conditions, collecting,
disseminating and processing data about the Earth's weather, atmosphere, oceans, land and near-space environment.” 26 The private sector
has started to contribute to the flow of new information as well. For example, there are new public-private partnerships to advance climate
science data collection and analysis with new satellite systems. 27 Meanwhile, other
private companies are embarking on
similar solo endeavors, in part, in recognition of the likelihood that there will be a surge in the demand
for collection and analysis of climate information.
Third, Data Insufficiency is being fixed—the plan isn’t needed this post dates their
Inherency
Piotroski 14 (Jon Piotroski is known for his articles on the science development website. He has written numerous articles pertaining to oceanography, climate change, and other
environmental issues. 03/20/14 from SciDev. Tidal wave of ocean data leaves scientists swamped. http://www.scidev.net/global/data/news/tidal-wave-of-ocean-data-leaves-scientistsswamped.html July 3, 2014)
A lack of data curators and managers capable of cleaning up observational measurements, particularly in
less developed nations, is limiting the scale and scope of ocean research, researchers have said on the
sidelines of an oceans science meeting.¶ To deal with the challenge, the Ocean Sciences Meeting in
Hawaii last month (23-28 February) heard proposals for creating a comprehensive, quality controlled
database.¶ This would help overcome limited scientific capacity and allow under-resourced researchers
to better participate in efforts to understand pressing issues such as climate change, scientists said.¶ The
complexities involved in transforming raw oceanographic data into a useable state means researchers
with limited data skills or financial resources are less able to meet the necessary standard, said Stephen
Diggs, a data manager at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, in the United States.¶ The explosion of
ocean data being collected through modern methods exceeds scientists’ capacity to deal with it, he told
SciDev.Net on the fringes of the conference.¶ “There definitely needs to be workforce development to
get more data curators and managers that come out of their training ready to deal with this,” he said.¶
Interdisciplinary work that is crucial for answering questions such as what effect climate change is
having on marine environments is especially sensitive to reliability issues, he added.¶ This is because,
when faced with data sets from various disciplines, researchers often lack the expertise to spot and
correct all the biases created by the idiosyncrasies of different regions and collection methods, he said.¶
Providing researchers with rigorously quality controlled data from outside their immediate field was the
motivation behind a proposed initiative, which called for scientists’ support at a town hall meeting
during the conference.¶ The International Quality-Controlled Ocean Database (IQuOD) would combine
automated, large-scale data cleaning done by computers with finer-grained expert analysis. The goal
would be to produce a definitive database of the data from the 13 million locations with sea surface
temperature records — some dating back to the eighteenth century — scattered across various
institutions.¶ According to Diggs, this would significantly improve on the oceanographic database hosted
at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA’s) National Oceanographic Data
Center. Even though NOAA's only conducts limited automated quality control its repository of marine
datasets is the world’s most comprehensive.¶ Other variables, such as salinity and oxygen concentrations
in the water, could be added to the temperature data as the IQuOD project progresses, said Diggs.
Climate Change
Cross apply Parthemore and Rogers – plan won’t be able to solve for climate change
without implementing new satellites which is unfeasible – even then the plan would
be insufficient; their own uniqueness evidence is too good.
China and India will continue to produce CO2 even if the US stops
Bastasch 14 (Michael, reporter for the Daily Caller, “Obama admits his climate agenda won’t curb
global warming”, 1/23/14, http://dailycaller.com/2014/01/23/obama-admits-his-climate-agenda-wontcurb-global-warming/, HG)
President Barack Obama admitted in an interview with The New Yorker that his plan to lower U.S.
carbon dioxide emissions by banning new coal plants would do little to curb global warming since
developing countries like China and India will still use coal power. The Obama administration published its proposed
carbon dioxide emissions limits for new coal plants which would effectively ban coal power. That is, unless they use commercially unproven
carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies. Tighter emission controls for coal plants are part of Obama’s plan to fight global warming.
Critics of the
administration argue that banning coal plants won’t curb global warming because developing
countries continue to build coal plants, frustrating U.S. efforts to lower global carbon emissions. Obama
conceded that fact, but argued that limiting emissions here will only help the U.S. because other countries will come to us for the technology
once we’ve developed it. “And so if we can figure out a carbon-capture mechanism that is sufficiently advanced and works, then we are helping
ourselves, because the Chinese and the Indians are going to build some coal plants, and even if we don’t build another coal plant in this
country, there are going to be a lot of coal plants around the world that are built,” Obama told the New Yorker. “And we have a huge
investment in trying to figure out how we can help them do it more cleanly,” he added. Obama hopes that by requiring new U.S. coal plants to
use CCS technologies, the country could become a world leader and export the technology abroad when other nations can afford it. If the U.S.
doesn’t lead, Obama argues, other countries will not follow. “And it’s not sufficient for us to just tell them to stop,” Obama said. “We’re going
to have to give them some help. We’re going to have to take some of our research and development on things like clean-coal technology and
be able to export it to them or license it to them… There’s going to be a process where we help them leapfrog some of the development stages
that we went through.” “This is why I’m putting a big priority on our carbon action plan here. It’s not because I’m ignorant of the fact that these
emerging countries are going to be a bigger problem than us,” Obama added. “It’s because it’s very hard for me to get in that conversation if
we’re making no effort. And it’s not an answer for us to say, ‘Well, since
the Chinese and the Indians are the bigger
problem, we might as well not even bother.’” Indeed, countries like China and India are set to ramp up their coal use
dramatically. The World Resource Institute reports that 76 percent of the proposed coal-fired capacity is in India and China — nearly 1,200 coal
plants have been proposed globally, totaling more than 1.4 million megawatts of power. The Chinese greenlit 100 million metric tons of new
coal production capacity last year as part of the government’s plan to bring 860 million metric tons of coal production online by 2015. The
U.S. coal industry, however, says CCS is not yet proven technology as there are no commercial-scale coal plants in the
country that uses the technology. In fact, when the Environmental Protection Agency wrote its rule limiting coal plant emissions it only cited
CCS projects that were government funded and not in operation. “[I]t is disingenuous to state that the technology is ‘ready,’” said Charles
McConnell, former assistant secretary of energy in Obama. “Studies have verified that implementation of [CSS] technology is necessary to
comply with EPA’s proposed [EPA carbon-emissions limits] regulation and meet the [greenhouse gas] targets necessary for limiting CO2
emissions to our atmosphere.” “However, commercial [CSS] technology currently is not available to meet EPA’s proposed rule. The cost of
current CO2 capture technology is much too high to be commercially viable,” said McConnell, who now serves as the executive director of the
Energy & Environment Initiative at Rice University. Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2014/01/23/obama-admits-his-climate-agenda-wontcurb-global-warming/#ixzz35oqakkuy
IPCC consensus proves we can adapt
Rodgers 14 (Paul Rodgers, contributor of general sciences for Forbes, “Climate Change: We Can Adapt, Says IPCC,” Forbes, March 31,
2014, http://www.forbes.com/sites/paulrodgers/2014/03/31/climate-change-is-real-but-its-not-the-end-of-the-world-says-ipcc/)
Yet for
the first time, the IPCC is offering a glimmer of hope. It acknowledges that some of the changes
will be beneficial – including higher crop yields in places like Canada, Europe and Central Asia – and that in others cases,
people will be able to adapt to them. “The really big breakthrough in this report is the new idea of
thinking about managing climate change,” said Dr Chris Field, the global ecology director at the Carnegie Institution in
Washington and a co-chairman of the report. “We have a lot of the tools for dealing effectively with it. We just need
to be smart about it. “Climate-change adaptation is not an exotic agenda that has never been tried,” said
Field. “Governments, firms, and communities around the world are building experience with adaptation.
This experience forms a starting point for bolder, more ambitious adaptations that will be important as
climate and society continue to change.” Adaptations could include better flood defences or building
houses that can withstand tropical cyclones. Vicente Barros, another co-chairman, said: “Investments in better
preparation can pay dividends both for the present and for the future.”
Reject climate alarmism – their impacts are not backed by peer-reviewed data.
Idso, 11 (Craig D., PhD Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change, 6/15/11, Center for
the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Climate Change, “Estimates of Global Food Production in the
Year 2050: Will We Produce Enough to Adequately Feed the World?” AS)
Many people have long believed that the ongoing rise in the air’s carbon dioxide or CO2 content has been
causing the world to warm, due to the “greenhouse effect” of this radiatively-active trace gas of the atmosphere; and
they believe that the planet will continue to warm for decades -- if not centuries -- to come, based upon economic projections of the amounts
of future fossil fuel (coal, gas and oil) usage and climate-model projections of the degree of global warming they expect to be produced by the
CO2 that is emitted to the atmosphere as a result of the burning of these fuels. The
same people have also long believed that
CO2-induced global warming will lead to a whole host of climate- and weather-related catastrophes, including
more frequent and severe floods, droughts, hurricanes and other storms, rising sea levels that will
inundate the planet’s coastal lowlands, increased human illness and mortality, the widespread
extinction of many plant and animal species, declining agricultural productivity, frequent coral
bleaching, and marine life dissolving away in acidified oceans. And because of these theoretical model-based projections,
they have lobbied local, regional and national governments for decades in an attempt to get the nations of the world to severely reduce the
magnitudes of their anthropogenic CO2 emissions. But are the scenarios painted by these climate alarmists true portrayals of what the future
holds for humanity and the rest of the biosphere if their demands are not met?¶ This is the question recently addressed in our Center’s most
recent major report: Carbon Dioxide and Earth’s Future: Pursuing the Prudent Path. In it, we describe the
findings of many hundreds
of peer-reviewed scientific studies that analyzed real-world data pertaining to the host of climate- and weatherrelated catastrophes predicted by the world’s climate alarmists to result from rising global temperatures. The approach of
most of these studies was to determine if there had been any increasing trends in the predicted catastrophic
phenomena over the past millennia or two, the course of the 20th century, or the past few decades, when the world’s climate alarmists
claim that the planet warmed at a rate and to a degree that they contend was unprecedented over the past thousand or two years. And the
common finding of all of this research was a resounding No!¶ But even this near-universal repudiation of
climate-alarmist contentions has not been enough to cause them to alter their overriding goal of
reducing anthropogenic CO2 emissions. Invoking the precautionary principle, they essentially say that the potential
climatic outcomes they foresee are so catastrophic that we cannot afford to gamble upon them being wrong, evoking the old adage that it is
better to be safe than sorry, even if the cost is staggering.¶ If this were all there were to the story, we all
would agree with them. But it is not, for they ignore an even more ominous catastrophe that is rushing
towards us like an out-of-control freight train that is only years away from occurring. And preventing this
ominous future involves letting the air’s CO2 content continue its historical upward course, until the age
of fossil fuels gradually peaks and then naturally, in the course of unforced innovation, declines, as other sources of
energy gradually become more efficient and less expensive, and without the forced intervention of government.
Coral Reefs
Cross apply Piotroski – the lack of data is already being fixed in the status quo; means
the plan is unnecessary.
Their Moustafihd evidence again proves that the plan is unnecessary. It talks about
how IOOS can provide biological data standards. Oh, and it also says that IT’S
ALREADY BEING DONE.
U.S. IOOS started in early 2010 a project called IOOS Biological Data Project (IOOS BDP). The project is
focusing on a single case-study (i.e. customer-driven) and it’s designed to promote biological data
standards and interoperability to help the customer access observations from a wide variety of sources
and formats
Corals have faced much worse.
Carter et al, 11 (Robert M. Carter, Craig D. Idso, S. Fred Singer, 2011, Nongovernmental International
Panel on Climate Change, “Climate Change Reconsidered: 2011 Interim Report of the NIPCC,”
http://www.nipccreport.org/reports/2011/pdf/2011NIPCCinterimreport.pdf, AS)
The Nongovernmental Panel on Climate Change ¶ (NIPCC) disagreed with the IPCC in 2009, presenting ¶ a
review of the extensive literature on coral reefs ¶ showing, inter alia, that there was no simple linkage ¶
between high temperatures and coral bleaching, that ¶ coral reefs have persisted through geologic time
when ¶ temperatures were as much as 10° – 15°C warmer ¶ than at present and when CO2
concentrations were ¶ two to seven times higher than they are currently, and ¶ that coral readily adapts
to rising sea levels (Idso and ¶ Singer, 2009).
Ecological redundancies means humans can survive
Sagoff 97
(Mark Sagoff, Senior Research Scholar – Institute for Philosophy and Public policy in School of Public Affairs – U. Maryland,
William and Mary Law Review, “INSTITUTE OF BILL OF RIGHTS LAW SYMPOSIUM DEFINING TAKINGS: PRIVATE PROPERTY AND
THE FUTURE OF GOVERNMENT REGULATION: MUDDLE OR MUDDLE THROUGH? TAKINGS JURISPRUDENCE MEETS THE
ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT”, 38 Wm and Mary L. Rev. 825, March) (Note – Colin Tudge - Research Fellow at the Centre for
Philosophy at the London School of Economics. Frmr Zoological Society of London: Scientific Fellow and tons of other positions.
PhD. Read zoology at Cambridge, Simon Levin = Moffet Professor of Biology, Princeton. 2007 American Institute of Biological
Sciences Distinguished Scientist Award 2008 Istituto Veneto di Scienze Lettere ed Arti 2009 Honorary Doctorate of Science,
Michigan State University 2010 Eminent Ecologist Award, Ecological Society of America 2010 Margalef Prize in Ecology, etc…
PhD)
Although one may agree with ecologists such as Ehrlich and Raven that the earth stands on the brink of an episode of massive extinction, it may
not follow from this grim fact that human beings will suffer as a result. On the contrary, skeptics such as science writer Colin Tudge have
challenged biologists to explain why we need more than a tenth of the 10 to 100 million species that grace the earth. Noting that "cultivated
systems often out-produce wild systems by 100-fold or more," Tudge declared that "the argument that humans need the variety of other
species is, when you think about it, a theological one." n343 Tudge observed that "the
elimination of all but a tiny minority of
our fellow creatures does not affect the material well-being of humans one iota." n344 This skeptic challenged
ecologists to list more than 10,000 species (other than unthreatened microbes) that are essential to ecosystem productivity or functioning.
n345 "The human
species could survive just as well if 99.9% of our fellow creatures went extinct, provided
only that we retained the appropriate 0.1% that we need." n346 [*906] The monumental Global Biodiversity
Assessment ("the Assessment") identified two positions with respect to redundancy of species. "At one extreme is the idea that each species is
unique and important, such that its removal or loss will have demonstrable consequences to the functioning of the community or ecosystem."
n347 The authors of the Assessment, a panel of eminent ecologists, endorsed this position, saying it is "unlikely that there is much, if any,
ecological redundancy in communities over time scales of decades to centuries, the time period over which environmental policy should
operate." n348 These eminent ecologists rejected the opposing view, "the notion that species overlap in function to a sufficient degree that
removal or loss of a species will be compensated by others, with negligible overall consequences to the community or ecosystem." n349 Other
biologists believe, however, that species
are so fabulously redundant in the ecological functions they perform that
the life-support systems and processes of the planet and ecological processes in general will function perfectly well with
fewer of them, certainly fewer than the millions and millions we can expect to remain even if every
threatened organism becomes extinct. n350 Even the kind of sparse and miserable world depicted in the movie Blade Runner
could provide a "sustainable" context for the human economy as long as people forgot their aesthetic and moral commitment to the glory and
beauty of the natural world. n351 The Assessment makes this point. "Although any ecosystem contains hundreds to thousands of species
interacting among themselves and their physical environment, the emerging consensus is that the system is driven by a small number of . . .
biotic variables on whose interactions the balance of species are, in a sense, carried along." n352 [*907] To make up your mind on the
question of the functional redundancy of species, consider an endangered species of bird, plant, or insect and ask how the ecosystem would
fare in its absence. The fact that the creature is endangered suggests an answer: it is already in limbo as far as ecosystem processes are
concerned. What crucial ecological services does the black-capped vireo, for example, serve? Are any of the species threatened with extinction
necessary to the provision of any ecosystem service on which humans depend? If so, which ones are they? Ecosystems and the species that
compose them have changed, dramatically, continually, and totally in virtually every part of the United States. There is little ecological
similarity, for example, between New England today and the land where the Pilgrims died. n353 In view of the constant reconfiguration of the
biota, one may wonder why Americans have not suffered more as a result of ecological catastrophes. The cast of species in nearly every
environment changes constantly-local extinction is commonplace in nature-but the crops still grow. Somehow, it seems, property values keep
going up on Martha's Vineyard in spite of the tragic disappearance of the heath hen. One might argue that the
sheer number and
variety of creatures available to any ecosystem buffers that system against stress. Accordingly, we should be
concerned if the "library" of creatures ready, willing, and able to colonize ecosystems gets too small. (Advances in genetic engineering may well
permit us to write a large number of additions to that "library.") In
the United States as in many other parts of the world,
however, the number of species has been increasing dramatically, not decreasing, as a result of human
activity
Oil spills
Their own Solberg evidence once again proves the aff unnecessary. Satellites can
already prevent spills in the status quo.
Remote sensing sensors can help to identify minor spills before they cause widespread damage. In the
case of larger accidents, satellite remote sensing is an excellent aid to get an overview of the extent of
the spill and to follow its development
It speaks in present tense; the tech already is implemented
Ecological redundancies means humans can survive
Sagoff 97
(Mark Sagoff, Senior Research Scholar – Institute for Philosophy and Public policy in School of Public Affairs – U. Maryland,
William and Mary Law Review, “INSTITUTE OF BILL OF RIGHTS LAW SYMPOSIUM DEFINING TAKINGS: PRIVATE PROPERTY AND
THE FUTURE OF GOVERNMENT REGULATION: MUDDLE OR MUDDLE THROUGH? TAKINGS JURISPRUDENCE MEETS THE
ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT”, 38 Wm and Mary L. Rev. 825, March) (Note – Colin Tudge - Research Fellow at the Centre for
Philosophy at the London School of Economics. Frmr Zoological Society of London: Scientific Fellow and tons of other positions.
PhD. Read zoology at Cambridge, Simon Levin = Moffet Professor of Biology, Princeton. 2007 American Institute of Biological
Sciences Distinguished Scientist Award 2008 Istituto Veneto di Scienze Lettere ed Arti 2009 Honorary Doctorate of Science,
Michigan State University 2010 Eminent Ecologist Award, Ecological Society of America 2010 Margalef Prize in Ecology, etc…
PhD)
Although one may agree with ecologists such as Ehrlich and Raven that the earth stands on the brink of an episode of massive extinction, it may
not follow from this grim fact that human beings will suffer as a result. On the contrary, skeptics such as science writer Colin Tudge have
challenged biologists to explain why we need more than a tenth of the 10 to 100 million species that grace the earth. Noting that "cultivated
systems often out-produce wild systems by 100-fold or more," Tudge declared that "the argument that humans need the variety of other
species is, when you think about it, a theological one." n343 Tudge observed that "the
elimination of all but a tiny minority of
our fellow creatures does not affect the material well-being of humans one iota." n344 This skeptic challenged
ecologists to list more than 10,000 species (other than unthreatened microbes) that are essential to ecosystem productivity or functioning.
n345 "The human
species could survive just as well if 99.9% of our fellow creatures went extinct, provided
only that we retained the appropriate 0.1% that we need." n346 [*906] The monumental Global Biodiversity
Assessment ("the Assessment") identified two positions with respect to redundancy of species. "At one extreme is the idea that each species is
unique and important, such that its removal or loss will have demonstrable consequences to the functioning of the community or ecosystem."
n347 The authors of the Assessment, a panel of eminent ecologists, endorsed this position, saying it is "unlikely that there is much, if any,
ecological redundancy in communities over time scales of decades to centuries, the time period over which environmental policy should
operate." n348 These eminent ecologists rejected the opposing view, "the notion that species overlap in function to a sufficient degree that
removal or loss of a species will be compensated by others, with negligible overall consequences to the community or ecosystem." n349 Other
biologists believe, however, that species
are so fabulously redundant in the ecological functions they perform that
the life-support systems and processes of the planet and ecological processes in general will function perfectly well with
fewer of them, certainly fewer than the millions and millions we can expect to remain even if every
threatened organism becomes extinct. n350 Even the kind of sparse and miserable world depicted in the movie Blade Runner
could provide a "sustainable" context for the human economy as long as people forgot their aesthetic and moral commitment to the glory and
beauty of the natural world. n351 The Assessment makes this point. "Although any ecosystem contains hundreds to thousands of species
interacting among themselves and their physical environment, the emerging consensus is that the system is driven by a small number of . . .
biotic variables on whose interactions the balance of species are, in a sense, carried along." n352 [*907] To make up your mind on the
question of the functional redundancy of species, consider an endangered species of bird, plant, or insect and ask how the ecosystem would
fare in its absence. The fact that the creature is endangered suggests an answer: it is already in limbo as far as ecosystem processes are
concerned. What crucial ecological services does the black-capped vireo, for example, serve? Are any of the species threatened with extinction
necessary to the provision of any ecosystem service on which humans depend? If so, which ones are they? Ecosystems and the species that
compose them have changed, dramatically, continually, and totally in virtually every part of the United States. There is little ecological
similarity, for example, between New England today and the land where the Pilgrims died. n353 In view of the constant reconfiguration of the
biota, one may wonder why Americans have not suffered more as a result of ecological catastrophes. The cast of species in nearly every
environment changes constantly-local extinction is commonplace in nature-but the crops still grow. Somehow, it seems, property values keep
going up on Martha's Vineyard in spite of the tragic disappearance of the heath hen. One might argue that the
sheer number and
variety of creatures available to any ecosystem buffers that system against stress. Accordingly, we should be
concerned if the "library" of creatures ready, willing, and able to colonize ecosystems gets too small. (Advances in genetic engineering may well
permit us to write a large number of additions to that "library.") In
the United States as in many other parts of the world,
however, the number of species has been increasing dramatically, not decreasing, as a result of human
activity
No impact --- Ocean ecosystems are resilient
CO2 Science 2008
Marine Ecosystem Response to "Ocean Acidification" Due to Atmospheric CO2 Enrichment, Vogt, M.,
Steinke, M., Turner, S., Paulino, A., Meyerhofer, M., Riebesell, U., LeQuere, C. and Liss, P. 2008.
Dynamics of dimethylsulphoniopropionate and dimethylsulphide under different CO2 concentrations
during a mesocosm experiment. Biogeosciences 5: 407-419,
http://www.co2science.org/articles/V11/N29/B2.php
Vogt et al. report that they detected no significant phytoplankton species shifts between treatments, and that " the
ecosystem
composition, bacterial and phytoplankton abundances and productivity, grazing rates and total grazer
abundance and reproduction were not significantly affected by CO2 induced effects," citing in support of this
statement the work of Riebesell et al. (2007), Riebesell et al. (2008), Egge et al. (2007), Paulino et al. (2007), Larsen et al. (2007), Suffrian et al.
(2008) and Carotenuto et al. (2007). In addition, they say that "while DMS stayed elevated in the treatments with elevated CO2, we observed a
steep decline in DMS concentration in the treatment with low CO2," i.e., the ambient CO2 treatment. What it means With respect to their
many findings, the eight
researchers say their observations suggest that "the system under study was
surprisingly resilient to abrupt and large pH changes," which is just the opposite of what the world's
climate alarmists characteristically predict about CO2-induced "ocean acidification." And that may be
why Vogt et al. described the marine ecosystem they studied as "surprisingly resilient" to such change: it
may have been a little unexpected.
IOOS Case neg: On case stuffs
This aff really sucks. –Mick.
Inherency
IOOS already mapped sufficiently, it has the tech to keep going – the plan is
unnecessary
US IOOS Report to Congress 13 (US IOOS Report to Congress. 2013. “U.S. Integrated Ocean
Observing System (U.S. IOOS) 2013 Report to Congress.”
http://www.ioos.noaa.gov/about/governance/ioos_report_congress2013.pdf MV)
Gliders and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) are buoyancy -driven vehicles that vertically profile
the ocean and can travel great distances over long time periods without servicing . These characteristics , along
with advancements in sensor technologies, are making gliders more and more important as tools for collecting ocean data. Gliders are
used to monitor water currents, temperature , and biological information such as dissolved oxygen and
nitrate. This information offers a more complete picture of what is happening at and below the ocean
surface , and may allow scientists to detect trends that otherwise might have gone undetected .
Gliders are assuming a prominent and growing role in ocean science due to their unique capabilities for
collecting data safely and at relatively low cost in remote locations, both in deep water and at the
surface . An advantage of gliders is that they ca n be quickly deployed to areas of greatest need. A National Glider Asset Map
was deployed by the U.S. IOOS program in 2012 and will include all historic and current glider flights
once it is completed . The map shown on the right includes data from glider missions since 2005 from Southern California (SCCOOS), the
Pacific Northwest (NANOOS), Central and Northern California (CeNCOOS) and the Mid - Atlantic (MARACOOS) regional glider operations. The
glider asset map can be viewed at : http://www.ioos .noaa.gov/observ ing/observing_assets/glider_asset _map.html.
Status quo agencies solve the plan
Gulledge 10 (Dr. Jay Gulledge a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security and is the Senior Scientist and
Science and Impacts Program Director at the Pew Center on Global Climate Change. April 2010. “Lost in Translation: Closing the Gap Between
Climate Science and National Security Policy.”
http://www.cnas.org/files/documents/publications/Lost%20in%20Translation_Code406_Web_0.pdf MV)
For example, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Ames Research Center in California is
using a new “cubebased” approach to modeling the climate system that improves the resolution and accuracy of ocean
circulation models. […] The intelligence community continues to declassify one-meter resolution images
taken from its satellite systems, giving climate scientists access to images 15 to 30 times sharper than
the next- best systems controlled by NASA and commercial entities such as Google. 25 These and a
plethora of other advancements have produced a greater understanding of the Earth’s climate system
as well as the affects of human activities (or anthropogenic influences) on the climate system. The amount of
observational data and output from climate models is growing quickly. For example, there are terabytes of highly credible
climate change projections now available from the IPCC’s Fourth Assessment Report that have never been examined in detail –
particularly with regard to local and near-term projections, by decade, to the end of the century and beyond. The sheer volume of
available but unanalyzed data creates the potential for many policy-relevant questions to be
answered today, if only decision makers were aware of the data, knew how to access it and could
make sense of it – and if more scientists understood the needs of decision makers and were motivated to provide it to them in a more
useful form. In the future, as even more data become available, new efforts are emerging to handle the onslaught of information. NOAA is
leading one public sector effort, the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System
(NPOESS), which will orbit the Earth every 100 minutes, “providing global coverage, monitoring environmental conditions, collecting,
disseminating and processing data about the Earth's weather, atmosphere, oceans, land and near-space environment.” 26 The private sector
has started to contribute to the flow of new information as well. For example, there are new public-private partnerships to advance climate
science data collection and analysis with new satellite systems. 27 Meanwhile, other
private companies are embarking on
similar solo endeavors, in part, in recognition of the likelihood that there will be a surge in the demand
for collection and analysis of climate information.
Data Insufficiency is being fixed in the Status Quo—the plan isn’t needed
Piotroski 14 (Jon Piotroski is known for his articles on the science development website. He has written numerous articles pertaining to oceanography, climate change, and other
environmental issues. 03/20/14 from SciDev. Tidal wave of ocean data leaves scientists swamped. http://www.scidev.net/global/data/news/tidal-wave-of-ocean-data-leaves-scientistsswamped.html July 3, 2014)
A lack of data curators and managers capable of cleaning up observational measurements, particularly in
less developed nations, is limiting the scale and scope of ocean research, researchers have said on the
sidelines of an oceans science meeting.¶ To deal with the challenge, the Ocean Sciences Meeting in
Hawaii last month (23-28 February) heard proposals for creating a comprehensive, quality controlled
database.¶ This would help overcome limited scientific capacity and allow under-resourced researchers
to better participate in efforts to understand pressing issues such as climate change, scientists said.¶ The
complexities involved in transforming raw oceanographic data into a useable state means researchers
with limited data skills or financial resources are less able to meet the necessary standard, said Stephen
Diggs, a data manager at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, in the United States.¶ The explosion of
ocean data being collected through modern methods exceeds scientists’ capacity to deal with it, he told
SciDev.Net on the fringes of the conference.¶ “There definitely needs to be workforce development to
get more data curators and managers that come out of their training ready to deal with this,” he said.¶
Interdisciplinary work that is crucial for answering questions such as what effect climate change is
having on marine environments is especially sensitive to reliability issues, he added.¶ This is because,
when faced with data sets from various disciplines, researchers often lack the expertise to spot and
correct all the biases created by the idiosyncrasies of different regions and collection methods, he said.¶
Providing researchers with rigorously quality controlled data from outside their immediate field was the
motivation behind a proposed initiative, which called for scientists’ support at a town hall meeting
during the conference.¶ The International Quality-Controlled Ocean Database (IQuOD) would combine
automated, large-scale data cleaning done by computers with finer-grained expert analysis. The goal
would be to produce a definitive database of the data from the 13 million locations with sea surface
temperature records — some dating back to the eighteenth century — scattered across various
institutions.¶ According to Diggs, this would significantly improve on the oceanographic database hosted
at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA’s) National Oceanographic Data
Center. Even though NOAA's only conducts limited automated quality control its repository of marine
datasets is the world’s most comprehensive.¶ Other variables, such as salinity and oxygen concentrations
in the water, could be added to the temperature data as the IQuOD project progresses, said Diggs.
Solvency
The plan won’t solve for anything. It’s unnecessary and insufficient. Alt causes,
provided by their own authors are too much for satellites to fix.
Plan is insufficient – new satellites are needed to solve, esp. Climate Change
Parthemore and Rogers 11 (Christine Parethemore, Senior Advisor at United States Department of Defense Adjunct Professor, Security
Studies Program at Johns Hopkins University Past Fellow, CNAS at Center for a New American Security Research Assistant at Bob Woodward Education Georgetown
University The Ohio State University. Will Rogers, works at cnas. July 2011, “Blinded: The Decline of U.S. Earth Monitoring Capabilities and Its Consequences for
National Security” http://www.cnas.org/files/documents/publications/CNAS_Blinded_ParthemoreRogers_0.pdf MV)
Networks of satellites, ground-based sensors and unmanned aerial vehicles - the assets America uses to
monitor and understand environmental change and its consequences - are going dark. By 2016, only
seven of NASA's current 13 earth monitoring satellites are expected to be operational, leaving a crucial
information gap that will hinder national security planning.1 Meanwhile, efforts to prevent this
capability gap have been plagued by budget cuts, launch failures, technical deficiencies, chronic delays
and poor interagency coordination. Without the information that these assets provide, core U.S. foreign
policy and national security interests will be at risk. The United States depends on satellite systems for managing the unconventional
challenges of the 21st century in ways that are rarely acknowledged. This is particularly true for satellites that monitor climate
change and other environmental trends, which, in the words of the Department of Defense's (DOD's) 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review,
"will shape the operating environment, roles, and missions" of DOD and "may act as an accelerant of instability or conflict, placing a burden to respond on civilian
institutions and militaries around the world.'- Examples abound of how climate change is shaping the strategic environment and of why the U.S. government needs
continued access to earth monitoring data: • The opening of the Arctic is requiring the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard to execute new missions in the High North,
including more frequent search and rescue missions. • The receding Himalayan glaciers and related reduced river flows to South Asia may shape the future
relationship between India and Pakistan. Defense planners and diplomats will need to monitor changes in the glaciers that supply rivers in Pakistan in order to
determine whether access to water will exacerbate existing military and diplomatic tensions between India and Pakistan - states that have longstanding grievances
over how they share water. • In
the South China Sea, changing ocean conditions are altering fish migration, leading
neighboring countries to compete over access to billions of dollars in fish resources; this situation could
escalate into serious conflict in contested territorial waters. • DOD and development agencies rely on
earth monitoring systems to monitor urbanization, migration patterns and internal population
displacement. Several government agencies also rely on earth monitoring capabilities to analyze compliance with deforestation and emissions measures in
international climate change treaties, just as the government relies on space-based capabilities to monitor and verify compliance with non-proliferation treaties.
Responding to environmental and climate change trends requires a steady stream of reliable
information from earth monitoring satellites that is quickly becoming unavailable. Ideally, the U.S.
government would replace its aging earth monitoring satellites. Yet the current political and fiscal
environments constrain available resources, making it less likely that Congress will appropriate funds to
wholly replace old systems. Given this reality, U.S. policymakers should use existing systems more efficiently, improve information sharing among
interagency partners and leverage international partners' investments in their own systems in order to bolster U.S. climate and environmental data collection
capabilities. The Capability Gap Policymakers have known about the challenges stemming from America's declining earth monitoring capabilities for years. In 2005,
a report by the National
Research Council warned that America's "system of environmental satellites is at
risk of collapse."1 Key U.S. government agencies, including the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and the Government Accountability Office
(GAO), have recently reiterated those warnings. According to an April 2010 report by the GAO, "gaps in coverage ranging from 1 to 11 years are expected beginning
as soon as 2015" and "are expected to affect the continuity of important climate and space weather measurements, such as our understanding of how weather
cycles impact global food production."4 These gaps will include key environmental and climate monitoring functions, from radar altimeters that measure changes in
land and ocean surfaces (such as sea level rise and desertification) to aerosol polarimetry sensors that can measure and distinguish between sulfates, organic and
black carbon and other atmospheric particles. "Meteorologists, oceanographers, and climatologists reported that these
gaps will seriously
impact ongoing and planned earth monitoring activities," according to the GAO.s One recent interagency effort to close such gaps
has fallen short.
Climate Change
Cross apply Parthemore and Rogers – plan won’t be able to solve for climate change
without implementing new satellites which is unfeasible – even then the plan would
be insufficient; their own uniqueness evidence is too good.
China and India will continue to produce CO2 even if the US stops
Bastasch 14 (Michael, reporter for the Daily Caller, “Obama admits his climate agenda won’t curb
global warming”, 1/23/14, http://dailycaller.com/2014/01/23/obama-admits-his-climate-agenda-wontcurb-global-warming/, HG)
President Barack Obama admitted in an interview with The New Yorker that his plan to lower U.S.
carbon dioxide emissions by banning new coal plants would do little to curb global warming since
developing countries like China and India will still use coal power. The Obama administration published its proposed
carbon dioxide emissions limits for new coal plants which would effectively ban coal power. That is, unless they use commercially unproven
carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies. Tighter emission controls for coal plants are part of Obama’s plan to fight global warming.
Critics of the
administration argue that banning coal plants won’t curb global warming because developing
countries continue to build coal plants, frustrating U.S. efforts to lower global carbon emissions. Obama
conceded that fact, but argued that limiting emissions here will only help the U.S. because other countries will come to us for the technology
once we’ve developed it. “And so if we can figure out a carbon-capture mechanism that is sufficiently advanced and works, then we are helping
ourselves, because the Chinese and the Indians are going to build some coal plants, and even if we don’t build another coal plant in this
country, there are going to be a lot of coal plants around the world that are built,” Obama told the New Yorker. “And we have a huge
investment in trying to figure out how we can help them do it more cleanly,” he added. Obama hopes that by requiring new U.S. coal plants to
use CCS technologies, the country could become a world leader and export the technology abroad when other nations can afford it. If the U.S.
doesn’t lead, Obama argues, other countries will not follow. “And it’s not sufficient for us to just tell them to stop,” Obama said. “We’re going
to have to give them some help. We’re going to have to take some of our research and development on things like clean-coal technology and
be able to export it to them or license it to them… There’s going to be a process where we help them leapfrog some of the development stages
that we went through.” “This is why I’m putting a big priority on our carbon action plan here. It’s not because I’m ignorant of the fact that these
emerging countries are going to be a bigger problem than us,” Obama added. “It’s because it’s very hard for me to get in that conversation if
we’re making no effort. And it’s not an answer for us to say, ‘Well, since
the Chinese and the Indians are the bigger
problem, we might as well not even bother.’” Indeed, countries like China and India are set to ramp up their coal use
dramatically. The World Resource Institute reports that 76 percent of the proposed coal-fired capacity is in India and China — nearly 1,200 coal
plants have been proposed globally, totaling more than 1.4 million megawatts of power. The Chinese greenlit 100 million metric tons of new
coal production capacity last year as part of the government’s plan to bring 860 million metric tons of coal production online by 2015. The
U.S. coal industry, however, says CCS is not yet proven technology as there are no commercial-scale coal plants in the
country that uses the technology. In fact, when the Environmental Protection Agency wrote its rule limiting coal plant emissions it only cited
CCS projects that were government funded and not in operation. “[I]t is disingenuous to state that the technology is ‘ready,’” said Charles
McConnell, former assistant secretary of energy in Obama. “Studies have verified that implementation of [CSS] technology is necessary to
comply with EPA’s proposed [EPA carbon-emissions limits] regulation and meet the [greenhouse gas] targets necessary for limiting CO2
emissions to our atmosphere.” “However, commercial [CSS] technology currently is not available to meet EPA’s proposed rule. The cost of
current CO2 capture technology is much too high to be commercially viable,” said McConnell, who now serves as the executive director of the
Energy & Environment Initiative at Rice University. Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2014/01/23/obama-admits-his-climate-agenda-wontcurb-global-warming/#ixzz35oqakkuy
IPCC consensus proves we can adapt
Rodgers 14 (Paul Rodgers, contributor of general sciences for Forbes, “Climate Change: We Can Adapt, Says IPCC,” Forbes, March 31,
2014, http://www.forbes.com/sites/paulrodgers/2014/03/31/climate-change-is-real-but-its-not-the-end-of-the-world-says-ipcc/)
Yet for
the first time, the IPCC is offering a glimmer of hope. It acknowledges that some of the changes
will be beneficial – including higher crop yields in places like Canada, Europe and Central Asia – and that in others cases,
people will be able to adapt to them. “The really big breakthrough in this report is the new idea of
thinking about managing climate change,” said Dr Chris Field, the global ecology director at the Carnegie Institution in
Washington and a co-chairman of the report. “We have a lot of the tools for dealing effectively with it. We just need
to be smart about it. “Climate-change adaptation is not an exotic agenda that has never been tried,” said
Field. “Governments, firms, and communities around the world are building experience with adaptation.
This experience forms a starting point for bolder, more ambitious adaptations that will be important as
climate and society continue to change.” Adaptations could include better flood defences or building
houses that can withstand tropical cyclones. Vicente Barros, another co-chairman, said: “Investments in better
preparation can pay dividends both for the present and for the future.”
Reject climate alarmism – their impacts are not backed by peer-reviewed data.
Idso, 11 (Craig D., PhD Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change, 6/15/11, Center for
the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Climate Change, “Estimates of Global Food Production in the
Year 2050: Will We Produce Enough to Adequately Feed the World?” AS)
Many people have long believed that the ongoing rise in the air’s carbon dioxide or CO2 content has been
causing the world to warm, due to the “greenhouse effect” of this radiatively-active trace gas of the atmosphere; and
they believe that the planet will continue to warm for decades -- if not centuries -- to come, based upon economic projections of the amounts
of future fossil fuel (coal, gas and oil) usage and climate-model projections of the degree of global warming they expect to be produced by the
CO2 that is emitted to the atmosphere as a result of the burning of these fuels. The
same people have also long believed that
CO2-induced global warming will lead to a whole host of climate- and weather-related catastrophes, including
more frequent and severe floods, droughts, hurricanes and other storms, rising sea levels that will
inundate the planet’s coastal lowlands, increased human illness and mortality, the widespread
extinction of many plant and animal species, declining agricultural productivity, frequent coral
bleaching, and marine life dissolving away in acidified oceans. And because of these theoretical model-based projections,
they have lobbied local, regional and national governments for decades in an attempt to get the nations of the world to severely reduce the
magnitudes of their anthropogenic CO2 emissions. But are the scenarios painted by these climate alarmists true portrayals of what the future
holds for humanity and the rest of the biosphere if their demands are not met?¶ This is the question recently addressed in our Center’s most
recent major report: Carbon Dioxide and Earth’s Future: Pursuing the Prudent Path. In it, we describe the
findings of many hundreds
of peer-reviewed scientific studies that analyzed real-world data pertaining to the host of climate- and weatherrelated catastrophes predicted by the world’s climate alarmists to result from rising global temperatures. The approach of
most of these studies was to determine if there had been any increasing trends in the predicted catastrophic
phenomena over the past millennia or two, the course of the 20th century, or the past few decades, when the world’s climate alarmists
claim that the planet warmed at a rate and to a degree that they contend was unprecedented over the past thousand or two years. And the
common finding of all of this research was a resounding No!¶ But even this near-universal repudiation of
climate-alarmist contentions has not been enough to cause them to alter their overriding goal of
reducing anthropogenic CO2 emissions. Invoking the precautionary principle, they essentially say that the potential
climatic outcomes they foresee are so catastrophic that we cannot afford to gamble upon them being wrong, evoking the old adage that it is
better to be safe than sorry, even if the cost is staggering.¶ If this were all there were to the story, we all
would agree with them. But it is not, for they ignore an even more ominous catastrophe that is rushing
towards us like an out-of-control freight train that is only years away from occurring. And preventing this
ominous future involves letting the air’s CO2 content continue its historical upward course, until the age
of fossil fuels gradually peaks and then naturally, in the course of unforced innovation, declines, as other sources of
energy gradually become more efficient and less expensive, and without the forced intervention of government.
Acidification
Literally none of their evidence even mentions anything about satellites having the
capability of monitoring Ocean acidification – the plan definitely can’t solve.
Status quo efforts solve ocean acid data
OAP 12 [NOAA ocean acidification program. March 12, DATA COLLECTION AND MANAGEMENT
http://oceanacidification.noaa.gov/AreasofFocus/DataCollectionandManagement.aspx//jweideman]
OAP scientists collect a variety of data to understand changing ocean chemistry and its impacts on
marine organisms and ecosystems. The National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) serves as the NOAA
Ocean Acidification data management focal point through its Ocean Acidification Data Stewardship
(OADS) project. OA data will be archived at and available from an ocean acidification data stewardship
system at NODC. Ocean acidification data can generally be classified as either physio-chemical or biological. Physio-chemical parameters include, among
others, pCO2 (measurement of carbon dioxide gas both in the air and dissolved in seawater), pH, total alkalinity, total inorganic carbon, temperature, salinity,
dissolved oxygen and current speed. Physio-chemical
data from the field are collected either by remote observing
methods (buoys, gliders) or through direct measurement from ships (hydrographic cruises or volunteer
observing ships). Biological data from the field can be collected in similar ways, either by remote
collection techniques or through direct measurement by scientists. For example, data about primary
production (photosynthesizing activity) can be collected from buoys through measurement of
chlorophyll a, nutrient levels and oxygen. Biologists have many techniques for collecting biological data
in the field, both from ships and on shorelines. These collections can be instantaneous or from gear placed to collect organisms over time for later retrieval
and analysis. During laboratory experiments on marine organisms, scientists can measure calcification rates, shell growth, behavior, otolith growth (for fish),
metabolic rate, reproduction, among others parameters. Original datasets from all OAP research and the papers which analyze the data will be available through
the OA Program and NODC. The
National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) is serving as the NOAA OA data
management focal point by providing online data discovery, access to NODC-hosted and distributed
data sources, and long-term archival for a diverse range of OA data. The OAP and NODC will build a collaborative
relationship with shared responsibilities among scientists, data managers, and NODC staff towards the
implementation of an OA data stewardship system (OADS). CURRENT EFFORTS In March 2012, the
Ocean Acidification Program in collaboration with the University of Washington held an ocean
acidification data management workshop in Seattle, WA which brought together a wide array of
scientists and data managers from across US. Given that successful and integrated OA data management
requires looking beyond just the NOAA program, we convened researchers and program managers from
across the spectrum of US funded OA research. Representatives from NOAA, NSF, DOE, USGS and NASA
attended as did academic researchers from a range of institutions. The workshop generated both a
Declaration of Data Interdependence and a longer Draft Integrated Data Management Plan.
No acidification impact – warming triggers adaptive responses.
Carter et al, 11 (Robert M. Carter, Craig D. Idso, S. Fred Singer, 2011, Nongovernmental International
Panel on Climate Change, “Climate Change Reconsidered: 2011 Interim Report of the NIPCC,”
http://www.nipccreport.org/reports/2011/pdf/2011NIPCCinterimreport.pdf, AS)
While some corals exhibit a propensity to bleach ¶ and die when sea temperatures rise, others exhibit a
¶ positive relationship between calcification, or ¶ growth, and temperature. ―Such variable bleaching ¶
susceptibility implies that there is a considerable ¶ variation in the extent to which coral species are ¶
adapted to local environmental conditions‖ ¶ (Maynard et al., 2008). ¶ ¶
corals have effective ¶ adaptive responses to climate change, such as ¶ symbiont shuffling, that allow
reefs in some areas ¶ to flourish despite or even because of rising ¶ temperatures. Coral reefs have been
able to recover ¶ quickly from bleaching events as well as damage ¶ from cyclones. ¶ ¶ Bleaching and
other signs of coral distress ¶ attributed to global warming are often due to other ¶ things, including rising
levels of nutrients and ¶ toxins in coastal waters caused by runoff from ¶ agricultural activities on land
and associated ¶ increases in sediment delivery. ¶ ¶
¶ atmospheric
CO2 concentrations are lowering the ¶ pH values of oceans and seas, a process called ¶ acidification, and
that this could harm aquatic life. ¶ But the drop in pH values that could be attributed ¶ to CO2 is tiny
compared to natural variations ¶ occurring in some ocean basins as a result of ¶ seasonal variability, and
even day-to-day variations ¶ in many areas. Recent estimates also cut in half the ¶ projected pH
reduction of ocean waters by the year ¶ 2100 (Tans, 2009). ¶ ¶
-world data contradict predictions
about the ¶ negative effects of rising temperatures, rising CO2 ¶ concentrations, and falling pH on aquatic
life. ¶ Studies of algae, jellyfish, echinoids, abalone, sea ¶ urchins, and coral all find no harmful effects ¶
attributable to CO2 or acidification.
Sea Level rise
Their own evidence proves that the plan is not needed – satellites are already
monitoring sea level.
LSA 14 – Laboratory for Satellite Altimetry, LSA specializes in the application of satellite altimetry to a
broad array of climate and weather related issues, including global and regional sea level rise, coastal
and open-ocean circulation, weather prediction, (“Sea Level Rise”, NOAA/NEDIS/STAR, May 12, 2014,
Available at: http://www.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/sod/lsa/SeaLevelRise/, Accessed on: 7/15/2014, IJ)
A series of satellite missions that started with TOPEX/Poseidon (T/P) in 1992 and continued with Jason-1 (2001–2013) and Jason-2
(2008–present) estimate global mean sea level every 10 days with an uncertainty of 3–4 mm. Jason-2, launched 20 June
2008, is a joint effort between NOAA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, France’s Centre National d’Etudes
Spatiales (CNES) and the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT).
Sea level rise is not a threat
Carter et al, 11 (Robert M. Carter, Craig D. Idso, S. Fred Singer, 2011, Nongovernmental International
Panel on Climate Change, “Climate Change Reconsidered: 2011 Interim Report of the NIPCC,”
http://www.nipccreport.org/reports/2011/pdf/2011NIPCCinterimreport.pdf, AS)
The continent-wide snow and ice melting trend in ¶ Antarctica since 1979, when routine measurement ¶ of the phenomenon
via space-borne passive ¶ microwave radiometers first began, has been ¶ negligible. New research also shows the West ¶
Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) is more stable than ¶ previously thought. ¶
¶
discharge from the Greenland Ice Sheet slowed ¶ dramatically beginning in 2006, the result of ¶ negative feedback that
mitigates against fast loss of ¶ ice in a warming climate. Scientists have concluded ¶ present-day melting rates ―are not
exceptional ¶ within the last 140 years‖ and ―are not necessarily ¶ the result of anthropogenic-related warming‖ ¶
(Wake et al., 2009). ¶ ¶
¶ have been retreating since the end of the Little Ice ¶ Age and
there is little evidence the rate of their ¶ retreat increased in the twentieth century. Scientists ¶ have ruled out any role for rising local air ¶
temperature in the loss of ice from the top of Mt. ¶ Kilimanjaro, identifying changes in atmospheric ¶ moisture due to logging and agriculture at
the foot ¶ of the mountain as the cause. ¶ ¶
the ¶ past 114 years, even though the air‘s CO2 ¶
concentration rose about 3.8 times faster over the ¶ second half of that period as during the first half. ¶ The
aerial fertilization effect
of CO2 stimulates ¶ biogenic contributions to marsh elevation, ¶ counterbalancing sea-level rise. Other
studies find ¶ ―no evidence of large-scale reductions in island ¶ area‖ and ―reef islands are geomorphically resilient ¶ landforms
that thus far have predominantly ¶ remained stable or grown in area over the last 20– ¶ 60 years‖ (Webb and Kench, 2010). ¶ ¶
been found over the past 50 years in ¶ changes to the Atlantic meridional overturning ¶ circulation (MOC), despite predictions by the IPCC ¶ that
No changes in precipitation
patterns, snow, ¶ monsoons, or river flows that might be considered ¶ harmful to human well-being or plants or
wildlife ¶ have been observed that could be attributed to ¶ rising CO2 levels. What changes have been ¶ observed tend to be beneficial.
warming would disrupt this important system ¶ of heat transportation through ocean basins. ¶ ¶
Coral Reefs
Cross apply Piotroski – the lack of data is already being fixed in the status quo; means
the plan is unnecessary.
Their Moustafihd evidence again proves that the plan is unnecessary. It talks about
how IOOS can provide biological data standards. Oh, and it also says that IT’S
ALREADY BEING DONE.
U.S. IOOS started in early 2010 a project called IOOS Biological Data Project (IOOS BDP). The project is
focusing on a single case-study (i.e. customer-driven) and it’s designed to promote biological data
standards and interoperability to help the customer access observations from a wide variety of sources
and formats
Corals have faced much worse.
Carter et al, 11 (Robert M. Carter, Craig D. Idso, S. Fred Singer, 2011, Nongovernmental International
Panel on Climate Change, “Climate Change Reconsidered: 2011 Interim Report of the NIPCC,”
http://www.nipccreport.org/reports/2011/pdf/2011NIPCCinterimreport.pdf, AS)
The Nongovernmental Panel on Climate Change ¶ (NIPCC) disagreed with the IPCC in 2009, presenting ¶ a
review of the extensive literature on coral reefs ¶ showing, inter alia, that there was no simple linkage ¶
between high temperatures and coral bleaching, that ¶ coral reefs have persisted through geologic time
when ¶ temperatures were as much as 10° – 15°C warmer ¶ than at present and when CO2
concentrations were ¶ two to seven times higher than they are currently, and ¶ that coral readily adapts
to rising sea levels (Idso and ¶ Singer, 2009).
Ecological redundancies means humans can survive
Sagoff 97
(Mark Sagoff, Senior Research Scholar – Institute for Philosophy and Public policy in School of Public Affairs – U. Maryland,
William and Mary Law Review, “INSTITUTE OF BILL OF RIGHTS LAW SYMPOSIUM DEFINING TAKINGS: PRIVATE PROPERTY AND
THE FUTURE OF GOVERNMENT REGULATION: MUDDLE OR MUDDLE THROUGH? TAKINGS JURISPRUDENCE MEETS THE
ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT”, 38 Wm and Mary L. Rev. 825, March) (Note – Colin Tudge - Research Fellow at the Centre for
Philosophy at the London School of Economics. Frmr Zoological Society of London: Scientific Fellow and tons of other positions.
PhD. Read zoology at Cambridge, Simon Levin = Moffet Professor of Biology, Princeton. 2007 American Institute of Biological
Sciences Distinguished Scientist Award 2008 Istituto Veneto di Scienze Lettere ed Arti 2009 Honorary Doctorate of Science,
Michigan State University 2010 Eminent Ecologist Award, Ecological Society of America 2010 Margalef Prize in Ecology, etc…
PhD)
Although one may agree with ecologists such as Ehrlich and Raven that the earth stands on the brink of an episode of massive extinction, it may
not follow from this grim fact that human beings will suffer as a result. On the contrary, skeptics such as science writer Colin Tudge have
challenged biologists to explain why we need more than a tenth of the 10 to 100 million species that grace the earth. Noting that "cultivated
systems often out-produce wild systems by 100-fold or more," Tudge declared that "the argument that humans need the variety of other
species is, when you think about it, a theological one." n343 Tudge observed that "the
elimination of all but a tiny minority of
our fellow creatures does not affect the material well-being of humans one iota." n344 This skeptic challenged
ecologists to list more than 10,000 species (other than unthreatened microbes) that are essential to ecosystem productivity or functioning.
n345 "The human
species could survive just as well if 99.9% of our fellow creatures went extinct, provided
only that we retained the appropriate 0.1% that we need." n346 [*906] The monumental Global Biodiversity
Assessment ("the Assessment") identified two positions with respect to redundancy of species. "At one extreme is the idea that each species is
unique and important, such that its removal or loss will have demonstrable consequences to the functioning of the community or ecosystem."
n347 The authors of the Assessment, a panel of eminent ecologists, endorsed this position, saying it is "unlikely that there is much, if any,
ecological redundancy in communities over time scales of decades to centuries, the time period over which environmental policy should
operate." n348 These eminent ecologists rejected the opposing view, "the notion that species overlap in function to a sufficient degree that
removal or loss of a species will be compensated by others, with negligible overall consequences to the community or ecosystem." n349 Other
biologists believe, however, that species
are so fabulously redundant in the ecological functions they perform that
ecological processes in general will function perfectly well with
fewer of them, certainly fewer than the millions and millions we can expect to remain even if every
threatened organism becomes extinct. n350 Even the kind of sparse and miserable world depicted in the movie Blade Runner
the life-support systems and processes of the planet and
could provide a "sustainable" context for the human economy as long as people forgot their aesthetic and moral commitment to the glory and
beauty of the natural world. n351 The Assessment makes this point. "Although any ecosystem contains hundreds to thousands of species
interacting among themselves and their physical environment, the emerging consensus is that the system is driven by a small number of . . .
biotic variables on whose interactions the balance of species are, in a sense, carried along." n352 [*907] To make up your mind on the
question of the functional redundancy of species, consider an endangered species of bird, plant, or insect and ask how the ecosystem would
fare in its absence. The fact that the creature is endangered suggests an answer: it is already in limbo as far as ecosystem processes are
concerned. What crucial ecological services does the black-capped vireo, for example, serve? Are any of the species threatened with extinction
necessary to the provision of any ecosystem service on which humans depend? If so, which ones are they? Ecosystems and the species that
compose them have changed, dramatically, continually, and totally in virtually every part of the United States. There is little ecological
similarity, for example, between New England today and the land where the Pilgrims died. n353 In view of the constant reconfiguration of the
biota, one may wonder why Americans have not suffered more as a result of ecological catastrophes. The cast of species in nearly every
environment changes constantly-local extinction is commonplace in nature-but the crops still grow. Somehow, it seems, property values keep
going up on Martha's Vineyard in spite of the tragic disappearance of the heath hen. One might argue that the
sheer number and
variety of creatures available to any ecosystem buffers that system against stress. Accordingly, we should be
concerned if the "library" of creatures ready, willing, and able to colonize ecosystems gets too small. (Advances in genetic engineering may well
permit us to write a large number of additions to that "library.") In
the United States as in many other parts of the world,
however, the number of species has been increasing dramatically, not decreasing, as a result of human
activity
Spills
Their own Solberg evidence once again proves the aff unnecessary. Satellites can
already prevent spills in the status quo.
Remote sensing sensors can help to identify minor spills before they cause widespread damage. In the
case of larger accidents, satellite remote sensing is an excellent aid to get an overview of the extent of
the spill and to follow its development
It speaks in present tense; the tech already is implemented
(Cross apply if read already) Ecological redundancies means humans can survive
Sagoff 97
(Mark Sagoff, Senior Research Scholar – Institute for Philosophy and Public policy in School of Public Affairs – U. Maryland,
William and Mary Law Review, “INSTITUTE OF BILL OF RIGHTS LAW SYMPOSIUM DEFINING TAKINGS: PRIVATE PROPERTY AND
THE FUTURE OF GOVERNMENT REGULATION: MUDDLE OR MUDDLE THROUGH? TAKINGS JURISPRUDENCE MEETS THE
ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT”, 38 Wm and Mary L. Rev. 825, March) (Note – Colin Tudge - Research Fellow at the Centre for
Philosophy at the London School of Economics. Frmr Zoological Society of London: Scientific Fellow and tons of other positions.
PhD. Read zoology at Cambridge, Simon Levin = Moffet Professor of Biology, Princeton. 2007 American Institute of Biological
Sciences Distinguished Scientist Award 2008 Istituto Veneto di Scienze Lettere ed Arti 2009 Honorary Doctorate of Science,
Michigan State University 2010 Eminent Ecologist Award, Ecological Society of America 2010 Margalef Prize in Ecology, etc…
PhD)
Although one may agree with ecologists such as Ehrlich and Raven that the earth stands on the brink of an episode of massive extinction, it may
not follow from this grim fact that human beings will suffer as a result. On the contrary, skeptics such as science writer Colin Tudge have
challenged biologists to explain why we need more than a tenth of the 10 to 100 million species that grace the earth. Noting that "cultivated
systems often out-produce wild systems by 100-fold or more," Tudge declared that "the argument that humans need the variety of other
species is, when you think about it, a theological one." n343 Tudge observed that "the
elimination of all but a tiny minority of
our fellow creatures does not affect the material well-being of humans one iota." n344 This skeptic challenged
ecologists to list more than 10,000 species (other than unthreatened microbes) that are essential to ecosystem productivity or functioning.
n345 "The human
species could survive just as well if 99.9% of our fellow creatures went extinct, provided
only that we retained the appropriate 0.1% that we need." n346 [*906] The monumental Global Biodiversity
Assessment ("the Assessment") identified two positions with respect to redundancy of species. "At one extreme is the idea that each species is
unique and important, such that its removal or loss will have demonstrable consequences to the functioning of the community or ecosystem."
n347 The authors of the Assessment, a panel of eminent ecologists, endorsed this position, saying it is "unlikely that there is much, if any,
ecological redundancy in communities over time scales of decades to centuries, the time period over which environmental policy should
operate." n348 These eminent ecologists rejected the opposing view, "the notion that species overlap in function to a sufficient degree that
removal or loss of a species will be compensated by others, with negligible overall consequences to the community or ecosystem." n349 Other
biologists believe, however, that species
are so fabulously redundant in the ecological functions they perform that
the life-support systems and processes of the planet and ecological processes in general will function perfectly well with
fewer of them, certainly fewer than the millions and millions we can expect to remain even if every
threatened organism becomes extinct. n350 Even the kind of sparse and miserable world depicted in the movie Blade Runner
could provide a "sustainable" context for the human economy as long as people forgot their aesthetic and moral commitment to the glory and
beauty of the natural world. n351 The Assessment makes this point. "Although any ecosystem contains hundreds to thousands of species
interacting among themselves and their physical environment, the emerging consensus is that the system is driven by a small number of . . .
biotic variables on whose interactions the balance of species are, in a sense, carried along." n352 [*907] To make up your mind on the
question of the functional redundancy of species, consider an endangered species of bird, plant, or insect and ask how the ecosystem would
fare in its absence. The fact that the creature is endangered suggests an answer: it is already in limbo as far as ecosystem processes are
concerned. What crucial ecological services does the black-capped vireo, for example, serve? Are any of the species threatened with extinction
necessary to the provision of any ecosystem service on which humans depend? If so, which ones are they? Ecosystems and the species that
compose them have changed, dramatically, continually, and totally in virtually every part of the United States. There is little ecological
similarity, for example, between New England today and the land where the Pilgrims died. n353 In view of the constant reconfiguration of the
biota, one may wonder why Americans have not suffered more as a result of ecological catastrophes. The cast of species in nearly every
environment changes constantly-local extinction is commonplace in nature-but the crops still grow. Somehow, it seems, property values keep
going up on Martha's Vineyard in spite of the tragic disappearance of the heath hen. One might argue that the
sheer number and
variety of creatures available to any ecosystem buffers that system against stress. Accordingly, we should be
concerned if the "library" of creatures ready, willing, and able to colonize ecosystems gets too small. (Advances in genetic engineering may well
permit us to write a large number of additions to that "library.") In
the United States as in many other parts of the world,
however, the number of species has been increasing dramatically, not decreasing, as a result of human
activity
No impact --- Ocean ecosystems are resilient
CO2 Science 2008
Marine Ecosystem Response to "Ocean Acidification" Due to Atmospheric CO2 Enrichment, Vogt, M.,
Steinke, M., Turner, S., Paulino, A., Meyerhofer, M., Riebesell, U., LeQuere, C. and Liss, P. 2008.
Dynamics of dimethylsulphoniopropionate and dimethylsulphide under different CO2 concentrations
during a mesocosm experiment. Biogeosciences 5: 407-419,
http://www.co2science.org/articles/V11/N29/B2.php
Vogt et al. report that they detected no significant phytoplankton species shifts between treatments, and that " the
ecosystem
composition, bacterial and phytoplankton abundances and productivity, grazing rates and total grazer
abundance and reproduction were not significantly affected by CO2 induced effects," citing in support of this
statement the work of Riebesell et al. (2007), Riebesell et al. (2008), Egge et al. (2007), Paulino et al. (2007), Larsen et al. (2007), Suffrian et al.
(2008) and Carotenuto et al. (2007). In addition, they say that "while DMS stayed elevated in the treatments with elevated CO2, we observed a
steep decline in DMS concentration in the treatment with low CO2," i.e., the ambient CO2 treatment. What it means With respect to their
many findings, the eight
researchers say their observations suggest that "the system under study was
surprisingly resilient to abrupt and large pH changes," which is just the opposite of what the world's
climate alarmists characteristically predict about CO2-induced "ocean acidification." And that may be
why Vogt et al. described the marine ecosystem they studied as "surprisingly resilient" to such change: it
may have been a little unexpected.
IOOS Case neg: Off case stuffs
Politics Links
Agenda
Anti-environmentalism means the plan is unpopular
Farr 2013 (Sam, Member of the House of Representatives (D-CA) Chair of House Oceans Caucus,
Review&Forecast Collaboration Helps to Understand And Adapt to Ocean, Climate Changes http://seatechnology.com/pdf/st_0113.pdf MV)
The past year in Washington, D.C., was rife with infighting between the two political parties. On issue after issue, the opposing sides were unable to reach a compromise on meaningful legislation for the American people. This division was most
noticeable when dis- cussing the fate of our oceans. The widening chasm between the two political
parties resulted in divergent paths for ocean policy: one with Presi- dent Barack Obama pushing the National
Ocean Policy forward, and the other with U.S. House Republicans under- mining those efforts with opposing
votes and funding cuts. Marine, Environmental Policy Regression The 112th Congress was called the "most antienviron- mental Congress in history" in a report published by House Democrats and has been credited for undermining the ma- jor
environmental legislation of the past 40 years. After the Tea Party landslide in the congressional elections of 2010,
conservatives on Capitol Hill began to flex their muscles to roll back environmental protections. Since taking
power in January 2011, House Republicans held roughly 300 votes to undermine basic environmental protections that have existed for decades.
To put that in per- spective, that was almost one in every five votes held in Congress during the past two years. These were votes to al- low
additional oil and gas drilling in coastal waters, while simultaneously limiting the environmental review process for offshore drilling sites. There
were repeal attempts to un- dermine the Clean Water Act and to roll back protections for threatened fish and other marine species.
There
were also attempts to block measures to address climate changes, ignoring the consequences of
inaction, such as sea level rise and ocean acidification.
Midterms
Plan popular with democrats
Valentine, 7/15, (Katie, reporter for Climate Progress, “Congressional Candidate: Most Energy
Problems ‘Are Caused By Environmentalists’,” Climate Progress, JULY 15, 2014,
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/07/15/3460398/congressional-candidate-environment/)//erg
But though Cicotte drew on what he thinks of as Biblical principles to back up his environmental views, not
all Christians think the
planet was created for humans to use however they wish. The Evangelical Environmental Network has pushed climate
change as an issue conservatives should care about, especially conservative Christians. And in 2013, 200 self-identified evangelical scientists
sent a letter that urged Congress to reduce carbon emissions and protect the environment, using Biblical
references to back up their argument. “Our changing climate threatens the health, security, and wellbeing of millions of people who are made in God’s image,” the letter read. “The threat to future generations
and global prosperity means we can no longer afford complacency and endless debate. We as a society risk
being counted among ‘those who destroy the earth’ (Revelation 11:18).” Cicotte’s statements on Earth’s purpose also ignore the threat
climate change poses to Washington, a state that’s battled numerous wildfires in the past few weeks. Ocean
acidification has taken its toll on Washington’s oyster industry, with one oyster company in the state sending their
oyster larvae growing operations to Hawaii due to water in Willapa Bay, WA becoming too acidic. Sea level rise, beetle
infestations, and water shortages due to decreased snowpack also pose a threat to the state in coming
years, according to the National Climate Assessment
K Links (None yet)
Animals
Oil DA Link
Satellite mapping finds oil- it increases production capabilities
Short 11 (Nicholas M. Short, Sr is a geologist who received degrees in that field from St. Louis University (B.S.), Washington University (M.A.), and the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Ph.D.); he also spent a year in graduate studies in the geosciences at The Pennsylvania State University. In his early postgraduate career, he worked for Gulf Research & Development Co., the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, and the University of Houston. During the 1960s he
specialized in the effects of underground nuclear explosions and asteroidal impacts on rocks (shock metamorphism), and was one of the original Principal
Investigators of the Apollo 11 and 12 moon rocks. 2011, “Finding Oil and Gas from Space” https://apollomapping.com/wpcontent/user_uploads/2011/11/NASA_Remote_Sensing_Tutorial_Oil_and_Gas.pdf MV)
If precious metals are not your forte, then try the petroleum industry. Exploration for oil and
gas has always depended on
surface maps of rock types and structures that point directly to, or at least hint at, subsurface conditions
favorable to accumulating oil and gas. Thus, looking at surfaces from satellites is a practical, costeffective way to produce appropriate maps. But verifying the presence of hydrocarbons below surface
requires two essential steps: 1) doing geophysical surveys; and 2) drilling into the subsurface to actually
detect and extract oil or gas or both. This Tutorial website sponsored by the Society of Exploration Geophysicists is a simplified
summary of the basics of hydrocarbon exploration. Oil and gas result from the decay of organisms - mostly marine plants (especially
microscopic algae and similar free-floating vegetation) and small animals such as fish - that are buried in muds that convert to shale. Heating
through burial and pressure from the overlying later sediments help in the process. (Coal forms from decay of buried plants that occur mainly in
swamps and lagoons which are eventually buried by younger sediments.). The decaying liquids and gases from petroleum source beds,
dominantly shales after muds convert to hard rock, migrate from their sources to become trapped in a variety of structural or stratigraphic
conditions shown in this illustration:The oil and gas must migrate from deeper source beds into suitable reservoir rocks. These are usually
porous sandstones, but limestones with solution cavities and even fractured igneous or metamorphic rocks can contain openings into which the
petroleum products accumulate. An essential condition: the
reservoir rocks must be surrounded (at least above) by
impermeable (refers to minimal ability to allow flow through any openings - pores or fractures) rock,
most commonly shales. The oil and gas, generally confined under some pressure, will escape to the
surface - either naturally when the trap is intersected by downward moving erosional surfaces or by being penetrated by a drill. If pressure is
high the oil and/or gas moves of its own accord to the surface but if pressure is initially low or drops over time, pumping is required.
Exploration for new petroleum sources begins with a search for surface manifestations of suitable traps
(but many times these are hidden by burial and other factors govern the decision to explore). Mapping of surface conditions
begins with reconnaissance, and if that indicates the presence of hydrocarbons, then detailed
mapping begins. Originally, both of these maps required field work. Often, the mapping job became easier by using
aerial photos. After the mapping, much of the more intensive exploration depends on geophysical methods (principally, seismic) that can give
3-D constructions of subsurface structural and stratigraphic traps for the hydrocarbons. Then, the potential traps are sampled by exploratory
drilling and their properties measured. Remote
sensing from satellites or aircraft strives to find one or more
indicators of surface anomalies. This diagram sets the framework for the approach used; this is the so-called microseepage model,
which leads to specific geochemical anomalies:
Military CP (None yet)
Counterplan Text: The Department of Defense should increase funding for Integrated
Ocean Observation System data collection, data sharing and agency integration.