environment conditions cp’s – achm venezuela generic at- process bad Emphasizing environmental issues in policy is good Marquez, 11, contributor @ GlobalIssues.org(Humberto Marquez, 13 June 2011, “Biodiverse Venezuela Flunking Basic Conservation”, http://www.globalissues.org/news/2011/06/13/10071)//Holmes Particularly problematic is the case of mercury contamination caused by indiscriminate gold prospecting in southern Venezuelan river basins, which are the water source and reserves of the state hydroelectric power stations that provide 70 percent of the country's electricity. Environmentalists estimate some 12 tonnes of mercury a year are released into the environment in this way, and mercury has been found in fish from 13 out of 18 prized commercial species in southern Venezuela. Environmental activists recommend 'redirecting environmental management on sound, responsible technical and humanitarian foundations, without ideological bias; strengthening institutions and educational programmes; and involving civil society.' 'Environmental issues can no longer be seen as the hobby of some nature-loving bird watchers; they are a strategic priority for the development of the country,' said Álvarez. say yes If they yes to the aff they say yes to the CP—Venezuela won’t disrupt oil ties Hongbo, 4/19/13, writer @ China Daily News(Sun Hongbo, 19 April 2013, “ Tough test awaits Maduro”, http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2013-04/19/content_16421703.htm)//Holmes Besides, the Maduro government is not expected to intensify its political conflict with the United States because that could jeopardize its oil exports. US-Venezuela relations are complex. Despite the US being the largest importer of Venezuela's crude oil and the largest source of its trade surplus , their political ties are not likely to improve in the short term. The two countries, though, will maintain a stable oil trade, and economic and trade cooperation out of political and economic choice. Furthermore, the new government will continue using oil diplomacy to actively develop relations with big oilconsuming countries. To improve Venezuela's economy, Maduro has to secure its oil exports, import channels and sources of finance. Also, he has to deepen economic and trade cooperation with China, Russia, India and other countries outside the region. Chavez death provides an opportunity for environmental agreements Edwards and Mage, 13, writers @ the Guardian(Guy Edwards and Susanna Mage, 7 March 2013, “Death of Hugo Chávez gives Venezuela a choice on climate change”, http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2013/mar/07/deathhugo-chavez-venezuela-climate-change)//Holmes Regardless of one's position on el Comandante Hugo Chávez, the death of the Venezuelan president opens the door for a policy debate on a critical issue for Venezuela and the world's security: climate change. As the 2015 deadline to create a new global treaty on climate change approaches , the question for the oil-rich country looms: will Venezuela be a key architect of an ambitious and equitable deal, or will it sabotage progress? The International Energy Agency reports that no more than one-third of proven fossil fuel reserves can be consumed prior to 2050 if we are to limit warming to 2C. Writer Bill McKibben pointed out that if Venezuela were to exploit its heavy crude oil and Canada's tar sands are fully tapped, this would mean "game over" for the climate as both reserves would fill up the remaining "atmospheric space" or "carbon budget." President Chávez oversaw a schizophrenic posture on climate change. He insisted that climate change is an existential crisis caused by capitalism, while simultaneously pushing for the development of the Orinoco's heavy crude. Under Chávez, Venezuela's oil dependency increased and it now obtains 94% of export earnings and more than 50% of its federal budget from oil revenues. Due to high oil prices and Chávez's leadership, poverty and inequality have dropped. Chávez's administration appeared committed to increase oil production to continue funding its social programmes, often through long-term agreements with China to supply oil. Venezuela's "commodity backed loans" from China, estimated at more than $35bn, require it to pay back China in oil. The key to solving climate change is shifting all countries to low carbon economies. At a United Nations negotiation in Bonn, Germany, in 2009, however, a Venezuelan official said that a shift to a low-carbon economy would adversely impact developing country oil exporters, suggesting that a robust climate change treaty would conflict with Venezuela's development model. squo bad Lack of environment regulation and enforcement is destroying the environment— oil extraction specific Marquez, 11, contributor @ GlobalIssues.org(Humberto Marquez, 13 June 2011, “Biodiverse Venezuela Flunking Basic Conservation”, http://www.globalissues.org/news/2011/06/13/10071)//Holmes Threats to biodiversity, spreading pollution, degraded river basins and disappearing forests are problems in oil-rich, megadiverse Venezuela, where climate change is knocking on the door. The ARA network, a coalition of 20 environmental organisations, recently launched its report 'Aportes para un diagnóstico de la problemática ambiental de Venezuela' (Contributions to a Diagnosis of Environmental Problems in Venezuela), which contains interviews with 34 experts and calls attention to shortcomings in the state and society's management of seven environmental issues. The assessment is in line with the results of an annual survey of more than 130 academics and professionals that has been carried out for the last decade by Vitalis, a local environmental organisation. Alejandro Álvarez of Ecojuegos, a member organisation of the ARA network, told IPS: 'Poor management is shown by the fact that in this country, where over 40 percent of the territory of 900,000 square kilometres is protected, only one percent of the government budget is allocated to the Environment Ministry. ' Venezuela has 43 national parks, 30 natural monuments and eight wildlife reserves, he said. On May 26 Álvarez presented the ARA report, which deals with areas where biodiversity is diminishing; pollution; solid waste management; the impact of oil extraction ; water resource management; protected area management; and global climate change. Diego Díaz, the head of Vitalis, told IPS that 'year after year the same problems crop up, showing the lack of efficient management strategies and the accumulation of environmental liabilities, such as forests that are lost, water sources that are degraded, soils that are not regenerated, materials that are not recycled, and increasing pollution.' biodiversity 1nc biod Text: The United States federal government should condition ________ on the Ministry of Environment implementing existing environmental regulations, increasing monitoring of oil companies, and increasing environmental impact management systems. CP solves environmental risks of oil development Wykes, 12, human rights activist, contributor @ Heinrich Boll Stiftung, Denmark green political organization(Sarah Wykes, 12 October 2012, “Venezuela - The Orinoco Belt”, http://www.boell.de/intlpolitics/energy/resource-governance-tar-sands-venezuela-15659.html)//Holmes Additionally, the report warns of the “enormous environmen tal and social risks associated with the development of oil and gas mega pr ojects [including further development of the Orinoco Belt], about which there was a lack of adequate public info rmation regarding the environmental and socio-cultural stan dards that were to be applied”. lviii Along with the other planned mega projects , developing the Orinoc o Belt would mean: large-scale industrial development in areas th at are seriously deficient in services such as potable water and disposal of solid waste and wastewater. Some of these projects will affect [Areas Under Special Administrative Regime] lix , sensitive eco-systems and important water basins. There is no clear information on risk management and compensation, nor on the monitoring and oversight procedures necessary to avoid serious environmental and social damage. lx Moreover, the report finds that there is a lack of implementation of existing environmental regulations and monitoring by the Ministry of Environment and by oil companies and a lack of environmental impact management systems in many companies inve sting in Venezuela. Regulations are also outdated and there is a lack of technical expertise in the Ministry of Environment that is supposed to carry out the legally required EIAs. lx Plan destroys the Venezuelan regional environment without increased regulation Wykes, 12, human rights activist, contributor @ Heinrich Boll Stiftung, Denmark green political organization(Sarah Wykes, 12 October 2012, “Venezuela - The Orinoco Belt”, http://www.boell.de/intlpolitics/energy/resource-governance-tar-sands-venezuela-15659.html)//Holmes Summarizing the impacts of current oil extraction in the country, the report concluded that: “the fact that the Venezuelan government ha s access to extraordinary economic resources and the persistence of an economy based on the existence of overly cheap fuels, have created a culture where waste, uncontrolled consumption, the devaluation of nature and a lack of foresight, are having intense impacts on the co untry, including air, so il and water pollution, huge volumes of solid waste, and the waste of energy and resources.” lvi The report highlights the following specific concerns: ecosystems in pr oduction sites in the area of the Orinoco Oil Belt and of the ecosystem of Lake Mara caibo as a result of continuous spills and leaks Loss of soil and the triggering of erosion processes in exploration and environmental liabilities, includ ing holding pits for waste products that are at risk of overflowing and leaching Flaws in the handling of by-products of the refining process (mainly sulphur and coke) that are causing wate r, air and soil pollution emissions of CO2, SO2 a nd NOx in refining and upgrading processes Discharge of petroleum products and bodies of water, Pollution and degradation of soils due to the presence of waste products of oil exploitation, as well as from engineeri ng works associated with this activity. lvii Brink is now—increased Orinoco development is coming Vyas, 2012, writer @ DowJones Newswires(Kejal Vyas, 16 November 2012, “Venezuela Wants Unasur Investment in Orinoco Heavy Oil Belt”, http://www.rigzone.com/news/oil_gas/a/122189/)//Holmes CARACAS - State energy monopoly, Petroleos de Venezuela, proposed Thursday that national within the Union of South American Nations, or Unasur, bloc, jointly invest oil companies in developing Venezuela's massive Orinoco heavy belt. Venezuela is looking for allies in the region to help fund the development of 11 production blocks in the Orinoco region, as well as invest in offshore gas projects, refineries and the upgrader facilities needed to process the country's tar-like heavy oil, PdVSA, as the state company is known, said in a statement. Development of the Orinoco belt is central to President Hugo Chavez's plans to boost Venezuela's crude production in coming years. PdVSA says it will need a total of $251 billion between 2013 and 2019 to finance oil projects and build infrastructure in the mostly barren Orinoco region, but analysts question how the company will be able to attract the investment. Under Mr. Chavez's leadership, the Venezuelan government has expropriated a number of oil projects run by foreign private companies in recent years--moves that critics say make investors reluctant to put money into Venezuela's energy industry. The government says it aims to boost crude output to 3.5 million barrels a day by the end of the year and 4 million barrels a day by 2014, from just over 3 million barrels currently. PdVSA has invested an average of $15 billion in each of the last five years toward advancing is production plans. Venezuela currently exports 133,000 barrels a day of oil and derivatives to members of Unasur and hopes to more than double that to 300,000 barrels a day by 2019, PdVSA said in its statement. Unasur's members include Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela. The countries are home to about 400 million people. Venezuela’s key to biodiversity Marquez, 11, contributor @ GlobalIssues.org(Humberto Marquez, 13 June 2011, “Biodiverse Venezuela Flunking Basic Conservation”, http://www.globalissues.org/news/2011/06/13/10071)//Holmes The Environment Ministry recognises that 'environmental services like the supply of drinking water, production of hydroelectric energy, food and pharmaceutical products, the tourism industry and protection against natural disasters' depend on 'adequate conservation' of biodiversity. Venezuela is ranked the ninth country in the world for biodiversity, as it is home to 650 types of vegetation, 15,820 species of vascular plants, 27 climate zones, 23 types of relief and over 137,000 animal species. It is also ranked fourth for the number of species of amphibians, sixth for birds, eighth for mammals and ninth for reptiles . But the ARA study says that 748 species of fauna are under threat, including 160 of the 312 species of amphibians, as well as 341 plant species. no regs kill biod Poor regulations in the status quo will destroy the environment—it’s on the brink and Venezuela is key to biodiversity Stockman and Wykes, 11, both contributors and members of the Heinrich Böll Foundation, sustainable ecological foundation with 29 foreign offices active on Ecology, Democracy, and Human Rights worldwide(John Stockman and Sarah Wykes, May 2011, “Marginal Oil - What is driving oil companies dirtier and deeper?”, http://www.foeeurope.org/publications/2011/Marginal_Oil_Layout_13.PDF)//Holmes It should be noted that accurate emissions data on Venezuela’s ultra-heavy oil production is less readily available than for Canadian tar sands. NETL currently estimates a mean value of 95 kg CO2E/bbl, lower than that of Canadian tar sands (112 kg CO2E/bbl).201 However, in terms of a lifecycle analysis, this still means that “Venezuela bitumen, Canada oil sands, and Nigeria stand out as having high GHG emissions compared to other sources,”202 with Venezuelan bitumen having emissions of 30.8kg CO2E/MMBtu LHV diesel, second only to that of diesel processed from Canadian oil sands (see Figure 20). In terms of local impacts, the Belt’s development will require “a huge investment in infrastructure.”204 A national media source states that the development of the Junin and Carabobo license areas will involve the construction of five upgraders and a refinery project (to be undertaken by ENI) and that the upgraders for the Carabobo block will be located in Soledad, a town on the Orinoco river opposite Ciudad Bolivar.205 Toxic solid waste products (an estimated 67,800 tons of sulphur and 52,250 tons of coke per day) will be transported by rail to the Orinoco River and then by barge to the coast at Punta Cuchillo. Liquid waste will be sent through a new 432 km pipeline to the Araya Peninsula and stored in terminals with an initial capacity of 800,000 b/d.206 This complex transportation network will run through river and sea networks and forested areas. Venezuela is one of the ten most biodiverse countries in the world, with the Orinoco resource lying upstream from an ecoregion described as “a globally important wetland, and a critical habitat to a number of endangered species.”207 According to UNESCO: “A great biological diversity characterizes the terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems of the Delta del Orinoco.”208 The area is already under threat from “water diversion and damming, oil drilling, and human populations.”209 Population density overall is low, “although many small villages of the native Waraos Amerindians live along the riverbanks. An exception is the city of Tucupita and its surrounding towns.”210 orinoco key Orinoco Belt drilling will hurt the regional environment absent environmental oversight Wykes, 12, human rights activist, contributor @ Heinrich Boll Stiftung, Denmark green political organization(Sarah Wykes, 12 October 2012, “Venezuela - The Orinoco Belt”, http://www.boell.de/intlpolitics/energy/resource-governance-tar-sands-venezuela-15659.html)//Holmes Venezuela holds around 90% of proven extra heavy oil reserves globally, mainly located in the Orinoco Belt. Certification of this resource means that, in July 2010, Venezuela overtook Saudia Arabia as the country with the largest oil reserves in the world. Petróleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA), the state oil company, is also now the world’s fourth largest company. PDVSA’s multibillion dollar investment plans for the Belt are likely to be hampered by the company’s high levels of debt. In view of its high development costs and the uncertain investment context (e.g. changes in taxation of “windfall profits”), the Orinoco Belt is still seen by many analysts as high risk. Nevertheless, despite these concerns, foreign companies, investors and governments still appear keen to get a piece of the huge Orinoco pie, as oil investment in the country in 2011 showed. The investors range from the Italian oil major ENI to Japanese Bank, many of them coming from the emerging BRIC countries (Brasil, India, China). The deals do not only include the extraction of the extra heavy oil but also the construction of refineries and power stations. The massive Belt development is bound to have major environmental and social impacts on the local region, as well as its climate impacts. The Orinoco river is 2.140 km long, the surrounding area a wetland of high biodiversity and home to many endangered species. The industrial development and the large new necessary infrastructure in refinement equipment and transport have intense impacts on the country, including air, soil and water pollution, huge volumes of solid waste, and the waste of energy and resources. The local civil society has concern about the health impacts of waste products generated at the industrial complex. However, while there is a legal requirement in Venezuela for all oil projects to carry out environmental impact assessments (EIA), including baseline studies, these studies do not appear to have been published and there is no information on any more recent EIAs carried out by PDVSA in relation to operations in the Orinoco Belt. NGOs therefore demand better environmental monitoring and oversight. Orinoco Diesel has extremely high Greenhouse Gas emissions, Venezuela being at the same time highly vulnerable to climate change (food production, human health, energy demand, biodiversity and the risk of flooding, among other issues). NGOs recommend a number of measures of adaptation and mitigation. Fragile biodiversity in Orinoco means environmental regulations are key Wykes, 12, human rights activist, contributor @ Heinrich Boll Stiftung, Denmark green political organization(Sarah Wykes, 12 October 2012, “Venezuela - The Orinoco Belt”, http://www.boell.de/intlpolitics/energy/resource-governance-tar-sands-venezuela-15659.html)//Holmes Lack of information on environmental and social impacts The massive Belt development is bound to have major environmental and social impacts on the local region, as well as its climate impacts (see below). According to the Venezuelan government, “ the Orinoco River stands out because of its volume (37.384 m3/s) and length (2,140 km.). Along with its tributaries, this river is one of the lushest rivers in South Am erica and the world. The basin of the Orinoco River occupies four-fifths of the Venezuelan territory and 94.5% of the basi n unloads its water into the Atlantic Ocean.” xlii This remote area is a “globally impor tant wetland and a critical habitat to a number of endangered species” with high biodiversity. xliii Developing the Orinoco Belt will require a huge amount of new infr astructure, in terms of the extraction and upgrading of th e crude and also the refini ng equipment and transport infrastructure required for this kind of unconventional oil production. xliv Particularly given there is little existing power, water and tran sport infrastructure where the Belt is located. xlv Indeed, some companies have expressed concer ns about the impact of the current lack of infrastructure, particularly for transporting upgraded crude, on development plans for the Belt. xlvi In addition, services will have to be provide d for the up to 100,000 additional workers that, according to the government, could be required. xlvii In August 2007, PDVSA presented 2 environmen tal studies relating to the “sustainable development” of the Belt to the Ministry of the Environment. xlviii These studies estimated the current state of conservation in the Belt to be 80% while analysis of the Junín zone showed that current interventions by th e oil industry had affected 6% of the zone’s ecosystems and that measures must be taken to avoid future impacts. xlix PDVSA’s head of environment highlighted that: “the area is singularly frag ile, with a limited amount of land available for use, in terms of agricultural activities, which is why intervention in this zone must carried out carefully.” However, while there is a legal requirement in Venezuela for all oil projects to carry out environmental impact assessments, including base line studies, these studi es do not appear to have been published and there is no inform ation on any more recent EIAs carried out by PDVSA in relation to operat ions in the Orinoco Belt. l PDVSA’s 2010 environmental report does contain some limited information on current atmospheric emissions, air quality monitoring an d environmental permits in the Orinoco Belt. However, it does not give a comprehensive environmental impact analysis. regs solve Overhauling Venezuelan drilling regulations solves the environment Wykes, 12, human rights activist, contributor @ Heinrich Boll Stiftung, Denmark green political organization(Sarah Wykes, 12 October 2012, “Venezuela - The Orinoco Belt”, http://www.boell.de/intlpolitics/energy/resource-governance-tar-sands-venezuela-15659.html)//Holmes Overall, the report recommends a substantive ov erhaul of the country’s policy framework in order to improve the management of environmental impacts in the oil industry and makes the following The Government should strengthen its opera tional, financial, technical and human capacity in order to carry out better e nvironmental monitoring and oversight; and develop legal and administrative measures a nd training to ensure that companies have responsible environmental pol icies and processes in place and can develop properly certified, ongoing environmental manageme Reinforce the National Contingency Plan against Oil Spills; Update the legislative framework and tec hnical regulations on the environment in order to address gaps, outdated elements and conflicts between legal carry out audits and evaluations of environmental liabilities, and put in place recovery plans Improve environmental monitoring processes and operations in al l areas of the oil industry Put in place policies to ensure techni cal and ethics training to improve the professional capacities of civil servants a nd employees responsible for monitoring and overseeing environmental protection, both in the oil industr y and in the Ministry of Environment; Develop wide-ranging policies to administer extractive activitie s that are based on environmental protection and aim to guara ntee the monitoring and rehabilitiation of affected areas. lxi Regulation and reform solves Wykes, 12, human rights activist, contributor @ Heinrich Boll Stiftung, Denmark green political organization(Sarah Wykes, 12 October 2012, “Venezuela - The Orinoco Belt”, http://www.boell.de/intlpolitics/energy/resource-governance-tar-sands-venezuela-15659.html)//Holmes For these reasons, ARA recommends a number of concrete steps be taken, both in terms of mitigation and adaptation policies. These include: the creation of a National Climate Change Office to coordinate and promot e cross-sectoral action; the mainstreaming of climate change action into all government planni ng processes; the development of a national climate change education strategy and the promotion of an inclusive public discussion involving all stakeholders; regional and local adaptation pl anning; incorporating climate change into poverty reduction strategies; a national refore station campaign; and roll-out of mitigation policies in the transport and energy sectors. lxvii Specifically in relation to the oil sector, the report calls for “the reduction in the volume of emissions from the oil industry, in particular from refining and upgrading of heavy oil.” lxvii Deregulated oil extraction kills the environment Kenny, 2007, author @ GreenLeft(Zoe Kenny, 26 January 2013, “Venezuela - an ecologically sustainable revolution?”, http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/36885)//Holmes At a meeting in Brazil on April 26, 2006, plans moved ahead between Venezuela, Bolivia, Argentina and Brazil for a major transcontinental oil pipeline. The pipeline would be 10,000 kilometres long and would link the four countries plus Paraguay and Uruguay. Venezuela's socialist President Hugo Chavez said the pipeline would be integral to economically integrating South America and strengthening it against US imperialism, and was essential in "the fight against poverty and exclusion". However, in the August 15 New Scientist an article titled "Is Venezuela's pipeline the highway to eco-hell?" reported that "environmentalists are furious" about the project. Director of the World Wildlife Fund's Program for Protected Areas in the Amazon Claudio Maretti said "the proposed pipeline is absolutely insane". He claimed it would damage the Amazon's ecology. The article highlighted a continuing sore spot for the Venezuelan government, which is leading the Bolivarian socialist revolution. On the one hand, the Chavez government needs to keep revenue flowing into its coffers to fund its massive array of social programs in Venezuela. On the other hand, the government's major source of revenue is from the export of oil - Venezuela's principal natural resource - by the state oil company PDVSA. This export income often comes at the expense of the environment. In a stark example of the environmental degradation caused by the oil industry, the December 18, 2000, US Business Week described the impact of the industry on Lake Maracaibo, located in the northern state of Zulia (where the bulk of Venezuela's oil has come from). Once a pristine habitat for mangroves and flamingoes, the lake is now crowded with tankers, polluted with toxic industrial waste and is the repository for raw sewage from the surrounding area's 5 million inhabitants. A more recent problem is the growing infestation of the freshwater duckweed, which is devastating fish stocks and endangering the livelihoods of more than 10,000 fishers. One of the long-term affects of oil drilling is land destabilisation, which threatens 60,000 people who live near the lake. Venezuela's daily output of 3 million barrels of oil also contributes to global warming - though only 530,000 barrels a day are used in Venezuela itself. orinoco invest up Russia pushing for Orinoco development now VR, 5/24/13, Russian news service(Voice of Russia AFP, 24 May 2013, “Russia and Venezuela to develop Orinoco oil fields”, http://english.ruvr.ru/news/2013_05_24/Russia-and-Venezuela-to-develop-Orinoco-oil-fields/)//Holmes The Russian federation and Venezuela have formed a joint venture to produce 120,000 barrels of oil a day by 2016 in two fields in the Orinoco Oil Belt. Russia will provides a loan to Venezuela in the amount of $1.5 billion to finance the development of the fields under the terms of the agreement, and invest $1.1 billion for a 40 percent share in Petrovictoria. The agreement establishing Petrovictoria was signed by the president of the stateowned Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), Rafael Ramirez, and the president of Russian state oil company Rosneft, Igor Sechin. PDVSA will sell to Russia 72 percent of the heavy and extra-heavy crude produced by the company, which has a long-term goal of producing 400,000 barrels a day. Three mixed capital companies are currently operating in the Orinoco Belt, producing 230,000 barrels a day in a huge area of southeastern Venezuela. The Belt has estimated reserves of 220 billion barrels of harder-to-refine heavy and extra-heavy oil, the largest in the world. pollution 1nc pollution Text: The United States federal government should condition __________ on the Ministry of Environment creating emission reduction standards and developing mitigation and adaptation strategies toward climate change. Unregulated Venezuelan production will triple its annual emissions—status quo monitoring fails—Venezuela is particularly vulnerable to warming Wykes, 12, human rights activist, contributor @ Heinrich Boll Stiftung, Denmark green political organization(Sarah Wykes, 12 October 2012, “Venezuela - The Orinoco Belt”, http://www.boell.de/intlpolitics/energy/resource-governance-tar-sands-venezuela-15659.html)//Holmes Climate protection The climate impacts of full development of th e Orinoco Belt are likel y to be devastating. Diesel from Venezuelan bitumen currently has well-to-tank GHG emi ssions second highest only to those of fuel derived from Canadian tar sands, according to the US Department of Energy. lxiii In terms of the country’s emissions pr ofile, while currently Venezuela produces only 1% of global emissions, according to ARA, the government’s plan to increase oil production would mean an increase in oil produc tion of around 5.8 million barrels per day (mbpd) in 2012, leading to a near tripling of GH G emissions from 30 million tonnes per year to almost 80 million tonnes. lxiv According to ARA, the country not only has a “mor al responsibility to c ontribute actively to finding a solution” to climate change, but is it self “highly vulnerable” to the impacts of climate change, which will impact on “f ood production, human health, energy demand, biodiversity and the risk of flooding, among other issues.” lxv In terms of policy framework for climate pr otection in Venezuela, according to ARA: There is no clarity about the existence of m itigation and adaptation strategies, with clear objectives and specific activities including thei r respective scope, timetable, costs and allocation of resources and responsibilities. In pr actice, there do not appear to be any clear mitigation strategies, since there has been no effective action taken to reduce GHG in the motor and oil industry sectors. Similarly, the proposed changes to the country’s model of energy generation are based on the substituti on of energy generation processes, principally hydro-electric power, by thermo electricity, wh ich appears to be a step in the opposite direction . lxvi The brink is now—Venezuela’s pushing for increased Orinoco drilling Vyas, 2012, writer @ DowJones Newswires(Kejal Vyas, 16 November 2012, “Venezuela Wants Unasur Investment in Orinoco Heavy Oil Belt”, http://www.rigzone.com/news/oil_gas/a/122189/)//Holmes CARACAS - State energy monopoly, Petroleos de Venezuela, proposed Thursday that national oil companies within the Union of South American Nations, or Unasur, bloc, jointly invest in developing Venezuela's massive Orinoco heavy belt. Venezuela is looking for allies in the region to help fund the development of 11 production blocks in the Orinoco region, as well as invest in offshore gas projects, refineries and the upgrader facilities needed to process the country's tar-like heavy oil, PdVSA, as the state company is known, said in a statement. Development of the Orinoco belt is central to President Hugo Chavez's plans to boost Venezuela's crude production in coming years. PdVSA says it will need a total of $251 billion between 2013 and 2019 to finance oil projects and build infrastructure in the mostly barren Orinoco region, but analysts question how the company will be able to attract the investment. Under Mr. Chavez's leadership, the Venezuelan government has expropriated a number of oil projects run by foreign private companies in recent years--moves that critics say make investors reluctant to put money into Venezuela's energy industry. The government says it aims to boost crude output to 3.5 million barrels a day by the end of the year and 4 million barrels a day by 2014, from just over 3 million barrels currently. PdVSA has invested an average of $15 billion in each of the last five years toward advancing is production plans. Venezuela currently exports 133,000 barrels a day of oil and derivatives to members of Unasur and hopes to more than double that to 300,000 barrels a day by 2019, PdVSA said in its statement. Unasur's members include Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela. The countries are home to about 400 million people. Status quo environmental regulations do not solve Wykes, 12, human rights activist, contributor @ Heinrich Boll Stiftung, Denmark green political organization(Sarah Wykes, 12 October 2012, “Venezuela - The Orinoco Belt”, http://www.boell.de/intlpolitics/energy/resource-governance-tar-sands-venezuela-15659.html)//Holmes Other environmental measures taken by PDVSA or its subsidiaries in the Orinoco Belt, according to the 2010 report, were as follows: An evaluation was carried out of the reuse of the waste products of drilling and production, and design and engineering of waste manage ment facilities in th e Orinoco Oil Belt; The José Antonio Anzoátegui Industrial Co mplex and Intevep are developing three (3) computer systems for the recording and proces sing of environmental information relating to waste management, environmental liability management and weather conditions; The Executive Directorate of Orinoco Oil Belt and other production departments in the east and west of the country are developing automa ted systems related to monitoring and control (environmental monitoring, environmental measures and environmental bonds). Perhaps the information in the re port of greatest concer n relates to the levels of pollutants at the Jose Antonio Anzoátegui industrial comp lex, which houses the 4 upgraders that process the crude from the Belt along with other related petro-chemical industries. As the table below shows, for the period January-September 2010, some pollutants appear to be above the legal limit. pollution bad Air pollution kills millions every year CNN 13 (Matthew Knight for CNN "Air pollution killing over two million annually, study says" July 16th, 2013 www.cnn.com/2013/07/16/world/air-pollution-killing-study) SM More than two million people are dying every year from the effects of outdoor air pollution, according to a new study. An estimated 2.1 million deaths are caused by anthropogenic increases of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) while a further 470,000 are killed annually as a result of human-caused increases in ozone pollution. Composting toilets change lives in Haiti Jason West, co-author of the study published in the journal of Environmental Research Letters said: "Outdoor air pollution is an important problem and among the most important environmental risk factors for health." squo fails Unregulated oil extraction causes deforestation and pollution Marquez, 11, contributor @ GlobalIssues.org(Humberto Marquez, 13 June 2011, “Biodiverse Venezuela Flunking Basic Conservation”, http://www.globalissues.org/news/2011/06/13/10071)//Holmes The country is among the world's top ten for deforestation. At the close of the 20th century, over half its territory was covered by forests, but the forested area is shrinking by an average of 290,000 hectares a year, equivalent to more than one percent. As for pollution, 'crude oil production, the main economic activity, has an environmental impact locally. However, the impact of refining the crude, and especially consumption, is much greater,' said Álvarez. Venezuela refines over one million barrels of oil a day, producing emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases and sulphur and coke residues, and its fleet of 5.5 million vehicles consume some 80 million litres of fuel a day. In the congested streets of Caracas, a concrete jungle set in a valley where five million people are crowded elbow to elbow, 2.3 million cars and one million motorbikes circulate, according to figures supplied by the mayors of the city's five municipalities. 'We have no precise figures for pollution, but the country has over 300 large waste dumps open to the skies. Much of this waste is burned, and who knows what quantities of dioxins and furans are being produced?' said Álvarez. Dioxins are stable chemical compounds that contain chlorine and are produced by burning. They are fat-soluble and pollute soils, sediments, the food chain and organic tissues. Furans are volatile liquids that cause cancer. The 2001 Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), to which Venezuela and 172 other countries are party, set guidelines for programmes to minimise, if not eliminate, POP sources. Poor waste disposal and lack of recycling threaten the Venezuelan environment in the status quo Marquez, 11, contributor @ GlobalIssues.org(Humberto Marquez, 13 June 2011, “Biodiverse Venezuela Flunking Basic Conservation”, http://www.globalissues.org/news/2011/06/13/10071)//Holmes But Venezuela is lagging so far behind in these matters that 'of the 19,000 tonnes of waste produced daily, barely 10 to 20 percent is recycled: 85 to 90 percent of aluminium or iron, but only one percent of organic material, two percent of plastics and 20 percent of paper and cardboard,' Díaz said. Improper management of solid wastes and residues has for years been at the top of the list of Venezuela's worst environmental problems in the Vitalis reports, until it was displaced as the main problem in 2010 by lengthy drought and major flooding. The drought and flooding brought about emergencies and interruptions of the supply of electricity and drinking water, and caused damages to roads and housing. Some 140,000 people were affected by the disasters, leading to street protests and social crises. This was climate change's debut, as it were, in Venezuelan society, and the ARA researchers expressed concern over the forecast that in spite of the unusually heavy rains in recent months, the country must prepare itself for a reduction of up to 25 percent in average annual rainfall. Increased oil production will accelerate status quo pollution Marquez, 11, contributor @ GlobalIssues.org(Humberto Marquez, 13 June 2011, “Biodiverse Venezuela Flunking Basic Conservation”, http://www.globalissues.org/news/2011/06/13/10071)//Holmes The state oil industry intends to raise crude production from the present level of 3.2 million barrels a day, according to official figures, to 5.8 million barrels a day in the second half of the decade. The government also plans to add a further 8,000 megawatts of thermally-generated electricity, using fossil fuels, to the current nominal capacity of 21,000 megawatts. Pollution is also affecting river basins and other water sources. Only 350 sources of industrial effluents (14 percent) possess treatment systems, in a country that consumes 4,500 barrels a day of lubricants and greases, and where only 32 percent of sewage is treated in any way at all. María Eugenia Gil, of the Aguaclara Foundation which works in environmental education, has denounced there are probably 3,000 open air dumps where municipal, industrial and hospital waste are mingled. The ARA researchers found 46 sites contaminated with different substances, including polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) produced by the energy and metallurgical industries. regs solve Environmental regulations over oil serve as a gateway to Venezuelan sustainable development Moscona, 6/12/13, contributor to Harvard International Review, loves Disney Movies(Jacob Moscona, 12 June 2013, “A New Doctrine for Sustainable Development: Case Study in Venezuela”, http://hir.harvard.edu/blog/jacob-moscona-skolnik/a-new-doctrine-for-sustainable-development-case-study-invenezuela)//Holmes In 2011, former President Hugo Chavez reported 297 billion barrels of oil in Venezuelan reserves, which (assuming this statistic is valid) would place Venezuela above Saudi Arabia as the country with the largest national oil reserves. In January of 2013, Venezuela shipped 898,000 barrels per day to the United States; while subsequent oil sales to the US have dropped, the drop is largely explained by Venezuela’s shifting economic ties in the direction of the Asian market. Venezuelan oil, the “black gold” of Chavez’s administration, is the foundation of Venezuela’s economy and is largely responsible for recent economic improvements there, including last year’s 5.6% national economic growth. Indeed, in 2002, a dire economic downturn followed the attempted coup against Chavez and the subsequent strike of state-run oil company workers, conveying the broad importance of the oil industry to Venezuela's economy. Despite increased economic diversification, exemplified by a 10.6% increase in the non-oil sector of the Venezuelan economy in 2005, high oil sales are still considered essential to the economy by the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). Many claim that maintaining high oil sales will be an essential element for new president Nicholas Maduro's ability to maintain popular support and legitimacy. Thus, oil exportation may be a key component of any reasonable plan for economic and social development in Venezuela. But what about the environmental implication of oil extraction and carbon emissions? The International Energy Agency avers that the international community must not use more than 1/3 of confirmed oil deposits by 2050 if we are to achieve the goal of preventing in increase in global temperature of more than 2°C. Is it fair to require Venezuela—or any Venezuelan government campaigning for popular support—to limit this crucial sector of its economy in order to follow international standards? Should it be the responsibility of oil-exporting or oil-importing countries to limit the global oil market? At what point is Venezuela no longer developing “within planetary boundaries” and at what point does the threat of environmental impact trump each individual country’s right to economic and social betterment? tar sands module Venezuela pushing for domestic tar sand development now Wykes and Heywood, 2010, human rights activist, contributor @ Heinrich Boll Stiftung, Denmark green political organization, **EU-funded report on the environmental effects of Tar Sand extraction**(Sarah Wykes and Steven Heywood, May 2010, “Tar sands: Fuelling the climate crisis, undermining EU energy security and damaging development objectives”, PDF)//Holmes Venezuela’s tar sands are reported to be the largest after Canada, with recoverable oil totalling at least 2.26 trillion barrels. The majority of the deposits are located in the Orinoco river basin. The Venezuelan government estimates that 20% of the Orinoco basin deposits are extractable using current technology, or around 316 billion barrels87. Venezuela is already producing more than half a million barrels of oil per day from four existing tar sands developments: Petroanzoategui, Petromonagas, Petrocedeno and Petropiar88. About 8-12% of the Orinoco oil is recoverable through mining extraction techniques. The rest of the oil will then be extracted through steam-based in situ production, and potentially “methods involving gas injection and in situ combustion”89. The Orinoco basin has been divided into four areas for the purposes of tar sands exploration and development. From west to east, these are called Boyaca, Junin, Ayacucho and Carabobo90. European companies are active, to varying degrees, in all four of these permit zones, each of which has been split into several blocks that are being licensed to oil companies. Details about the size and expected production rates of the blocks with European company investment can be found below.ent investigation to assess this is crucial. Investment and development Under the Chavez government many changes have been made to the way Venezuela’s oil projects are run, generally making it more difficult for European oil companies to operate in the country. At the end of March 2006, the government terminated all existing oil contracts with foreign companies and insisted that they be renegotiated with PDVSA as the majority stakeholder in all projects. Furthermore, a highly controversial nationalization of suppliers followed as PDVSA did not pay debts to oil companies & contractors. The issue of PDVSA’s indebtedness is still not transparent. This led US companies ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil to pull out of the Orinoco tar sands altogether, although BP, Total and Statoil decided to renegotiate their contracts and continue to operate on their projects, which were already producing oil by this point. Since then, many of the new Orinoco exploration licences have been given to the national oil companies of states that could be considered friendly to the Venezuelan government, although some European companies have also managed to negotiate licenses91. Venezuelan tar sands are an internal link to warming Louvell, 6/11/13, Climate and energy campaign coordinator, BankTrack(Yann Louvell, 11 June 2013, “Dodgy Deal: Venezuelan tar sands”, http://www.banktrack.org/manage/ajax/ems_dodgydeals/createPDF/venezuelan_tar_sands)//Holmes The clearest and most obvious concern of this project is the fact that the tar sands are one of the key contributors to climate change. This is mostly attributed to the size of tar sands deposits and their unusually high greenhouse gas emissions. It is the process of converting the sands to oil that is one of the key concerns as about three barrele s of natural gas are used to create one barrel of tar sands oil. Apart from the potential recurrence of the local environmental damage associated with tar sands production, is the size of the deposits being explored, which will mean the release of huge amounts of GHG into the atmosphere. At the same time, the localized environmental impacts are also of concern. There are various local environmental effects: from forest destruction, loss of wildlife, water contamination and more. In order to develop the tar sands forests are usually clear cut, leaving habitats destroyed, wild life lost, and even the carbon capture from the forest is also affected. During tar sands production contaminated water may also leak to the rivers, containing arsenic, mercury, and various carcinogens, all of these are known to cause cancer and kill local wild life. Regulations and sustainable technology solve Venezia and Logan, 2007, contributors to the World Resources Institute(John Venezia and Jeff Logan, July 2007, “Heavy Oil and Tar Sands”, http://www.wri.org/publication/content/10339)//Holmes Venezuela has equally massive reserves of heavy oil in the Orinoco Belt. Approximately one-quarter of Venezuelan’s current crude output of 4 million barrels a day comes from heavy sources. This percentage is expected to rise as conventional resources decline and heavy oil recovery technologies improve. Currently, only a small percentage (5-10%) of original oil in place can be recovered economically. The World Energy Council believes Venezuelan heavy oil output will grow to 5.5 mb/d by 2030. Greenhouse gas emissions associated with heavy oil production vary depending on location, oil quality (need for upgrading), and extraction method. Lifecycle emissions vary from roughly 15 percent above conventional oil use levels to over 50 percent or more. Carbon dioxide capture and sequestration could be applied to offset a portion of the extra greenhouse gas emissions from some heavy oil production, but it would add to costs. The local and regional environmental impacts of heavy oil and tar sands production can include: significant water consumption, massive earth moving and ecosystem disturbance, increased criteria and other air pollution, and release of heavy metals and toxic materials. New technologies have the potential to lower these environmental impacts, although they will likely remain substantially higher than conventional crude production. environmental justice 1nc env justice Text: The United States federal government should condition __________ on the Ministry of Environment creating emission reduction standards and developing mitigation and adaptation strategies toward climate change. Unregulated Venezuelan production will triple its annual emissions—only mitigation and adaptation solves Wykes, 12, human rights activist, contributor @ Heinrich Boll Stiftung, Denmark green political organization(Sarah Wykes, 12 October 2012, “Venezuela - The Orinoco Belt”, http://www.boell.de/intlpolitics/energy/resource-governance-tar-sands-venezuela-15659.html)//Holmes Climate protection The climate impacts of full development of th e Orinoco Belt are likel y to be devastating. Diesel from Venezuelan bitumen currently has well-to-tank GHG emi ssions second highest only to those of fuel derived from Canadian tar sands, according to the US Department of Energy. lxiii In terms of the country’s emissions pr ofile, while currently Venezuela produces only 1% of global emissions, according to ARA, the government’s plan to increase oil production would mean an increase in oil produc tion of around 5.8 million barrels per day (mbpd) in 2012, leading to a near tripling of GH G emissions from 30 million tonnes per year to almost 80 million tonnes. lxiv According to ARA, the country not only has a “mor al responsibility to c ontribute actively to finding a solution” to climate change, but is it self “highly vulnerable” to the impacts of climate change, which will impact on “f ood production, human health, energy demand, biodiversity and the risk of flooding, among other issues.” lxv In terms of policy framework for climate pr otection in Venezuela, according to ARA: There is no clarity about the existence of m itigation and adaptation strategies, with clear objectives and specific activities including thei r respective scope, timetable, costs and allocation of resources and responsibilities. In pr actice, there do not appear to be any clear mitigation strategies, since there has been no effective action taken to reduce GHG in the motor and oil industry sectors. Similarly, the proposed changes to the country’s model of energy generation are based on the substituti on of energy generation processes, principally hydro-electric power, by thermo electricity, wh ich appears to be a step in the opposite direction . lxvi Climate change will devastate overpopulated and undeveloped Venezuelan communities—the damage is already occurring and it’ll only get worse—reject environmental injustice Marquez 6/25/13, writer @ Inter Press Service, investigative journalist(Humberto Marquez, 25 June 2013, “Flood Risks in Venezuela Increased by “New Rains” Linked to Climate Change”, http://www.ipsnews.net/2013/06/floodrisks-in-venezuela-increased-by-new-rains-linked-to-climate-change/)//Holmes CARACAS, Jun 25 2013 (IPS) - “The river is reclaiming its place, the water has risen up to here,” says Ana Polanco, crouching down to hold her hand high above her head in the little tin house she shares with her children in El Hueco, one of the communities on the east side of the Venezuelan capital besieged by the polluted and deceptively calm Guaire River. Stretching a total of 72 kilometres, the Guaire crosses Caracas from west to east in an almost straight line, but as it leaves the city, it begins to snake along a series of hairpin curves. For the past quarter of a century, the flooding of this section of the river has wreaked havoc in neighbouring communities such as La Jóvita, La Línea and El Hueco, which sits at the bottom of a hill carpeted with precarious housing. Residents and local governments are making preparations to confront the dreaded “new rains”, which cause landslides that block the channels and ravines that would otherwise help to drain the swollen river. Further aggravating the situation are the tons of liquid and solid waste that flow into the river from homes, businesses and industries in this city of almost five million people. The “new rains” are “associated with climate change: during most of the 20th century, rains fell little by little, slowly increasing and then diminishing, but now they are short-lived and intense,” explained Nicola Veronico, the manager of environmental affairs at the Metropolitan City Hall of Caracas. Related IPS Articles “The same amount of rain that used to fall over the course of weeks or a month can now fall in a single morning. It only takes two hours of torrential rain for the Guaire to overflow,” Gabriel D’Andrea, the director of Civil Protection in the populous Caracas municipality of Sucre, told Tierramérica. One of the natural physical changes associated with the phenomenon of climate change is precipitation, “not only average precipitation levels, with the passage of the years, but also the degree of variability,” stressed María Teresa Martelo, a Venezuelan climate expert and member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). This change, she added, “is not something that is going to happen in the future. It has been happening since the 1970s, and trends indicate that in the decades to come, the temperature will rise, the water supply will decrease, and rain/drought cycles will be altered. The big challenge is to define adaptation strategies and measures.” The eastern side of the city was hit hard in 1979 by heavy rains and the subsequent flooding of the Guaire River, in large part because of the lack of maintenance of drainage systems. It was also pummelled in August 1993 by Tropical Storm Bret, which ravaged northern Venezuela and Colombia, southern Nicaragua, and several southern Caribbean islands. In Venezuela, Bret left 150 dead, 77 of them in Caracas, in addition to 500 injured, as well as tens of millions of dollars in damages. It also sent a troubling message: that due to the effects of climate change, the tropical storms that regularly sweep through the Caribbean can take significantly more southerly courses than normal. “We don’t need another Bret to be worried and on the alert. People here already know that when it’s raining around Las Adjuntas and Los Teques (towns near the Guaire’s headwaters), they have to get ready to move to higher ground,” Henry Hernández, a community leader in La Jóvita, told Tierramérica. Hernández is one of the mechanics who works on the road that is separated from the Guaire by a containment wall. As well as holding back the river’s water, the wall also has markings used to measure its level. When it floods, “the river reverses the course of the water that flows into it from gutters, drains and sewers, which mixes with the river water and flows back towards the streets and houses, inundating everything and damaging whatever is in its path. People’s lives are saved, but we all have stories about the things we have lost,” he said. “We have markers that measure the level of the river three kilometres before the curves begin. We monitor them, identify the high-risk areas, and keep the communities informed,” said D’Andrea. “But as far as we are able to,” he added, since “there are more than 1,800 neighbourhoods in the municipality.” The Metropolitan City Hall operates a rain gauge station and monitors hundreds of storm drains and 350 ravines, many of which flow down from El Ávila Mountain, which separates Caracas from the Caribbean Sea, as well as issuing guidelines to the five municipalities into which metropolitan Caracas is divided. But “beyond these weak umbrellas, what is needed is the political will to address the root of the problem, because land zoning and land use tend to be viewed solely in association with the economy and divorced from the environment,” said Evelyn Pallotta, director of environmental affairs in the state of Miranda, which includes the east side of Caracas and most of its bedroom communities. The national Ministry of Environment has launched a plan to dredge the Guaire, whose waters carry large amounts of sediments as well as tons of garbage, from small plastic containers to rusted machinery. This would serve to lower the level of the river bed, which is one of the factors that contribute to its flooding when there are sudden heavy rains. However, according to Pallotta, who is also a professor of urban planning at the Central University of Venezuela, “Dredging or redirecting the river are temporary, short-term palliatives. Added to the problem is the fact that up to 80 percent of the storm drains in Caracas do not work, and the concrete sleeve supporting the river is being worn down over the years.” “If you know that you can’t build on the banks of the Guaire, that you need to leave a green strip up to dozens of metres wide for safety reasons, then you shouldn’t allow housing, industry or businesses there. The solution has to be structural,” she told Tierramérica. Polanco, who lives in one of a string of small houses separated from the river by a narrow corridor of concrete and dirt, agrees with Pallotta. “Yes, the solution would be a plan to provide housing for all of us far away from here, but so far we have only been counted in the census,” she commented, referring to a census of families needing homes conducted by the government as part of the Housing Mission, aimed at tackling the critical housing shortage. The heavy rains also pose a threat because of the risk of landslides in a city full of hills and hollows, much of it covered with metamorphic soils that have endured decades of punishment from vertical construction. Since the launch of the Housing Mission two years ago, the national government has built hundreds of apartment buildings in former empty lots, industrial areas and parking lots in Caracas. Although this construction has provided urgently needed housing, there have been complaints of overcrowding, poor service connections, improper waste disposal, a lack of green areas and water treatment plants, and excess traffic. “The risks associated with climate change are also increased by this urban oversaturation,” said Veronico. For her part, Pallotta stressed that “the human right to housing cannot infringe on other equally fundamental rights, like the right to water, health and a healthy environment, or the need for a city that complies with the parameters of sustainable development.” The brink is now—Venezuela’s pushing for increased Orinoco drilling Vyas, 2012, writer @ DowJones Newswires(Kejal Vyas, 16 November 2012, “Venezuela Wants Unasur Investment in Orinoco Heavy Oil Belt”, http://www.rigzone.com/news/oil_gas/a/122189/)//Holmes CARACAS - State energy monopoly, Petroleos de Venezuela, proposed Thursday that national oil companies in developing Venezuela's massive Orinoco heavy belt. Venezuela is looking for allies in the region to help fund the development of 11 production blocks in the Orinoco region, as well as invest in offshore gas projects, refineries and the upgrader facilities needed to process the country's tar-like heavy oil, PdVSA, as the state company is known, said in a statement. Development of the Orinoco belt is central to President Hugo Chavez's within the Union of South American Nations, or Unasur, bloc, jointly invest plans to boost Venezuela's crude production in coming years. PdVSA says it will need a total of $251 billion between 2013 and 2019 to finance oil projects and build infrastructure in the mostly barren Orinoco region, but analysts question how the company will be able to attract the investment. Under Mr. Chavez's leadership, the Venezuelan government has expropriated a number of oil projects run by foreign private companies in recent years--moves that critics say make investors reluctant to put money into Venezuela's energy industry. The government says it aims to boost crude output to 3.5 million barrels a day by the end of the year and 4 million barrels a day by 2014, from just over 3 million barrels currently. PdVSA has invested an average of $15 billion in each of the last five years toward advancing is production plans. Venezuela currently exports 133,000 barrels a day of oil and derivatives to members of Unasur and hopes to more than double that to 300,000 barrels a day by 2019, PdVSA said in its statement. Unasur's members include Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela. The countries are home to about 400 million people. climate change bad Climate change will disproportionately affect the impoverished in Venezuela Bayview, 10, San Franciso black news source, cites the Venezuelan ambassador to the US(San Francisco Bayview, 18 October 2010, “Venezuela and climate change: Change the system, not the climate”, http://sfbayview.com/2010/venezuela-and-climate-change-change-the-system-not-the-climate/)//Holmes Social justice, ecological balance Shortly after President Chávez took office, a new constitution (1999) was written and publicly endorsed that supports the principles of poverty eradication, environmental protection and the people’s participation in Venezuela’s democracy and development. It also states that sustainable development is the path that the country will adopt in its development plans, stressing the rational use of natural resources in order to ensure equilibrium with the natural ecosystem. For Venezuela, the cause of the world’s changing climate is closely linked to the current development model that favors the interests of big capital and unchecked growth at the expense of equitable development and ecological balance. Based on these constitutional principles, the concept and practice of sustainable development has deepened in Venezuela. For the Bolivarian Revolution, the solution to the environmental crisis is to move from a consumerist, industrial and individualistic society sustainable. that sacrifices the environment to one that is socially just and ecologically squo fails Status quo regulations fail Wykes, 12, human rights activist, contributor @ Heinrich Boll Stiftung, Denmark green political organization(Sarah Wykes, 12 October 2012, “Venezuela - The Orinoco Belt”, http://www.boell.de/intlpolitics/energy/resource-governance-tar-sands-venezuela-15659.html)//Holmes Local civil society has also expressed concer n about the health imp acts of waste products generated at the indus trial complex. In 2011, the Venezuel an press reported that a civil society organization had called on Chevron, Tota l, Statoil and TNK-BP, the four minority shareholders of PDVSA in the cu rrent projects in production on th e Belt, to address the levels of coke being generated as a by-pr oduct of the upgrading of crude. lii The organization claimed that the situation re lating to the production of coke was in violation of the Venezuelan Constitution (Article 127) and articles 42 and 43 of the country’s Environmental Law, claiming that: "there were complaints by the inhabitants of villages near to the Jose Industrial Complex that they are suffering respir atory problems and allergies due to the waste products. The multinational companies cannot av oid their responsibilities, despite being minority partners of PDVSA.” liii The amount of toxic solid waste that is likely to be generated if full development occurs, particularly suphur and coke, and the risks arising from its tran sportation to the Orinoco river and along the River to the coast is a major cause for concern. liv Moreover, the current state of environmental protection in th e country as a whole does not offer much reassurance, according to a r ecent study by a network of 20 non-governmental organisations called ARA, which analysed lo ss of biodiversity, pollution, management of solid waste, impacts of oil extraction, mana gement of water resources, management of protected areas and global climate change. l nanotech 1nc nanotech Text: The United States federal government should condition _______ on Venezuelan development and deployment of nanotechnology for the purpose of emission reduction in oil extraction and refinement. The tech is feasible and being researched now—nanotech solves emissions but won’t be fully developed due to oil lobbying Marquez, 12, writer @ Inter Press Service, investigative journalist(Humberto Marquez, 15 November 2012, “Nanotechnology Could Lighten Venezuela?''s Oil Footprint”, http://www.tecnicadelacero.com/en/content/nanotechnologycould-lighten-venezuelas-oil-footprint)//Holmes Nanotechnology operates at the sub-microscopic scale: a nanometre is a unit of measure equal to one billionth of a metre. "We are seeking to use nanoparticles of metallic salts, such as iron, nickel or cobalt nitrates, as catalysts in oil-related processes that produce greenhouse gas emissions," said Sarah Briceño, a researcher at the Centre for Physics at the Venezuelan Institute of Scientific Research (IVIC). Catalysts are substances used to speed up chemical processes, "and our goal is to develop catalysts adapted to Venezuelan industry that will make it possible to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from activities such as oil refining and fuel consumption by motor vehicles by up to 50 percent," Briceño told Tierramérica*. Venezuela, a founding member of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), extracts close to three million barrels of oil a day and has over two billion barrels of heavy crude oil reserves. There are six refineries in the South American country that process a total of 1.1 million barrels daily. Meanwhile, according to OPEC figures, the country consumes 742,000 barrels of different types of fuel daily, of which 300,000 barrels correspond to the gasoline used by more than six million motor vehicles. The Ministry of the Environment reports that Venezuela is responsible for 0.48 percent of worldwide emissions of greenhouse gases and 0.56 percent of one of these "villains", carbon dioxide. During the experimental phase, "we have observed with scanning electron microscopes the chemical reactions between the metallic salt nanoparticles and the surfactant agents (which influence the surface tension between substances) involved in these processes," said Briceño. Since the concept of nanotechnology - the manipulation of matter at the molecular and atomic level - was first introduced in 1959 by U.S. physicist Richard Feynman (1918-1988), winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965, it has been developed in a wide range of fields including medicine, pharmaceuticals, energy, electronics, metallurgy and environmental conservation. "The entire periodic table (of elements) can be taken to the nano scale. We are focusing our research on how Venezuela, with its technology and infrastructure, can make this environmental contribution through its work with hydrocarbons," explained Briceño. "Our emphasis is on the reduction of emissions of nitrous oxide and methane, two of the most potent greenhouse gases," she added. The research is expected to yield results in 2013. Putting these to use in industry will be a long-term objective, given the scale of work in the laboratory: at the IVIC results are obtained in masses of particles that weigh 0.1 grams, while oil production in Venezuela in a single day equals 400,000 tons. The relationship between energy and the environment provides fertile ground for nanotechnology, as demonstrated by the research undertaken at the U.S. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where nanoparticles containing iron have been mixed with oil in order to make it possible to clean up offshore oil spills with magnets. "The energy demand will increase in coming years, and we need to be able to generate cheap, abundant energy with the lowest possible environmental impact. Fossil fuels are not an adequate alternative, but even worse is using them badly when there are incredible opportunities to make them so much more efficient," said Javier García Martínez, director of the Nanotechnology Laboratory at the University of Alicante, Spain. Nanotechnology "offers the opportunity to generate new materials and processes, and in the field of energy there is great potential to improve the efficiency of the photovoltaic cells that make up solar panels," Venezuelan consultant Juan Carlos Sánchez told Tierramérica. Sánchez is a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 jointly with former U.S. vice president Al Gore (1993-2001). "The development of processes through nanotechnology aimed at greater and more effective use of solar energy isn't necessarily in the interests of the big oil producers, whether companies or countries," said Sánchez. "Any technology that reduces greenhouse gas emissions is bad for their business, since the demand for oil would decline with an increase in the use of solar energy," he explained. In his opinion, Venezuela should direct its efforts towards other technologies that reduce the emission of greenhouse gases associated with oil industry activity, "such as so-called sequestration of the carbon dioxide generated in the refineries, in order to sink it in the subsoil of oil wells and keep it from entering the atmosphere ." Other OPEC members are moving forward with this type of research, including Saudi Arabia, Algeria and the United Arab Emirates, as a response to the fingers of blame pointed at the oil-producing countries as being responsible for global warming, said Sánchez. Venezuela could use its thousands of old, abandoned oil wells for this purpose, burying carbon dioxide more than 1,000 metres underground. Briceño, meanwhile, thinks that the results achieved through the research at the IVIC could help to promote studies for the application of nanotechnology to other environment-related areas of the Venezuelan oil industry. One example is the use and disposal of petroleum coke, a solid waste byproduct of oil refining with a carbon content of over 90 percent. Venezuela produces 20,000 tons of petroleum coke daily during the upgrading of heavy and extra heavy crude oils to make them light enough for most refineries. The dust from the resulting mountains of coke affects communities in eastern Venezuela who live near the crude oil upgrading facilities. Perhaps at some point in the future, the impact of this waste could be lessened through treatment with nanoparticles.* This story was originally published by Latin American newspapers that are part of the Tierramérica network. Tierramérica is a specialised news service produced by IPS with the backing of the United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Environment Programme and the World Bank. solves emissions Nanotech solves emissions—it increases carbon trapping NanoWerk, 07(NanoWerk, 25 December 2007, “Nanotechnology the answer to air pollution?”, http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=3828.php)//Holmes (Nanowerk News) The emerging field of nanotechnology could provide a solution to the soaring air pollution shows that nano-treatment of engines can caused by automobile emissions worldwide, scientists say. Research cut down toxic gas emissions by up to 90 per cent, Prof J Narayan of North Carolina State University told PTI here. "Use of nanotechnology based systems increases the rate of pre-emission carbon trapping considerably, which is the main constituent of carbon dioxide," explains Narayan. "Thus, it causes cleaner emissions," he added. Nanotechnology, a very important branch of applied science that deals with matters on atomic and molecular scale, "has a considerable role to play in improvement of energy efficiency," Director of Ansal Institute of Technology M P Singh said. "Environmental degradation due to automobile emissions is a big issue today. Using nanotechnology can help us to mitigate air pollution considerably," said Ravi V Bellamkonda of the Georgia Institute of Technology. Scientists are of the view that the single largest influence of air pollution is the amount of carbon dioxide and motor vehicles worldwide are a major contributor to the gas in the atmosphere. "Nano formulation can augment fuel efficiency by up to 35 per cent as it reduces per capita consumption. That means we have to use smaller amount of materials," Narayan said. "It (nano-treatment) reduces friction among various engine parts considerably and in turn adds to the lubricating quality of the machine," Narayan said. With lowering of the fuel combustion rate, air pollution rate also comes down, scientists said. warming impact Venezuelan action spills over Reuters, 12 (Chicago Tribune, “Oil-rich Venezuela inks plans to curb spiraling emissions”, August 17, 2012, http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-08-17/news/sns-rtvenezuelaemissionsl6e8jh9hr-20120817_1_carbon-emissions-greenhouse-gas-emissionsclimate-change, jld) Wendel Trio, director of Brussels-based coalition CAN¶ Europe, said the move might encourage other members of oil¶ producer cartel OPEC to rein in their emissions in a year that¶ Gulf state Qatar will host annual U.N. negotiations.¶ Over 100 countries have made U.N. pledges amounting to 3-6¶ billion tonnes of CO2 cuts by 2020, far below the 12-billion¶ level the U.N. Environment Programme says is needed to prevent¶ temperature rises expected to lead to flooding and droughts that¶ threaten to displace millions of people.¶ "Many OPEC members have never made commitments... we would¶ hope this would be the first of the group to recognize they also¶ have a responsibility for tackling climate change," Trio said. Venezuela is key to global warming LASP No Date ( Latin American Studies Program, Cornell University "Global Climate Change: Latin America" lasp.einaudi.cornell.edu/system/files/Global%20Warming%20Latin%20America.pdf) SM Though Venezuela is home to 0.4% of the world’ s population, its activities account for 0.6% of global emissions, making it the 6th biggest emitter of carbon dioxide. (hd report) Venezuela’s industrial and agricultural activities are a major contribution to the amount of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere. Changing land-use, energy combustion and fugitive emissions from production and processing of oil and natural gas release notable amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. (grio) Also agricultural activities such as crop cultivation and livestock management are major contributions of the methane and nitrous oxide. at- squo solves Current policies aren’t enough Reuters, 12 (Chicago Tribune, “Oil-rich Venezuela inks plans to curb spiraling emissions”, August 17, 2012, http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-08-17/news/sns-rtvenezuelaemissionsl6e8jh9hr-20120817_1_carbon-emissions-greenhouse-gas-emissionsclimate-change, jld) Salerno said the government would tackle emissions from¶ Venezuela's growing car fleet as well as from agriculture and¶ domestic appliances but ruled out imposing GHG reduction targets¶ and removing fossil fuel subsidies.¶ Local climate experts say the plan lacks detail and stands¶ little chance of being implemented in a country where people pay¶ less for gasoline than anywhere in the world. tech feasible MIT research proves tech is feasible—nanotech can create environmentally friendly energy practices Marquez, 12, journalist specializing in Venezuelan issues, **cites Brinceno, physicist**(Humberto Marquez, 14 November 2012, “Nanotechnology Could Lighten Venezuela’s Oil Footprint”, http://www.ipsnews.net/2012/11/nanotechnology-could-lighten-venezuelas-oil-footprint/)//Holmes The relationship between energy and the environment provides fertile ground for nanotechnology, as demonstrated by the research undertaken at the U.S. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where nanoparticles containing iron have been mixed with oil in order to make it possible to clean up offshore oil spills with magnets. “The energy demand will increase in coming years, and we need to be able to generate cheap, abundant energy with the lowest possible environmental impact. Fossil fuels are not an adequate alternative, but even worse is using them badly when there are incredible opportunities to make them so much more efficient,” said Javier García Martínez, director of the Nanotechnology Laboratory at the University of Alicante, Spain. Nanotechnology “offers the opportunity to generate new materials and processes, and in the field of energy there is great potential to improve the efficiency of the photovoltaic cells that make up solar panels,” Venezuelan consultant Juan Carlos Sánchez told Tierramérica. at- backlash Discussion of nanotech increases public acceptance Corley et al., 12 (Elizabeth A. Corley, professor of Public Policy, Ethics & Emerging Technologies, Youngjae Kim, Research Associate, School of Public Affairs, Youngjae Kim, Research Associate, School of Public Affairs, “PUBLIC CHALLENGES OF NANOTECHNOLOGY REGULATION”, SPRING 2012, 52 Jurimetrics J. 371–381, jld) The third challenge is focused on encouraging trusted groups, such as university scientists and medical doctors, to engage in public communication about nanotechnology more than they do currently. While some scientists en- gage in this type of discourse with the public, many do not. There are rational reasons why there is a lack of expert public engagement on nanotechnology; for example, the incentive systems at universities are not typically designed to encourage faculty members to spend time on these activities, and public engagement efforts are not considered equal to peer-review publications or grants when a faculty member is evaluated for promotion or tenure. Yet, when experts engage in public communication activities about scien- tific research, there can be positive implications for both public acceptance of the technology and public knowledge levels about the technology. A series of previous studies demonstrate that the public use trust in experts as a key heu- ristic to make decisions about support for nanotechnology.8 The public are especially likely to use this trust in experts to make decisions about nanotech- nology when their knowledge levels about the technology are low. Because it is important for trusted experts to engage in public communication about tech- nologies, determining which expert groups have the highest public trust levels is important. Figure 2 illustrates levels of public trust across a variety of expert groups for the issue of nanotechnology. The three groups with the highest levels of public trust are university nanoscientists, medical professionals, and consumer organizations. The public also trust industry-based nanoscientists and regulators, but they are both slightly less trusted than the top three groups. The least trusted groups are business, Congress, the White House, environmental or- ganizations, religious organizations, international organizations, and news media. cuba generic 1nc generic Text: The United States federal government should condition _________ on the Cuban -creation of a structure dedicated to environmental conservation and management within the government -detection of the hazardous contamination focal points in the country -review of the system of environmental laws and creation of an interim environmental regulatory instrument -procuring of funding sources to promote research and environmental cooperation projects -establishment of the framework and guarantees necessary for the rise and development of independent environmental associations and organizations CP solves Levia 12 (Aldo M. Levia -- Data Security and Privacy Law, Civil Litigation, Cuba and International Law- Leiva Law, P.A. "Promoting And Financing The leivalaw.com/wpcontent/uploads/2012/04/Envtl-Infrastructure2.pdf) SM Clearly, Cuba faces a huge challenge in adequately addressing its environmental crisis. Legal, practical, and, most significantly, economic factors will determine the success of efforts to solve this problem. Ultimately, political will and capital are the transforming factors that will solve the problem; admittedly, however, in light of a transition-era Cuba’s other pressing needs, such will and capital may be in short supply. Nonetheless, several actors will be committed to changing this reality. On the one hand, Cuban officials of the New Republic, who, aware that economic development does not mandate environmental degradation, will develop new policies and laws that actually seek to promote both environmental protection and economic growth. These two societal goals need not compete with each other and, as seen in the U.S., may be attained concurrently. Cuban private industry must also adopt this view and seek to invest in environmental infrastructure development for this purpose. Outside Cuba, international funding bodies should modify their lending practices to promote such development. Lastly, foreign investors, as evidenced by their efforts in other Latin American countries, will be interested in developing an environmental technology/treatment market in Cuba. These actors should consult each other, since they ultimately share similar goals in this area. The recommendations listed above are but a beginning step in expanding this dialogue and in recognizing the valuable contributions that each can make in solving Cuba’s environmental crisis. Absent regulation, the destruction of ecosystems will continue Cepero 4 (Eudel Eduardo Cepero -- Research analyst at Florida International University -"Environmental Concerns For A Cuba Intransition" -- CUba Transition Project at the Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies -- University of Miami -- 2004 ctp.iccas.miami.edu/Research_Studies/ECepero.pdf) SM A substantial, unquantified loss of biodiversity exists, due, among other reasons, to improper management of certain ecosystems, the application of intensive farming, the marketing of endangered species, as well as conditions making it easy for important genetic resources to leave the country. Among the most serious biodiversity losses are the disappearance of substantial numbers of plant and animal species, the reduction of ecosystems, the destruction of coastal environments, and the collapse of urban sanitation systems. Cuba’s environmental status has been compromised, and catastrophes have begun to surface, such as the soil-related disaster involving the disappearance of significant desert areas in some regions of the archipelago. The current situation is the result of a chain of unsustainable actions and factors inflicted on ecosystems, willfulness, irrationality, and stubbornness. If current negative trends in environmental variables continue, Cuba’s national ecological account will fall dangerously close to possible bankruptcy. Tourism and agriculture— economic sectors identified as key to Cuba’s future market economy—are based upon key natural resources. If those resources continue to deteriorate, projections for socioeconomic recovery in the medium term will be useless. The extent of ecological degradation will have to be assessed at the beginning of the transition. especially during the past 40 years of developmental experiments, characterized by governmental After scientists gather that information, they will determine the primary environmental courses of action to be established for recovery. At this time, we can suggest that the following actions be considered, among others: • Create a structure dedicated to environmental conservation and management within the government design established during the transition period. • Detect and control the main, most hazardous contamination focal points in the country. • Review the system of environmental laws and create an interim environmental regulatory instrument that ensures the conservation and sustainable use of the environment during the transition period. • Establish a national program for basic soil conservation. • Introduce the compulsory rule: “You Pollute, You Pay.” • Procure funding sources to promote research and environmental cooperation projects. • Establish the framework and guarantees necessary for the rise and development of independent environmental associations and organizations. • Promote education and a culture of respect for environmental conservation alternate list These are all the things that must be done to ensure environmental stability WTTC 4 (World Travel and Tourism Council "The Caribbean: The Impact of Travel & Tourism On Jobs And The Economy" www.caribbeanhotelassociation.com/downloads/Pubs_WTTCReport.pdf) SM The quality and success of the Caribbean tourism product is dependent, in large measure, on the maintenance of a healthy and attractive natural environment. In the Caribbean, there is a need for: • Improved planning and management to increase the technical expertise required in the areas of pollution monitoring, coastal zone management, and the preparation and evaluation of Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs); • Increased regional co-operation and collaboration ; • Higher standards of environmental quality ; • Conservation and sustainable use of natural resources through participation in environmental certification and rating programmes ; • Improvements in infrastructure across the region, notably in utilities such as water and electricity supply, and solid waste disposal; • Greater clarity in land-use policy, containment of the spiralling price of land, and better zoning on the basis of maximizing economic returns; • Incentives to mobilize the private sector to invest in environmental improvements; • Education and in-service training for a more sustainable approach to tourism; and • Crisis and disaster management to mitigate the severe risk of natural and environmental disasters. SAFETY, SECURITY AND HEALTH Among the broad forces driving change in the tourism industry today, traveller safety and health are becoming two of the most influential. Crime, harassment and other forms of anti-social behaviour, along with hazardous and unhealthy facilities, are some of the major threats – real or perceived – to the development of the industry. Such problems frustrate national and regional efforts to maintain the region’s image as a safe, clean and hospitable tourism destination More evidence WTTC 4 (World Travel and Tourism Council "The Caribbean: The Impact of Travel & Tourism On Jobs And The Economy" www.caribbeanhotelassociation.com/downloads/Pubs_WTTCReport.pdf) SM IN ORDER TO ACHIEVE OR – EVEN BETTER – SURPASS THE BASELINE FORECASTS, AND TO ENSURE THAT FUTURE GROWTH IS SUSTAINABLE, CERTAIN KEY FACTORS NEED TO BE ASSURED. These include a favourable government fiscal policy, a climate that is conducive to business – offering attractive incentives for investment – and sustained and effective marketing and promotion , as well as environmentally friendly policies. Most importantly, clearly defined, longterm development plans must be drawn up to help guide regional, national and local public and private sector activities. These plans should be developed in consultation with all stakeholders, feeding from and back into a Caribbean Tourism Strategy and individual National Tourism Policies, and they should be disseminated as widely as possible. Even more evidence WTTC 4 (World Travel and Tourism Council "The Caribbean: The Impact of Travel & Tourism On Jobs And The Economy" www.caribbeanhotelassociation.com/downloads/Pubs_WTTCReport.pdf) SM Natural Environment The quality and success of the regional tourism product is dependent, in large measure, on the maintenance of a healthy and attractive natural environment. There is need for: ■ Improved planning and management – many of the small island developing states of the Caribbean lack the necessary technical expertise required for the complex field of tourism development and the environment in the areas of pollution monitoring, coastal zone management, and the preparation and evaluation of Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs); ■ Increased regional co-operation and collaboration – eg by joining the Cartagena Convention and its Protocols; ■ Development and implementation of high standards of environmental quality, including prevention of pollution by cruise and other ships; ■ Conservation and sustainable use of natural resources – the challenge is to ensure that local tourism businesses and entrepreneurs develop good environmental and social practices, both during the tourism development planning and construction phase and in the operations of tourism enterprises through participation in environmental certification and rating programmes such as Green Globe, Blue Flag and QTC (see below); ■ Improving national infrastructure to support the tourism industry; water and electricity costs in certain Caribbean countries are among the highest in the world and, where services such as solid waste disposal are not available, hoteliers must operate their own treatment and disposal systems, adding further to their operating expenses; ■ Land-use policy – eg the need to address the issue of the use of land for tourism, golf courses and indeed housing, and the spiralling price of land, especially on or near areas near the coast in some island destinations, which negatively affects the local population; there is need for better zoning on the basis of maximizing economic returns, respecting parks, water courses, hotels and facilities rather than private villas; policies like taxing of land ought as far as possible to take account of the different situations of local, as opposed to transient, resident populations; ■ Incentives to mobilize the private sector – lack of financing is a major constraint to investment in environmental improvements, especially in small and medium-sized hotels. Governments can help by providing concessions for capital investments by tourism businesses that impact on reduced water and energy consumption, reduced solid waste consumption, etc; ■ Education and in-service training for a more sustainable approach to tourism – there is need to encourage environmental education in schools, devise and implement effective public awareness campaigns and activities to promote care of the environment, and to increase training programmes for industry professionals that support environmental sustainability of the industry; and ■ Crisis and Disaster Management – the region’s tourism industry is exposed to severe risk from the possibility of natural and environmental disasters, such as hurricanes, volcanic eruptions, etc. Of particular concern are the threats to the marine environment posed by oil-spill emergencies and the transport of hazardous substances, such as nuclear waste, through the region. squo no solve status quo doesn’t solve Levia 12 (Aldo M. Levia -- Data Security and Privacy Law, Civil Litigation, Cuba and International Law- Leiva Law, P.A. "Promoting And Financing The leivalaw.com/wpcontent/uploads/2012/04/Envtl-Infrastructure2.pdf) SM The key Cuban environmental law is Law No. 33, also called the “Law on Environmental Protection and the Rational Use of Natural Resources.”35 The law is a brief document, only 25 pages long, and is intended to “establish the basic principles to conserve, protect, improve and transform the environment and the rational use of natural resources, in accordance with the integral development policies” of the Cuban government.36 The Law consists of four chapters: (1) general provisions; (2) specific areas of environmental protection and the use of natural resources; (3) organization of administrative and enforcement agencies/entities; and (4) enforcement procedures. Unfortunately, rather than creating an effective procedural and substantive legal framework, the Law provides only a broad policy statement, with undefined and vague terms.37 For example, the Law requires “proper treatment” of wastes before release into the environment, but does not define and clarify the term “proper treatment” nor does it define “wastes.” The law also fails to set standards and contamination limits,38 making it virtually unenforceable. Like the rest of the statute, the Chapter setting out fines is vague and ill-defined.39 Perhaps responding to its critics, the Cuban government has stated that the Law does not include clear definitions of management categories, since such regulations should be promulgated by the legislature.40 However, to date, none have been created.41 Similarly, enforcement provisions remain inoperative and are not applied.42 In fact, as will be discussed below, in practice, environmental laws are seldom applied and are not considered in policy-making decisions.43 In 1997, the Cuban government promulgated Law No. 81, which focuses on pollution control. Like its predecessor, the law is overly broad and ill-defined, but sets out enforcement guidelines, sanctions, and violations. Its effectiveness remains to be seen, as authorities have not yet fully initiated implementation of the law. Also, Cuba’s law focuses primarily on current compliance rather than on cleaning up past contamination. Because no law exists addressing preexisting contamination, there is no impetus for state-owned industry or foreign investors to address these problems, thus acting as a disincentive to the development of an infrastructure to address past contamination. There are also no general requirements for treatment of wastes prior to disposal. In the absence of such requirements, parties seeking to comply with the spirit of the law have no guidance and compliance efforts are thereby negatively affected. cuba k2 biod Cuba’s key to biodiversity Dr. Michael Smith quoted in Houck 2K (Oliver A. Houck -- Professor of Law, Tulane Law School, Tulane Institute of Environmental Law and Policy and the Center for Marine Conservation -- "Environmental Law in Cuba" -- 2000 www.law.fsu.edu/journals/landuse/vol161/houck.pdf) SM On a worldwide basis, biodiversity tends to be concentrated in the southern countries, while the institutions and resources for studying it tend to be located in the northern countries … Cuba provides an extreme case. With respect to biodiversity, it is the single most important country in the Caribbean islands, and this is true to an overwhelming degree.2 Cuba is key to global biodiversity Houck 2K (Oliver A. Houck -- Professor of Law, Tulane Law School, Tulane Institute of Environmental Law and Policy and the Center for Marine Conservation -- "Environmental Law in Cuba" -- 2000 www.law.fsu.edu/journals/landuse/vol161/houck.pdf) SM The first asset is the extraordinary nature of its biological resources. Scattered across the landscape in relic pockets, keys, caves, marshes, wet forests, and mountain ravines are nearly 7000 species of plants — half of all identified plant species of the Caribbean, more than a third of the number of plant species known to the United States and Canada combined.29 The diversity of fauna is no less impressive, with twelve times as many mammal species per hectare as the United States and Canada, twenty-nine times the amphibians and reptiles, and thirty-nine times the number of bird species including several endangered species, the rare Bee Hummingbird, and the last known sighting of the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker, now extinct in the United States.30 From the standpoint of biological diversity, research, and beneficial derivatives, Cuba is as important as any nation in the Northern hemisphere, facts of which Cubans are quite aware. Cuba's biotechnology industry has been producing biological pharmaceuticals and pest controls since the early 1980s.31 No less important are Cuba's coastal resources, with nearly 4, 000 miles of shoreline on the main island and an additional 4,195 outlying, mostly uninhabited coastal islets and keys.32 Cuban beaches have the rare advantages of being both abundant and relatively unspoiled by Caribbean, or even Florida, standards. They have become a major draw for international tourism, on which much of the country's economic future now depends,33 facts of which Cubans are also quite aware. By 1996, tourism had replaced agriculture as Cuba's primary source of revenue.34 Testing coastal zones is the test of environmental responsibility Houck 2K (Oliver A. Houck -- Professor of Law, Tulane Law School, Tulane Institute of Environmental Law and Policy and the Center for Marine Conservation -- "Environmental Law in Cuba" -- 2000 www.law.fsu.edu/journals/landuse/vol161/houck.pdf) SM The coastal zone is likely to be Cuba’s major test of environmental responsibility. It is a major test for any country and one that many countries do not bother to sit for, much less pass. The world’s coastal zones are some of the most biologically rich eco-regions on earth, harboring seabed grasses, kelp forests, oyster beds, coral reefs, shellfish flats, tidal pools, sea caves and ledges, beaches, dune grasses, sea oats, cheniers, mangroves, salt marshes, intermediate and freshwater marshes, bays, keys, estuaries, river mouths, hardwood swamps and similar universes which support more than a quarter of the world's primary plant production,224 ninety percent of its seafood,225 nearly all of its migratory waterfowl,226 and provide enormous, additional services in pollution control, flood control and the buffering of coastal storms at virtually no cost. The case can be made that these resources are the greatest bargain on earth.2 at- perm Conditioning is key—we already give environmental aid to Cuba—it’s ineffective absent incentives Aronson et al. 1 (Bernard W. Aronson – Project Directors of An Independent Task Force Sponsored by the Council of Foreign Relations – William D. Rogers, Julia Sweig, and Walter Mead – project co-chairs – US-Cuba Relations in the 21st Century: A Follow On Report – 2001 – PDF -https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=4&cad=rja&ved=0CEU QFjAD&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmercury.ethz.ch%2Fserviceengine%2FFiles%2FISN%2F16039%2 Fichaptersection_singledocument%2F2c6dd9f6-c185-45f0-8e18d0dd55185b18%2Fen%2F2001-02_USCuban%2BRelations_Follow%2Bup.pdf&ei=CyjXUb29EYXGqgHbl4CoCw&usg=AFQjCNHZ8tL QH4kczdxztns5NqqNleO7Nw&sig2=PPI_CJuUux6bf4e1PvkVUg) SM As for federal funding of NGOs for people-to-people exchanges, the U.S. government already spends $5 million a year to assist NGOs working to promote democracy in Cuba. This program, which is specifically targeted at supporting an independent civil society in Cuba and those working for democratic change, should be continued and expanded. But the U.S. government should by no means provide funding for programs with Cuban government institutions—such as exchanges with Cuba’s official “trade unions” and the environmental groups the Task Force suggests— which would do nothing to help Cubans build an independent civil society. U.S. tax dollars should be used to support groups seeking to create space for Cubans outside the Cuban state—not to support programs of the Cuban state. fisheries impact Embargo is key to Cuban fisheries—they’re bio-diverse Mueller, 11, writer @ Fly Fisherman magazine(Geoff Mueller, 31 May 2011, “ Embargoland”, http://www.flyfisherman.com/2011/05/31/embargoland/#axzz2YBdOxSBO)//Holmes On January 1, 1959, Castro and his band of armed rebels stormed Havana, crushing the Batista regime. Following the Cuban Missile Crisis, in 1963 President John F. Kennedy invoked travel restrictions under the Trading with the Enemy Act. As the story goes, Kennedy, recognizing the finer things, procured 1,200 “personal-use” Petit H. Upmann cigars before the embargo came into effect. Cuban flats fishing, however, remained at that time well off the presidential radar. As a direct effect of the trade embargo, more than 50 years later Cuba is a land lost in time. Its lack of U.S travelers may have helped cripple its economy but, in an ironic twist of fate, hasn’t hurt the fishing. It’s protected it. How good can a fishery teetering on the ramshackle pillars of communist Cuba be? As good as Belize? The Keys? Los Roques? With enough salty destinations to spin the globe and point, do we need yet another to feed the insatiable animal within? The short answer is, “Yes, Cuba is that good.” This island archipelago, located 90 miles south of Key West, is peppered with national marine preserves rich in aquatic biodiversity, including migratory tarpon, permit, and tailing bonefish. Its forbidden fruits—outstanding flats fishing, quality cigars, fine sipping rums, and a city superimposed in 1950s-era steel and mortar—offer untapped potential and hope. soil impact Cuba’s soil is completely eroded Cepero 4 (Eudel Eduardo Cepero -- Research analyst at Florida International University -"Environmental Concerns For A Cuba Intransition" -- Cuba Transition Project at the Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies -- University of Miami -- 2004 ctp.iccas.miami.edu/Research_Studies/ECepero.pdf) SM Domestic food production is severely limited and compromised because 60 percent of Cuba’s farmlands are affected by soil degradation. Soil erosion affects more than 4 million hectares of farmlands and acidity is widespread in over 1.7 million hrectares. Elevated saline and sodium levels exist in more than 1 million hectares. Compaction is present in some 2 million hectares and poor drainage problems are reported in 2.7 million hectares. That decks agriculture and infrastructure Cepero 4 (Eudel Eduardo Cepero -- Research analyst at Florida International University -"Environmental Concerns For A Cuba Intransition" -- Cuba Transition Project at the Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies -- University of Miami -- 2004 ctp.iccas.miami.edu/Research_Studies/ECepero.pdf) SM Soil degradation. In Cuba, a bit less than 8 million hectares of agricultural soil exist, of which 4.2 million have been degraded by artificial erosion;6 of the 4.2 million hectares, it is estimated that 25 percent suffer both from strong and very strong erosion. Soil degrading factors, such as poor drainage, salinization,7 acidity,8 compaction,9 and the formation of infertile crusts10 have also been observed. All the foregoing has led to the official use of the term “desertification” to define the state of deterioration that the soil in some regions of the country is in. The appearance of desert areas on the island is the result of political, economic, and social factors, such as poverty, technical backwardness, improper land use, excessive pasturage, deforestation, poor management of water resources, and the implementation of unsustainable agrarian strategies. As a result, 46 percent of the soil falls under the category of low agricultural productivity, and 14 percent is considered “very low” for failing to reach 30 percent of the productive crop potential. That is, 60 percent of Cuba’s farmland has low yields. This situation must be assessed carefully, not only because of its effect on the soil—a natural variable that is, per se, an ecosystem11 and the support of other ecosystems, such as vegetation—but also due to the direct relationship it has with the revitalization of the agricultural sector and the national economy. The increase in soil degradation creates a regressive algorithm that implies a decrease in direct productive yields in the field and an increase in costs apart from the growing fields, for example, when washouts destroy the agricultural and social infrastructure, such as roads, sewers, canals, irrigation systems, and others. Therefore, the proper use of the land, the application of soil conservation practices,12 and reforestation and other actions geared toward recovering agricultural ecosystems13 must be implemented quickly. A correct combination of regulations and incentives to promote land conservation would perhaps be a starting point, including financial stimuli related to credits; payment facilities or tax rebates for 6 Soil erosion causes extinction Ikerd, 99, Professor Emeritus of Agricultural Economics at Univers ity of Missouri[John E., “Foundational Principles: Soils. Stewards hip, and Sustainability,” Sep 22, http://www.ssu.mi ssouri.edu/faculty/jikerd/papers/NCSOILS.html] In times not too long past, the connection between soil and human life was clear and ever present. Little more than a century ago, most people were farmers and those who were not lived close enough to a farm to know that the food that gave them life came from the soil. They knew that when the soil was rich, the rains came, and the temperature was hospitable to plants and animals, food was bountiful and there was plenty to eat. They knew that when droughts came, plants dried out and died, and the soil was bare, there was little to eat. They knew when the floods came, plants were covered with water and died, and the soil was bare; there was little to eat. They knew very well that their physical well being, if not their lives, depended on the things that lived from the soil. William Albrecht, a well known soil scientist at the University of Missouri during the middle of this century, hypothesized that people from different parts of the country had distinctive physical characteristics linked to the soils of the area where they grew up. He attributed those physical distinctions to differences in nutrient values of the foods they eat, which in turn depended on the make-up of the soils on which their foodstuffs were grown. Albrecht’s hypothesis was never fully tested. As people began to move from one place to another throughout their lives, and as more and more foodstuffs were shipped from one region of production to another for consumption, people no longer ate food from any one region or soil type. But it’s quite possible that when people lived most of their lives in one place, and ate mostly food produced locally, their physical makeup was significantly linked to the make up of local soils. Today, we eat from many soils, from all around the world. Even today there is a common saying that "we are what we eat." If so, "we actually are the soil from which we eat." The connection between soil and life is no longer so direct or so clear, but it is still there. Most urban dwellers also have lost all sense of personal connection to the farm or the soil. During most of this century many people living in cities either had lived on a farm at one time or knew someone, usually a close relative, who still lived on a farm -- which gave them some tangible connection with the soil. At least they knew that "land" meant something more than just a place to play or space to be filled with some form of "development." But these personal connections have been lost with the aging of urbanization. One of the most common laments among farmers today is that "people no longer know where their food comes from." For most, any real understanding of the direct connection between soil and life has been lost. It ‘s sad but true. What’s even sadder is that many farmers don’t realize the dependence of their own farming operation on the health and natural productivity of their soil. They have been told by the experts that soil is little more than a medium for propping up the plants so they can be fed with commercial fertilizers and protected by commercial pesticides until they produce a bountiful harvest. In the short run, this illusion of production without natural soil fertility appears real. As long as the soil has a residue of minerals and organic matter from times past, annual amendments of a few basic nutrients – nitrogen, phosphorus, and potash, being the most common – crop yields can be maintained. Over time, however, as organic matter becomes depleted, production problems appear and it becomes increasingly expensive to maintain productivity. As additional "trace elements" are depleted, soil management problems become more complex. Eventually, it will become apparent that it would have been far easier and less costly in the long run to have maintained the natural fertility of the soil. But, by then much of the natural productivity will be gone -- forever. In the meantime, many farmers will have little sense of their ultimate dependence on the soil. Still, all of life depends upon soil. All life requires food and there is simply no other source of food except living things that depend directly or indirectly on the soil. This is a foundational principle of natural science, of human health, and of social studies that should be taught at every level in every school in the world -- beginning in kindergarten and continuing through college. That we must have soil to live is as fundamental as the fact that we must have air to breath, water to drink, and food to eat. It’s just less obvious. Soil erosion causes extinction ASABE 2 (American Society of Agricultural Engineers, “In Defense of Soil and Water Resources in the United States: Soil Erosion Research Priorities,” 12/02, http://www.asabe.org/pr/soilerosion.html) Our soil resource is vital to the survival of the human race. Not only does it provide the literal foundation of our existence, it is the source of most of the agricultural products that sustain us and our way of life—food, fiber, timber, and energy. Because damages to soil quality are nearly always permanent, preservation of this resource is critically important to maintaining agricultural productivity and environmental quality. One of the most widespread threats to soil quality is wind and water erosion, an ever-occurring process that impacts our lives in numerous ways, the direst of which is lost food production. It is estimated that soil erosion is damaging the productivity of 29% (112 million acres) of U.S. cropland and is adversely affecting the ecological health of 39% (145 million acres) of rangeland. In addition to on-site soil loss, erosion results in off-site sediment movement that can cause problems downstream. Sediment can deposit and clog drainage ways, increase potential for flooding, decrease reservoir capacity, and carry nutrients and pesticides that degrade water quality. Current assessments by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency of impaired water bodies indicate that 40% of the stream miles and 45% of the lake and reservoir areas are impaired because of sediment. Therefore, minimizing erosion is not only important for saving the soil, it is essential air quality. for preserving potable water resources and improving water and Soil erosion causes extinction Avery 95 (Dennis, Expert On Food Stability, Senior Agricultural Analyst – Deptartment of State, Policy Analyst – Department of Agriculture, Director – Hudson Institute, http://www.mandakzerotill.org/book17/planet.html) The true long-term threat to human existence is soil erosion. Doubling the yields on the best and safest farmland cuts soil erosion by more than half. And now herbicides and conservation tillage are letting us cut those low rates of soil erosion by 65 to 98 percent. It should now be possible to build topsoil and soil tilth on much of the world's best farmland -- while carrying on intensive high-yield farming. defo impact Reforestation is nearly impossible Cepero 4 (Eudel Eduardo Cepero -- Research analyst at Florida International University -"Environmental Concerns For A Cuba Intransition" -- Cuba Transition Project at the Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies -- University of Miami -- 2004 ctp.iccas.miami.edu/Research_Studies/ECepero.pdf) SM The irrational use of forests has become common practice under the Castro regime. As no current data are available on the actual total area of cover forest, the value of Cuba’s forest resources is unknown. Most of the iremaining natural forests are in poor condition from being overexploited . An average of 200 forest fires occur each year, affecting some 5,000 hectares of forest. Reforestation has been precarious, due to poor quality seeds, a low survival rate of plantings, and a narrow range of forest species utilized. Deforestation causes epidemics which spread rapidly—risks extinction Butler, 12, co-founder of Tropical Conservation Science, an open-access academic journal that aims to provide opportunities for scientists in developing countries to publish their research(Rhett Butler, 22 July 2012, “LOSS OF SPECIES FOR FOREST REGENERATION”, http://rainforests.mongabay.com/0904.htm)//Holmes The emergence of tropical diseases and outbreaks of new diseases, including nasty hemorrhagic fevers like ebola and lassa fever, are a subtle but serious impact of deforestation. With increased human presence in the rainforest, and exploiters pushing into deeper areas, humans are encountering microorganisms with behaviors unlike those previously known. As the primary hosts of these pathogens are eliminated or reduced through forest disturbance and degradation, disease can break out among humans. Although not unleashed yet, someday one of these microscopic killers could lead to a massive epidemic as deadly for our species as we have been for the species of the rainforest. Until then, local populations will continue to be menaced by mosquito-borne diseases like dengue fever, Rift Valley fever, and malaria, and water-borne diseases like cholera. Many emergent and resurgent diseases are directly linked to land alterations which bring humans in closer contact with such pathogens. For example, malaria and snailborne schistosomiasis have escalated because of the proliferation of artificial pools of water like dams, rice paddies, drainage ditches, irrigation canals, and puddles created by tractor treads. Malaria is a particular problem in deforested and degraded areas, though less so in forested zones where there are few stagnant ground pools for mosquito breeding. These pools are most abundant in cleared regions and areas where tractors tear gashes in the earth. Malaria — which is estimated to infect 300 million people a year worldwide, killing 1-2 million — is a major threat to forest-dwelling indigenous peoples who have developed little or no (in the case of uncontacted tribes) resistance to the disease and lack access to antimalarial drugs. Malaria in the 1990s was cited for killing an estimated 20 percent of the Yanomani in Brazil and Venezuela. Drug-resistant forms of malaria means the disease is again becoming a threat in places where it was thought to be under control. Models suggest that climate change could expand the distribution of malaria-carrying mosquitos. The outbreak of disease in the tropics does not affect only the people of those countries, since virtually any disease can be incubated for enough time to allow penetration into the temperate developed countries. For example, a Central African doctor infected with the ebola virus from a patient can board a plane and land in London within 10 hours. The virus could quickly spread among the city's large population Additionally, every person at the airport who is exposed can unknowingly carry the pathogen home to their native countries around the world. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta, deaths from infectious disease are on the rise. Infectious disease is the leading cause of death worldwide and the third leading cause of death in the United States. Infectious disease have had a major role in human mortality throughout history. At least one-third of human deaths during World War I came from an infectious disease: influenza. In 1919, between 20 million and 100 million died from the flu—more than the number of total casualties from the war. Deforestation causes biodiversity loss and extinction Rochen and Stock 98 (Andy Rochen and Jocelyn Stock are undergraduate researchers at the University of Michigan. “Deforestation and Society” http://www.umich.edu/~gs265/society/deforestation.htm) To understand why deforestation is such a pressing and urgent issue, forests must first be given credit for what they bring to global ecosystems and the quality of life that all species maintain. Tropical Rainforests presently give a place to call home for 50% - 90% of all organisms, 90% of our relatives, the primates, and 50 million creatures that can live no place but the rich rainforests (World Rainforest Movement 16). Not only are other species at risk, but the human race also benefits from what the trees give. From something as minor as the spices that indulge food to life giving medicines, the rainforests amplify and save lives. According to the World Rainforest Movement, 25% of medicines come from the forests (28). This is a number that does not do justice to all the cures that have yet to be discovered or that have been destroyed. The forests give life, not only to other species, but they help to prolong the human race. The forests have global implications not just on life but on the quality of it. Trees improve the quality of the air that species breath by trapping carbon and other particles produced by pollution. Trees determine rainfall and replenish the atmosphere. As more water gets put back in the atmosphere, clouds form and provide another way to block out the sun’s heat. Trees are what cool and regulates the earth’s climate in conjunction with other such valuable services as preventing erosion, landslides, and making the most infertile soil rich with life. Mother earth has given much responsibility to trees. Forestry collapse causes extinction Santos 99 (Miguel, professor of ecology and environmental science, Environmental Crisis, p. 35-36, 1999) In addition, natural forests provide recreation and unique scientific beauty while at the same time serving as the basis for natural communities that provide life support to organisms (including people). As mentioned, one vital by-product of plant photosynthetic activity is oxygen, which is essential to human existence. In addition, forests remove pollutants and odors from the atmosphere. The wilderness is highly effective in metabolizing many toxic substances. The atmospheric concentration of pollutants over the forest, such as particulates and sulfur dioxide, are measurably below that of adjacent areas (see Figure 2.3). In view of their ecological role in ecosystems, the impact of species extinction may be devastating. The rich diversity of species and the ecosystems that support them are intimately connected to the long-term survival of humankind. As the historic conservationist Aldo Leopold stated in 1949, "The outstanding scientific discovery of the twentieth century is not television or radio, but the complexity of the land organisms. To keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent tinkering." An endangered species may have a significant role in its community. Such an organism may control the structure and functioning of the community through its activities. The sea otter, for example, in relation to its size, is perhaps the most voracious of all marine mammals. The otter feeds on sea mollusks, sea urchins, crabs, and fish. It needs to eat more than 20 percent of its weight every day to provide the necessary energy to maintain its body temperature in a cold marine habitat. The extinction of such keystone or controller species from the ecosystem would cause great damage. Its extinction could have cascading effects on many species, even causing secondary extinction. Traditionally, species have always evolved along with their changing environment. As disease organisms evolve, other organisms may evolve chemical defense mechanisms that confer disease resistance. As the weather becomes drier, for example, plants may develop smaller, thicker leaves, which lose water slowly. The environment, however, is now developing and changing rapidly, but evolution is slow, requiring hundreds of thousands of years. If species are allowed to become extinct, the total biological diversity on Earth will be greatly reduced : therefore, the potential for natural adaptation and change also will be reduced, thus endangering the diversity of future human life-support systems. water pollution impact Contamination is causing widespread water pollution Cepero 4 (Eudel Eduardo Cepero -- Research analyst at Florida International University -"Environmental Concerns For A Cuba Intransition" -- Cuba Transition Project at the Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies -- University of Miami -- 2004 ctp.iccas.miami.edu/Research_Studies/ECepero.pdf) SM The collection and disposal of solid waste in cities is lacking, as are the hygienic-sanitary conditions of landfills. It is common practice to collect and dispose of hospital waste together with residential garbage. Most facilities that produce hazardous wastes do not have systems in place for treating them. According to official figures, there are more than 2,200 contamination focal points considered to be highly toxic in the country Contamination of our freshwater destroys any possibility for life on Earth. Robert B. Jackson and Steven W. Running Spring 2001 “Water in a Changing World”, Issues in Ecology, Ecological Society of America, http://www.biology.duke.edu/jackson/issues9.pdf Life on earth depends on the continuous flow of materials through the air, water, soil, and food webs of the biosphere. The movement of water through the hydrological cycle comprises the largest of these flows, delivering an estimated 110,000 cubic kilometers (km3) of water to the land each year as snow and rainfall. Solar energy drives the hydrological cycle, vaporizing water from the surface of oceans, lakes, and rivers as well as from soils and plants (evapotranspiration). Water vapor rises into the atmosphere where it cools, condenses, and eventually rains down anew. This renewable freshwater supply sustains life on the land, in estuaries, and in the freshwater ecosystems of the earth. Renewable fresh water provides many services essential to human health and well being, including water for drinking, industrial production, and irrigation, and the production of fish, waterfowl, and shellfish. Fresh water also provides many benefits while it remains in its channels (nonextractive or instream benefits), including flood control, transportation, recreation, waste processing, hydroelectric power, and habitat for aquatic plants and animals. Some benefits, such as irrigation and hydroelectric power, can be achieved only by damming, diverting, or creating other major changes to natural water flows. Such changes often diminish or preclude other instream benefits of fresh water, such as providing habitat for aquatic life or maintaining suitable water quality for human use invasive species impact Warming causes invasive species in Cuba IPS, 13 (Ivet González, Inter Press Service, “Climate Change Drives Spread of Invasive Plants in Cuba”, Apr 11 2013, http://www.ipsnews.net/2013/04/climate-change-drives-spread-ofinvasive-plants-in-cuba/, jld) Botanist Ramona Oviedo has spent decades combing the countryside in Cuba to study and curb the spread of invasive plant species, a serious problem that has been aggravated by climate change. Global warming “can worsen the impact of invasive plant species, which are more resistant than Cuba’s native flora,” Oviedo, a researcher at the Ecology and Systematics Institute (IES), said in an interview with IPS. The United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity defines invasive alien species as “animals, plants, fungi and microorganisms entered and established in the environment from outside of their natural habitat (that) reproduce rapidly, out-compete native species for food, water and space, and are one of the main causes of global biodiversity loss.” These biological invasions are the result of globalisation, which has boosted travel and international trade, and of the intentional introduction of alien species for purposes such as fish farming, the pet trade, horticulture and biological control (as biocontrol agents). The spread of invasive alien species has become a major driver of species loss, second only to ecosystem degradation. There are 323 invasive plant species in Cuba that colonise natural and agricultural environments, displace native plants and cause imbalances that are costly for the environment and the economy. And another 232 alien plant species present in the island could potentially be placed in that category. Local effects of climate change such as rising temperatures and increasingly frequent droughts threaten native vegetation, which could be replaced by highly-resistant alien species with a high reproduction rate, Oviedo told IPS. Hurricane-prone areas could face a similar fate. Invasive species Boom, 12 (Brian M., Director, Caribbean Biodiversity Program, Ph.D in Biological Sciences, “Biodiversity without Borders”, September 2012, http://www.sciencediplomacy.org/article/2012/biodiversity-without-borders, jld) Invasive Species: Cuba and the United States share many of these problem organisms, which are among the most significant threats to native species and to ecological and economic wellbeing. For example, Hydrilla verticillata, an aggressive waterweed native to the Old World, displaces native aquatic plants and seriously disrupts recreational uses of lakes and rivers in Cuba and the United States.8 Another example is the red lionfish, which is native to the Indian and Western Pacific Oceans but was released into the Atlantic Ocean from a home aquarium in Florida when Hurricane Andrew struck in 1992. Today, this venomous fish has spread along the U.S. Atlantic Coast as far north as New York and into the Caribbean, including Cuban waters, voraciously eating native fish and creating major disruptions to coral reef ecosystems.9 Disease vector species Boom, 12 (Brian M., Director, Caribbean Biodiversity Program, Ph.D in Biological Sciences, “Biodiversity without Borders”, September 2012, http://www.sciencediplomacy.org/article/2012/biodiversity-without-borders, jld) Disease Vector Species: A good example of a shared disease vector is the Aedes aegypti mosquito. This species is the principal vector for the viruses that cause dengue fever, a non-curable, sometimes fatal disease in humans. In the Western Hemisphere, the disease is known to occur throughout much of Latin America and the Caribbean, including Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, but so far not in Cuba, and only rarely in the continental United States. But this situation could change. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there is evidence that this mosquito is constantly responding and adapting to environmental changes. Cuba has one of the world’s best centers for dengue research with knowledge about how the island stays dengue free.10 Yet, Cuba and the United States are not working together on dengue, a shared and growing threat. Invasive species planetary extinction Nadol 99 (Viki, JD Candidate – Valparaiso, Northwestern School of Law of Lewis & Clark College, Lexis) The threat of invasion by nonnative species has always existed. It is arguably a natural process that should be allowed to continue unheeded. 21 The problem with this theory is that it fails to take into account the rate at which humans are responsible for accelerating the pace of successful introductions , as compared to those that would occur naturally. 22 The last five hundred years or so demarcate an era of human expansion that has resulted in the increasingly rapid disruption and weakening of Earth's eco systems. 23 The fragile condition of these systems renders them vulnerable to the establishment of invasive species. 24 In addition, rates of introduc [*343] tion have escalated with the advent of new modes of conveyance by trade and travel. 25 Airplanes, boats, and automobiles provide sufficiently quick and spacious travel, facilitating entry of a number of invasive species into habitat zones otherwise out of reach. 26 In the late 1950s, Charles Elton, a renowned British ecologist, warned that modern society was witnessing great historical dislocations of the world's fauna and flora. 27 Indeed, the scope of invasion is alarming, as are its effects. 28 Over 4500 invasive species are now established in the United States. 29 These species greatly threaten biological diversity 30 because they are often able to out-compete and displace native organisms. 31 As would be expected, they also add to the stress already suffered by endangered and threatened native species. 32 One study indicates that invasive species are second only to habitat destruction among the leading causes of spe cies loss nationwide. 33 However, some experts fear that invasive species ultimately will contribute to the demise of the human population by destroying natural processes and ecosystems necessary to human survival. 34 [Continues – To Footnote] n30. See infra note 35 and accompanying text. In addition to threatening diversity, invasive species ultimately threaten survival of species as well: As the total number of species declines, plants and animals that may be important food resources, that play a critical role in the food web, or that contain medicinal qualities may disappear. Surviving species will have fewer buffers against catastrophic fluctuations in the environment. If, for example, a fish species loses many or some of its food resources, any threat or damage to the remaining food resource can be far more detrimental to the fish because alternatives have been lost. Thus homogenization of habitats and species can have far-reaching effects. Breaching Natural Barriers, supra note 22, at 8. n31. Quammen, supra note 25, at 66. As one specialist explains, invasive species outgrow, out-mature, and simply out-compete native species. Telephone Interview with Neil Rich mond, Shellfish Fishery Biologist, Oregon Dep't of Fish & Wildlife (Nov. 25, 1998) [hereinaf ter Richmond Interview]. n32. Quammen, supra note 25, at 66 ("[A] report, from the U.N. Environmental Program, declares that almost 20 percent of the world's endangered vertebrates suffer from pressures (competition, predation, habitat transformation) created by exotic interlopers."). n33. Westley et al., supra note 6, at 46. n34. See Quammen, supra note 25, at 68. We come to a certain fretful leap of logic that otherwise thoughtful observers seem willing, even eager, to make: that the ultimate consequence will be the extinction of us. By seizing such a huge share of Earth's landscape, by imposing so wantonly on its providence and presuming so recklessly on its forgivingness, by killing off so many species, they say, we will doom our own species to extinction. migratory species Migratory species Boom, 12 (Brian M., Director, Caribbean Biodiversity Program, Ph.D in Biological Sciences, “Biodiversity without Borders”, September 2012, http://www.sciencediplomacy.org/article/2012/biodiversity-without-borders, jld) Migratory Species: Thousands of species of animals migrate between the two nations . Cuba provides key wintering habitats for 284 bird species that breed in the United States, such as black-and-white warblers. Many insects also migrate between the United States and Cuba, including the monarch butterfly. Fishes, such as the Atlantic bluefin tuna, swim through both Cuban and U.S. waters, while turtles, such as the hawksbill, share Cuban and U.S. marine habitats. Mammals, such as the Florida manatee, also swim between U.S. and Cuban waters. endangered species Endangered species Boom, 12 (Brian M., Director, Caribbean Biodiversity Program, Ph.D in Biological Sciences, “Biodiversity without Borders”, September 2012, http://www.sciencediplomacy.org/article/2012/biodiversity-without-borders, jld) Endangered Species: Cuba and the United States share forty-nine animal species and eight plant species that are categorized as Globally Threatened by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN). Because only a small fraction of the world’s plants and animals have been assessed by the IUCN criteria, the actual number of threatened species that are shared by Cuba and the United States is certainly much larger. Even with what is known already, there exists a strong imperative for the two countries to cooperate on monitoring and protecting the threatened species for which they are joint stewards, including the West Indian walnut, the American crocodile, and the West Indian whistling duck. eco-tourism 1nc Text: The United States federal government should condition _________ on Cuban promotion of ecotourism in Cuba. Lifting the embargo without environmental protection measures destroys Cuban biodiversity—emphasis on ecotourism solves Kramer, 10, writer @ PBS, aided in production of episode on Cuban biodiversity(Kelly Kramer, “Cuba: The Accidental Eden A Brief Environmental History”, http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/cuba-theaccidental-eden/a-brief-environmental-history/5830/)//Holmes Cuba has been called the “Accidental Eden” for its exceptional biodiversity and unique historical development. The island nation and its archipelagos support thousands of plant and animal species, many of which are endemic, making Cuba the most naturally diverse Caribbean nation and a destination for biological scientists and ecotourists. Cuba’s natural blessings are the result of a manifold historical trajectory. The American trade and tourism embargo and the collapse of the Soviet Union have both made “accidental” contributions to the survival of Cuban wildlife. Cuba’s low population density (about 102 people per square kilometer) and relative land isolation as an island have afforded it moderately low levels of environmental destruction and high levels of endemism. And Cuba remains biologically diverse, but it has seen its share of loss. Spanish colonialism invited new plants, animals, and diseases, and some native lifeforms failed to cope. Species unique to Cuba became extinct, including varieties of sloths and monkeys, among other animals. The expansion of Cuban commercialism and industry, particularly with the influence of European and American capital, continued to threaten Cuban wildlife populations. Tobacco and more significantly sugar transformed the country from a Spanish shipping port to a major agricultural exporter. As sugar demand rose, habitat was destroyed for farming. Today, farmers still compete with wildlife for use of the land. At the same time, heavy industrial development polluted Cuban air, land, and water. Cuba’s 1959 revolution set the country on a path apart from other post-colonial nations. Although revolutionary Cuba instituted policies around agriculture, industry, forests, and water, like most states in the 1960s, its moderate environmental efforts had mixed results. Focusing more heavily on agriculture rather than heavy industry probably did more to save Cuban wildlife in the ‘60s and ‘70s than did any environmentally conscious policies. While global capitalism continued on a general course of thoughtless environmental destruction, the U.S. embargo against Cuba, including a travel ban, freed the country from its most salient environmental threat while putting the nation under great economic strain. Cuba traded and underwent forms of “development,” but in many ways avoided the developments of late century American capitalism. While both “capitalism” and “communism” ultimately undervalued natural resources, American executive and legislative dispositions helped nurture the blossoming of Cuban wildlife. A dramatic shift toward agriculture, industry, and the environment appeared after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. With shortages in fossil fuels and the disappearance of 80% of both imports and exports, Cuba entered the “Special Period,” an economic depression that required new techniques to help the country become more self-sustaining. Although Cuban beaches were opened to international tourism, an environmentally significant aspect of the Special Period was the adoption of permaculture agriculture and land use strategies. Circumstances since the ’90s have led the Cuban government to take a stronger legislative and rhetorical stance toward environmental management. Although initially centered around the human species, Fidel Castro’s 1992 address to the UN Earth Summit in Rio De Janeiro expresses this attitude of environmental awareness and urgency: “An important biological species is in danger of disappearing due to the fast and progressive destruction of its natural living conditions: mankind. We have now become aware of this problem when it is almost too late to stop it. … Tomorrow it will be too late to do what we should have done a long time ago.” Today Cuba exhibits thriving natural diversity, though it may be tenuous. Agricultural pollution, habitat destruction, and significantly tourism all threaten the island’s plants and animals and compete for land and water use. Every moment brings Cuba closer to the possibility of a lifted U.S. embargo, which would dramatically affect Cuba’s economic possibilities and thus its wildlife. One of the many mixed blessing would be increased tourism. Marine conservationist Fernando Bretos notes that “The tourism impact has really been minimal in Cuba, but that’s going to change. When you go from 2 million tourists a year to 4 to 6 to 8, everything will change.” Those with concern for Cuban wildlife but an understanding of the inevitable promote an ecotourism that focuses on enjoying and even actively supporting nature. This practice necessitates natural preservation, though potentially favoring certain species of flora and fauna over others. Mixed messages from officials make it unclear how Cuba’s tourism industry will proceed, but some conservationists see Cuba’s position as an opportunity to set a constructive example. alternate list These are all the things that must be done to ensure environmental stability WTTC 4 (World Travel and Tourism Council "The Caribbean: The Impact of Travel & Tourism On Jobs And The Economy" www.caribbeanhotelassociation.com/downloads/Pubs_WTTCReport.pdf) SM The quality and success of the Caribbean tourism product is dependent, in large measure, on the maintenance of a healthy and attractive natural environment. In the Caribbean, there is a need for: • Improved planning and management to increase the technical expertise required in the areas of pollution monitoring, coastal zone management, and the preparation and evaluation of Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs); • Increased regional co-operation and collaboration ; • Higher standards of environmental quality ; • Conservation and sustainable use of natural resources through participation in environmental certification and rating programmes ; • Improvements in infrastructure across the region, notably in utilities such as water and electricity supply, and solid waste disposal; • Greater clarity in land-use policy, containment of the spiralling price of land, and better zoning on the basis of maximizing economic returns; • Incentives to mobilize the private sector to invest in environmental improvements; • Education and in-service training for a more sustainable approach to tourism; and • Crisis and disaster management to mitigate the severe risk of natural and environmental disasters. SAFETY, SECURITY AND HEALTH Among the broad forces driving change in the tourism industry today, traveller safety and health are becoming two of the most influential. Crime, harassment and other forms of anti-social behaviour, along with hazardous and unhealthy facilities, are some of the major threats – real or perceived – to the development of the industry. Such problems frustrate national and regional efforts to maintain the region’s image as a safe, clean and hospitable tourism destination More evidence WTTC 4 (World Travel and Tourism Council "The Caribbean: The Impact of Travel & Tourism On Jobs And The Economy" www.caribbeanhotelassociation.com/downloads/Pubs_WTTCReport.pdf) SM IN ORDER TO ACHIEVE OR – EVEN BETTER – SURPASS THE BASELINE FORECASTS, AND TO ENSURE THAT FUTURE GROWTH IS SUSTAINABLE, CERTAIN KEY FACTORS NEED TO BE ASSURED. These include a favourable government fiscal policy, a climate that is conducive to business – offering attractive incentives for investment – and sustained and effective marketing and promotion , as well as environmentally friendly policies. Most importantly, clearly defined, longterm development plans must be drawn up to help guide regional, national and local public and private sector activities. These plans should be developed in consultation with all stakeholders, feeding from and back into a Caribbean Tourism Strategy and individual National Tourism Policies, and they should be disseminated as widely as possible. Even more evidence WTTC 4 (World Travel and Tourism Council "The Caribbean: The Impact of Travel & Tourism On Jobs And The Economy" www.caribbeanhotelassociation.com/downloads/Pubs_WTTCReport.pdf) SM Natural Environment The quality and success of the regional tourism product is dependent, in large measure, on the maintenance of a healthy and attractive natural environment. There is need for: ■ Improved planning and management – many of the small island developing states of the Caribbean lack the necessary technical expertise required for the complex field of tourism development and the environment in the areas of pollution monitoring, coastal zone management, and the preparation and evaluation of Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs); ■ Increased regional co-operation and collaboration – eg by joining the Cartagena Convention and its Protocols; ■ Development and implementation of high standards of environmental quality, including prevention of pollution by cruise and other ships; ■ Conservation and sustainable use of natural resources – the challenge is to ensure that local tourism businesses and entrepreneurs develop good environmental and social practices, both during the tourism development planning and construction phase and in the operations of tourism enterprises through participation in environmental certification and rating programmes such as Green Globe, Blue Flag and QTC (see below); ■ Improving national infrastructure to support the tourism industry; water and electricity costs in certain Caribbean countries are among the highest in the world and, where services such as solid waste disposal are not available, hoteliers must operate their own treatment and disposal systems, adding further to their operating expenses; ■ Land-use policy – eg the need to address the issue of the use of land for tourism, golf courses and indeed housing, and the spiralling price of land, especially on or near areas near the coast in some island destinations, which negatively affects the local population; there is need for better zoning on the basis of maximizing economic returns, respecting parks, water courses, hotels and facilities rather than private villas; policies like taxing of land ought as far as possible to take account of the different situations of local, as opposed to transient, resident populations; ■ Incentives to mobilize the private sector – lack of financing is a major constraint to investment in environmental improvements, especially in small and medium-sized hotels. Governments can help by providing concessions for capital investments by tourism businesses that impact on reduced water and energy consumption, reduced solid waste consumption, etc; ■ Education and in-service training for a more sustainable approach to tourism – there is need to encourage environmental education in schools, devise and implement effective public awareness campaigns and activities to promote care of the environment, and to increase training programmes for industry professionals that support environmental sustainability of the industry; and ■ Crisis and Disaster Management – the region’s tourism industry is exposed to severe risk from the possibility of natural and environmental disasters, such as hurricanes, volcanic eruptions, etc. Of particular concern are the threats to the marine environment posed by oil-spill emergencies and the transport of hazardous substances, such as nuclear waste, through the region. tourism kills biod Lifting the embargo doubles tourism in a year—that decimates important regional biodiversity Dean, 07, writer @ New York Times, cites Marine Biologist @ Florida institute of Technology(Cornelia Dean, 25 December 2007, “Conserving Cuba, After the Embargo”, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/25/science/25cuba.html)//Holmes Through accidents of geography and history, Cuba is a priceless ecological resource. That is why many scientists are so worried about what will become of it after Fidel Castro and his associates leave power and, as is widely anticipated, the American government relaxes or ends its trade embargo . Cuba, by far the region’s largest island, sits at the confluence of the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. Its mountains, forests, swamps, coasts and marine areas are rich in plants and animals, some seen nowhere else. And since the imposition of the embargo in 1962, and especially with the collapse in 1991 of the Soviet Union, its major economic patron, Cuba’s economy has stagnated. Cuba has not been free of development, including Soviet-style top-down agricultural and mining operations and, in recent years, an expansion of tourism. But it also has an abundance of landscapes that elsewhere in the region have been ripped up, paved over, poisoned or otherwise destroyed in the decades since the Cuban revolution, when development has been most intense. Once the embargo ends, the island could face a flood of investors from the United States and elsewhere, eager to exploit those landscapes. Conservationists, environmental lawyers and other experts, from Cuba and elsewhere, met last month in Cancún, Mexico, to discuss the island’s resources and how to continue to protect them. Cuba has done “what we should have done — identify your hot spots of biodiversity and set them aside,” said Oliver Houck, a professor of environmental law at Tulane University Law School who attended the conference. In the late 1990s, Mr. Houck was involved in an effort, financed in part by the MacArthur Foundation, to advise Cuban officials writing new environmental laws. But, he said in an interview, “a n invasion of U.S. consumerism, a U.S.-dominated future, could roll over it like a bulldozer” when the embargo ends. By some estimates, tourism in Cuba is increasing 10 percent annually. At a minimum, Orlando Rey Santos, the Cuban lawyer who led the law-writing effort, said in an interview at the conference, “we can guess that tourism is going to increase in a very fast way” when the embargo ends. “It is estimated we could double tourism in one year,” said Mr. Rey, who heads environmental efforts at the Cuban ministry of science, technology and environment. About 700 miles long and about 100 miles wide at its widest, Cuba runs from Haiti west almost to the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico. It offers crucial habitat for birds, like Bicknell’s thrush, whose summer home is in the mountains of New England and Canada, and the North American warblers that stop in Cuba on their way south for the winter. Zapata Swamp, on the island’s southern coast, may be notorious for its mosquitoes, but it is also known for its fish, amphibians, birds and other creatures. Among them is the Cuban crocodile, which has retreated to Cuba from a range that once ran from the Cayman Islands to the Bahamas. Cuba has the most biologically diverse populations of freshwater fish in the region. Its relatively large underwater coastal shelves are crucial for numerous marine species, including some whose larvae can be carried by currents into waters of the United States, said Ken Lindeman, a marine biologist at Florida Institute of Technology. Dr. Lindeman, who did not attend the conference but who has spent many years studying Cuba’s marine ecology, said in an interview that some of these creatures were important commercial and recreational species like the spiny lobster, grouper or snapper. Like corals elsewhere, those in Cuba are suffering as global warming raises ocean temperatures and acidity levels. And like other corals in the region, they reeled when a mysterious die-off of sea urchins left them with algae overgrowth. But they have largely escaped damage from pollution, boat traffic and destructive fishing practices. Tourism will decimate marine biodiversity absent regulation Boom, 12 (Brian M., Director, Caribbean Biodiversity Program, Ph.D in Biological Sciences, “Biodiversity without Borders”, September 2012, http://www.sciencediplomacy.org/article/2012/biodiversity-without-borders, jld) A complex mosaic of coral reefs, seagrass beds, and mangroves knit together the marine and coastal ecosystems. Some of the most extensive, best preserved coral reefs in the Wider Caribbean Region occur in Cuban waters, and extensive coral reefs parallel the Florida Keys in U.S. waters. Cuba has the largest extent of mangrove forests in the Caribbean, about 4,000 km², and Florida’s southwestern coast supports mangrove forests comprising about half the extent of those in Cuba. Seagrass meadows occur in shallow waters of both countries, stabilizing sea bottom sediments that could otherwise threaten coral reefs and providing breeding, feeding, and shelter grounds for myriad marine animals, plants, and microbes.7 These ecosystems are threatened increasingly by habitat modification, the impact of tourism, overexploitation of marine fishes and other commercial seafood resources, the ramifications of climate change and rising sea levels, and pollution from land-based sources (e.g., unsustainable agricultural and forestry practices) and ocean-based sources (e.g., cruise ship waste). Increasing tourism especially threatens coral reefs. Despite some positive measures taken by the cruise industry in recent years, more cruise ships in the region still mean greater potential stresses to the marine and coastal environments. In addition to these and other shared ecosystems, many marine and terrestrial species are shared by Cuba and the United States. Examples include migratory, invasive, endangered, and disease vector species. at- no tech Cuba has the capacity to ensure ecotourism works MNT No Date ("Ecotourism in Cuba" My Natour www.mynatour.org/destination/ecotourismcuba) SM Ecotourism in Cuba is poised and ready for the influx of tourists it expects in the near future. Between the impending lift on the American travel embargo and the ardent promotion of Cuba as an ecotourism destination to Europe and afar, Cuba is working on managing impacts of ecotourism, and ensuring that the appropriate management and development strategies are in place. Ecotourism in Cuba is promising and forward-looking, and it’s certain that Cuba has a lot of ecotourism options for those seeking adventure. offshore drilling 1nc offshore drilling CP solves Cuba News 13 (Cuba News -- "EDF: What about environmental impact?" March 4th, 2013 www.cubanews.com/sections/edf-what-about-environmental-impact) SM When international oil companies were exploring off Cuba’s northwestern coast last year, much of the U.S. media focused on the risk of oil spills like the Deepwater Horizon disaster that fouled the Gulf of Mexico because it was close to South Florida.” Now that exploration efforts have shifted to Cuba’s north-central coast, the media seems far less interested in the environmental consequences. That worries attorney Dan Whittle, Cuba program director at the New York-based Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). Whittle has been monitoring Cuba’s marine life for the past 12 years. At first, he was concerned about the island’s expanding tourism sector and the adverse effects it might have on the environment. But with that sector still limited mainly to Havana and Varadero, Whittle says he’s focusing more now on offshore oil drilling. “My concern as an environmentalist is the impact on Cuban marine life,” Whittle told us. “That area, [Cuba’s north central coast] is very important. It’s extremely rich in marine biodiversity. The impact could be significant from any major oil spill. What distinguishes this from other sites is the near-shore impact.” The EDF notes that the Cuban government has designated 18% of its ocean shelf as marine protected areas, with plans to increase that area to 25%. The organization has a long track record monitoring Cuba’s coastlines. As far back as the 1990s, the EDF took part in helping the Castro government protect Jardines de la Reina, an 850-sq-mile marine reserve along Cuba’s southeastern coast. The reserve boasts large populations of sea turtles, sharks, huge groupers and thick sea grass meadows all essential in maintaining a balanced ecosystem. Whittle understands that the regime is under pressure to find oil off its coasts, especially because its major petroleum source, Venezuela, could dry up if ailing President Hugo Chávez dies. However, Whittle hopes the Cubans are cautious with their offshore activities. “If they are intent on proceeding, then they should do so in the most careful, sensitive way possible,” said Whittle, saying his concerns aren’t limited to Cuba. “Fishing, coastal development, and offshore oil and gas exploration in Cuba can have huge impacts on the United States and vice-versa.” The nonprofit group is also urging the Cubans to look seriously at ocean thermal energy as well as other alternatives to oil. “With good standards and policy in place, Cuba could be a model for clean energy development in the Caribbean,” said Dr. Rod Fujita, director of ocean innovations the research and development arm of EDF. solves Oil cooperation between the US and Cuba is essential to prevent oil spills Dlouhy 11 (Jennifer, reporter on energy policy and other issues for the Houston Chronicle, “Embargo may block U.S. response to Cuban oil spill,” 6/6/11, http://fuelfix.com/blog/2011/06/06/embargo-may-block-u-s-response-to-cuban-oil-spill/, MDM) With oil exploration set to begin in Cuba’s Gulf of Mexico waters, pressure is mounting on the administration to relax a politically sensitive embargo that would prevent U.S. firms from responding swiftly to potential oil spills roughly 50 miles from Florida beaches.¶ The U.S. trade embargo against Cuba generally bars U.S. commerce with the nation and caps at 10 percent the portion of American-made components in offshore drilling equipment used in Cuba.¶ That means containment equipment developed after last year’s oil spill would be off-limits — at least initially – if the same thing happened in Cuba’s part of the Gulf. Oil spilled there could reach the U.S. in three days.¶ The embargo also would forbid use of chemical dispersants to break up oil, boom capable of corralling it and other spill response equipment manufactured in the United States. Nearby drilling rigs in the Gulf also would be barred from working on relief wells in Cuban waters.¶ But with companies planning to begin exploratory drilling off Cuba as early as September, industry and environmental interests alike are pressing the Obama administration to modify the embargo’s restrictions for firms that could respond to a disaster.¶ “Embargo or not, we cannot ignore Cuba drilling in the Florida Straits,” said Lee Hunt, the head of the Houston-based International Association of Drilling Contractors. Hunt said he is trying to persuade political leaders to prepare now by coordinating with companies that could help in an emergency.¶ Help a long way off¶ If there were an accident under the current system, Cuban officials and the oil companies “simply won’t be able to pick up the phone and call the nearest responders in the U.S.,” said Dan Whittle, a senior attorney and director of the Cuba program for the Environmental Defense Fund.¶ Instead of flying technicians and parts from New Orleans and Houston, oil companies drilling in Cuban waters would have to seek resources from North Sea or South American operations, said Jorge Piñon, an expert on Cuba’s energy sector who spent three decades working for Shell, Amoco and BP.¶ Repsol, a publicly traded oil company based in Spain, is preparing to drill an exploratory well near the Florida Straits this fall, after Saipem’s Scarabeo 9 rig arrives there. Partners on the project include Norway’s Statoil and India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corp.¶ Other firms – all foreign-owned national oil companies – are lined up to use the Scarabeo 9 to explore their offshore Cuba leases afterward, with drilling on as many as seven wells reportedly planned during the next four years.¶ Political challenge¶ Under the embargo – imposed administratively since the early 1960s and by law since 1992 – companies can ask the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control for licenses to travel to or do business with Cuba. At least two U.S. companies specializing in spill response already hold such permits.¶ Advocates of a looser policy want the administration to issue a general license for a broad class of oil service companies to share safety information now and do business with Cuba in case of an emergency.¶ Another option is a presidential executive order issued after a disaster, though that would not remove barriers on sharing information in advance.¶ Piñon notes that company-specific licenses have a political virtue: They can be issued quietly. By contrast, a general license for all oil response and service firms – even limited to emergencies – would be seen by some hard-line embargo supporters as “the first crack in the embargo wall,” Piñon said.¶ That presents a political challenge for the administration and for lawmakers on Capitol Hill, where the conventional wisdom is that any move to relax the trade policy could alienate a powerful voting bloc of pro-embargo Cuban-Americans in South Florida.¶ Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., who represents many such embargo supporters in Miami’s Little Havana and the Florida Keys, wants the U.S. to do more to thwart Cuban offshore drilling.¶ “The Cuban tyranny will say and do anything to persuade others to invest in its oil sector in order to stay afloat,” she said. “It is in our national security interests to deter others from participating in these reckless schemes. We cannot allow the Castro regime to become the oil tycoons of the Caribbean.”¶ Cuban promises¶ Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has said his agency and the State Department are working to ensure that Cuban drilling is as safe as possible. ¶ The Interior Department, which oversees drilling in U.S. waters, has been working with Mexico to develop what Salazar calls a single “gold standard” governing oil and gas exploration in the Gulf.¶ Department officials have drawn leverage from Repsol’s leases in U.S. Gulf waters and pushed the Spanish company to follow American standards when drilling in Cuba. Salazar pressed the issue with Spanish authorities and Repsol representatives during a trip to Spain last week.¶ In a conference call Friday from Oviedo, Spain, Salazar said Repsol has volunteered to comply with U.S. environmental regulations for any of its Gulf drilling – even near Cuba.¶ During an International Association of Drilling Contractors conference last month in Trinidad, six Cuban officials said their country is following IADC, American Petroleum Institute and United Kingdom models for managing the risks of drilling operations.¶ Information sharing¶ IADC’s Hunt said Cuba is requiring Repsol and other operators “to demonstrate the extent of their compliance with U.S. regulations.”¶ He said Cuban officials also have studied the report by the U.S. presidential commission that investigated last year’s oil spill, and have expressed interest in talking with the U.S. government about oil spill preparation and coordination.¶ The Environmental Defense Fund’s Whittle argues that by working together now – before drilling begins – Cuba and the U.S. could share information on standards and science.¶ “The Cubans would have a lot to learn on how to build out an infrastructure to accommodate oil and gas,” Whittle said. “From an environmental perspective, I wish this issue would transcend politics and the relative government agencies could work together.”¶ The United States already has plans with Mexico and Canada for handling oil spills in shared waters.¶ The U.S. needs a similar accord with Cuba, said Thad Allen, the former Coast Guard admiral who headed the Deepwater Horizon response.¶ “We need to figure out what are the barriers that might prohibit us from being more effective in a response with Cuba and start attacking those now from a legislative and statutory standpoint,” Allen said in an interview. “Right now we’re pretty much prohibited from doing anything.” oil spills likely Risk of oil spill high now—regulation solves Hoffman 12 (Karen Hoffman -- Writer for the EIJ "Cuba's Gulf of Mexico Oil Exploration Makes Strange Bedfellows" Earth Island Journal -- News of the World Environment -- March 15th, 2012 www.earthisland.org/journal/index.php/elist/eListRead/cubas_gulf_of_mexico_oil_exploratio n_makes_strange_bedfellows) SM From his hotel in Havana, marine scientist and conservation policy specialist David Guggenheim, aka the “Ocean Doctor,” can see the lights of Scarabeo 9. The recently arrived oil-drilling platform off the Cuban coast began drilling exploratory deepwater wells on the Cuban side of the Florida Straits, about 70 miles from Key West, last month. Photo Courtesy Mapquest Last month, Spanish oil company Repsol began exploratory drilling on the Cuban side of the Florida Straits, about 70 miles from Key West. US environmentalists and policymakers are concerned that Cuba doesn’t have the resources, technology, or expertise needed to deal with a Deepwater Horizonlike disaster. The 53,000-ton rig is, literally, under more pressure than Deepwater Horizon. Operated by Spanish company Repsol, it’s what’s known as an “ultra-deepwater” platform, drilling at depths up to 6,000 feet. (Deepwater Horizon’s depth was 5,000 feet.) A Scarabeo 9 spill would damage critical marine ecosystems in the Gulf. US environmentalists and policymakers are concerned that Cuba doesn’t have the resources, technology, or expertise needed to prevent or respond to such a disaster. But even the threat of irreparable environmental damage hasn’t been enough to clear away old Cold War resentments and political inertia between the two countries and get them working together to formulate an emergency response plan. Which is why an unlikely coalition of environmentalists, oil executives, and scientists — like Guggenheim — are joining forces to try to, in his words, “fight half a century of an illogical policy with logic.” *** Between North Cuba and South Florida lie the narrow Florida Straits — a channel of water that connects the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. The straits carry the Florida Current, the origin of the Gulf Stream and what allows Cuban refugees to reach the US with only a raft. In the case of a spill at Scarabeo, it is feared that the same current could spread oil up the Gulf Stream to the US east coast. (Similar fears were expressed after the BP disaster in the spring of 2010. That scenario didn’t happen because a gyre formed and kept the oil in the Gulf of Mexico, with drastic consequences for its ecosystems and fauna -- from oysters, to pelicans, to human beings whose way of life depends on the Gulf.) Cuba, whose share of the Gulf of Mexico was established in 1977 after it signed a treaty with the US and Mexico, has made major investments in offshore oil exploration. Cuban officials say the northern waters of the Gulf, which are part of its exclusive economic zone, have more than 20 million barrels of oil reserves. (The US Geological Survey, however, estimates that the Cuban zone contains about 4.6 billion barrels of oil.) Cuba hopes the offshore reserves will revive its economy and make it energy self-sufficient. The well being drilled by Scarabeo 9 is just the first of several exploratory wells in the offing. Cuba has also signed deals with Brazilian and Russian state oil companies for oil exploration rights off its north shore. Meanwhile, in the US, drilling for oil in the eastern Gulf of Mexico is banned, largely in order to preserve Florida’s beaches and marine life that bring in much of the state’s tourism-based revenue. In February 2010, the Florida legislature was debating lifting the ban, but the BP disaster put the kibosh on that — temporarily. Florida’s 800 miles of coast are far from as unspoiled as Cuba’s, but they still contain invaluable ecological treasures. Kayak in Florida Bay, part of the iconic Everglades National Park, and dolphins will frolic alongside you. The sea grass beds of Biscayne Bay support manatees, sea turtles, and sharks. Because Florida’s ecosystems are already stressed from the pressures of six million people and their sewage, the effects of a massive oil spill, not to mention the chemical dispersant, would be disastrous, says Matthew Schwartz, executive director of the South Florida Wildlands Association. The region is also home to the only mangroves in the continental United States. A study (pdf) by the USGS and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration found that there is no way of cleaning up an oil spill in mangroves. Since mangroves take in salt water and release it through their leaves, it would suck up the oil and dispersant would and then die of suffocation. “If you kill off the coastal mangroves,” says Schwartz, “you lose the coastline.” (The pristine Cuban waters have arguably even more to lose. “I’ve been diving for nearly 40 years and I’ve never seen coral reefs healthy as I’ve seen here,” says Guggenheim, referring to the reefs at Cuba’s “Gardens of the Queen” marine reserve. “Many of them are probably nearly as healthy as they were 500 years ago when Columbus first came. They’re a living laboratory from which we could learn to restore coral reefs elsewhere.” Guggenheim has been working hard to get the US, Cuba and Mexico to collaborate more on marine science and conservation issues.) *** Still, at least in Florida, it seems environmental threats are taking a backseat to Cold War politics. At a January congressional subcommittee hearing, representatives seemed less willing to dialogue with Cuba on damage control, and more concerned with punishing Repsol for daring to operate in Communist territory. "We need to figure out what we can do to inflict maximum pain, maximum punishment, to bleed Repsol of whatever resources they may have," said Rep. David Rivera (R-FL). These sentiments were echoed in a letter sent by Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), co-signed by Rivera and 34 other members of Congress to Repsol. Former DHS assistant secretary Juliette Kayyem responded in a Washington Post column, “That’s their only concern? This letter was sent in 2011... It could have been drafted in 1961.” Administration representatives’ testimony at the hearing “really came up empty to me,” Guggenheim says. “I don’t think they’re in any way prepared to deal with an oil spill that requires significant coordination and collaboration with Cuba.” The US embargo against Cuba does complicate matters quite a bit. Basically it means US companies can’t do any work on the rig, even during an emergency, without special permission from the federal government. This can lead to some bizarre scenarios. For instance, in the event of a spill, American aircraft can’t be used to fly over Cuban waters. Instead, the Cubans plan is to retrofit aging crop dusters from farms for the job, according to the Washington Post. The paper also reported that a crucial component of safety equipment called a capping stack would have to be delivered to Cuba from Scotland, even though it’s manufactured in Houston. The threat of an oil spill and the diplomatic tangle that could seriously hamper safety and disaster relief efforts has made some strange bedfellows: Environmental groups and oil company executives are banding together — via the UN International Maritime Organization —to fund US-Cuba talks in neutral locations like Curaçao and the Bahamas. Little by little, individuals from both countries are bridging the gap. “We’re the diplomats,” says Guggenheim. “When you come here [to Cuba], you realize these people are gifted, natural allies and reliable partners.” In a small victory for cooperation, a NOAA representative from the Florida Keys Marine Sanctuary visited Cuba last year for a workshop. Another sign of progress: The report of the National Commission on the Deepwater Horizon Spill and Offshore Drilling, makes specific reference to Cuba and calls for establishing international safety standards for drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. “I congratulate them for the bravery of putting the word ‘Cuba’ into a federal report, because you just mention that and people go nuts,” says Guggenheim. President Obama’s administration has rolled back some of the Bush-era restrictions on Cuban travel, with demonstrable results. Americans are flocking to Cuban people-to-people exchange programs. In an election year, however, it’s unlikely this administration will make further strides on opening a relationship with Cuba. Still, conservationists say, something must be done. “The marine ecosystem that exists between Florida and Cuba does not have international boundaries,” says Schwartz. “These lines may exist on a map, but the marine animals that migrate back and forth don’t know about them. No matter how we as humans think of it, clearly the marine life that shares the habitat with us is going to be the ultimate victim of any mishap.” From Cuba, Guggenheim agrees. “I still hold in my heart this idealistic belief that marine biology can be a uniting force between our countries,” he says. “Sometimes you don’t get along with your neighbor, but if something happens in the neighborhood that affects everybody, you’ve got to find a way to work together.” mexico border infra 1nc Text: The United States federal government should condition _______ on Mexico increasing its investment in border transportation infrastructure. Mexico agreeing to a bridge over the Rio Grande solves massive congestion Fox News 13 (Fox News Latino, “Border Bridge Stalls U.S., Mexico Border Plan,” 6/3/13, http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2013/06/03/building-new-us-mexico-border-crossingstalls/, MDM) A bridge over the Rio Grande, between the U.S. and Mexico, was supposed to be the site of a massive new customs and immigration facility by June — but nearly two years after its groundbreaking, not a shovel of dirt has been moved south of the border.The Mexican government has not allocated any money for its share of the work, so the bridge building is stalled — with no timetable for completion.¶ The bridge would provide a fourth international border crossing to handle U.S.-bound commercial traffic from Ciudad Juarez, one of North America's biggest manufacturing hubs. Planners had hoped the $96 million undertaking would be an economic boon, attracting manufacturing plants and long lines of trucks that currently use two congested crossings between Ciudad Juarez and El Paso.¶ Jesse Grado walks cautiously past a welder whose work throws off a spray of brilliant sparks as construction crews lay slabs of concrete for a bridge over the Rio Grande. The leader of the project points to an empty void — the point where the six-lane span abruptly ends 30 feet above the river.¶ Beyond the pavement is nothing but miles of Mexican farms, dirt and desert.¶ In the meantime, truckers say they won't be lured away from the established crossings until this remote farmland draws more industry. That could take years.¶ "To me, it does not make any sense," said Manuel Sotelo, truck company owner and president of the Ciudad Juarez freight truck association. "It's one of those projects made by someone at a desk in Washington."¶ Truckers hauling cargo from Ciudad Juarez say using the bridge would require them to make an hour-long drive east to the new crossing then spend another hour traveling back to cargo terminals in El Paso, Texas, to unload.¶ So far, the border community of Tornillo has secured no agreements with industry. For now, it offers little but fields of cotton and alfalfa. The scene is similar across the river in the tiny town of Guadalupe, Mexico.¶ Still, local officials hope that by building the crossing first, commercial traffic will come later. They cite the success at the Santa Teresa port of entry, which was built 20 years ago in New Mexico in a similarly remote area.¶ About 15 years after the crossing opened, a huge industrial park that houses manufacturing giant Foxconn was built a few hundred yards from the inspection stations. It has since attracted more businesses.¶ "Once the infrastructure is complete, they'll have to take a fresh look at this," said Vince Perez, an El Paso County commissioner representing the district where the bridge is being built. "A port of entry is a once-in-a-lifetime project."¶ The two farming communities have been pushing for the Tornillo-Guadalupe international bridge for the last 16 years to replace a 1920s-era wooden bridge. Once the new span is finished, the federal government plans to transfer customs and immigration personnel to the adjoining 117-acre complex.¶ In July 2011, American and Mexican officials showed up with golden shovels and delivered speeches about the promising future for the surrounding communities. Cesar Duarte, governor of the Mexican state of Chihuahua, pledged that construction would start two months later. ¶ The Mexican Department of Transport and Communications blames the delay on national elections that installed new leadership in late 2012. There is still no budget for the Mexican portion of the crossing, which would cost more than $15 million.¶ "There is not much we can do," said El Paso County Judge Veronica Escobar, the county's top administrative official. "We have faith the State Department will continue to advocate for us."¶ The U.S. State Department, in charge of the American side of the project, acknowledged the delay but referred all other questions to the Mexican government.¶ Once complete, the bridge will serve the same function as the five other border crossings in the Ciudad Juarez area, which currently process more than 10 million cars, 700,000 trucks and 6 million pedestrians every year.¶ But exactly how much traffic would be diverted to Tornillo is anyone's guess.¶ Most Mexican trucking companies are not allowed to venture more than 25 to 50 miles into the U.S. — a rule that requires them to use drop-off points closer to the border. No one knows how long it will take to entice those kinds of cargo terminals to the Tornillo area, or if a federal pilot program allowing Mexican trucks to drive deeper into the U.S. could be expanded.¶ Escobar said she expects many farmers pressed by drought to sell their land to industrial developers. A few "for sale" signs have already popped up around the area.¶ "It's a matter of time" until businesses move in, she said. But it could be a long time if the Santa Teresa crossing is any indication.¶ When the port of entry was first inaugurated in 1993 in southeastern New Mexico, the paved road ended abruptly at the Mexican border. Five years passed before the Mexican government paved the 12-mile stretch that led to Ciudad Juarez and another decade before it landed the industrial park.¶ "We were perceived as Siberia," said Jerry Pacheco, vice president with the Border Industrial Association, a New Mexico group that helped lure companies to the area.¶ The Chihuahua governor hopes the bridge expansion on the Mexican side will make it an ideal spot for factories.¶ Until that happens, truckers say they would rather wait in line at the congested crossings than make the long drive from Ciudad Juarez to Tornillo and back up to El Paso. The typical wait time at the existing bridges is two hours.¶ The new crossing "does not make much sense unless you see it in the very long term," truck driver Hector Mendoza said while taking a break at a truck terminal in El Paso.¶ Raul Lara concurred, saying the trip to Tornillo could actually cost more and take just as much time.¶ "I would not go there," he said. "I'd rather wait it out at the bridge in El Paso than to waste diesel going all the way there."¶ Neither the location debate nor the construction delay is having much effect on Grado, who oversees the work crews on the U.S. side. They aim to have their part of the project finished on time.¶ "I wish they (Mexican workers) had started at the same time as us," he said. "It's better that way. Now they will have to make it match with ours." Nieto will say yes – he’s committed to spend on infrastructure, the only question is where TBC 13 (Trade Bridge Consultants quoting a Mexican government press release, “President commits $310 billion to infrastructure spend,” 6/21/13, http://tradebridgeconsultants.com/news/government/president-commits-310-billion-toinfrastructure-spend/, MDM) President Enrique Peña Nieto has announced a major investment in infrastructure, with the government to spend $310 billion on highways, country roads, trains and ports, together with water and electrical works.¶ The official press release as published on the president’s website outlines a number of projects mentioned by the website and the full release is as follows:¶ “Mérida, Yucatán, June 20, 2013¶ As he led the national meeting of Communications and Transport 2013, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto announced that this year the government will spend 310 billion dollars on highways, country roads, trains and ports, together with water and electrical works and Petróleos Mexicanos.¶ He reported that as part of this investment, which includes funds from the National Infrastructure Fund, 123 billion pesos have already been spent and the remaining 187 billion pesos will be spent during the second semester.¶ “This is certainly good news for the sector and the national economy,” he said, noting that infrastructure, “Will allow us to build the prosperous, modern Mexico we long for, which is why we consider it a strategic issue of national priority.”¶ Noting that the National Development Plan 2013-2018 is designed to modernize, expand and maintain the infrastructure in the different modes of transport and improve their connectivity using strategic efficiency criteria, President Peña Nieto cited some of the works his government plans to undertake such as the Oaxaca-Isthmus Highway, with an investment of 1.4 billion pesos for this year out of the total nine billion pesos it will cost.¶ He said that certain other branches will be modernized such as the highway between Playa del Carmen and Xcán in Yucatán. He noted the rural roads will be improved in the areas of greatest poverty and marginalization, where 25 percent of the national population lives, so that, “They can be developed and linked to the logistics centers from which they can transport the produce obtained from the countryside.” “We want,” he added, “For the benefits to spread to every region and every part of this great nation.”¶ The President noted that, “The great challenge ahead is to achieve greater, sustained economic growth. To make this possible, we will have to influence productivity levels in our country. A prerequisite for addressing this issue is the democratization of productivity, which means expanding and extending the benefits of public policies to boost productivity, and ensuring that they do not remain concentrated in a few regions or companies.” ¶ In the railway sector, the president highlighted high impact works such as the Queretaro-Mexico train, the Mexico-Toluca train and the trans-peninsular train. Regarding the latter, the president instructed the Secretary of Communications and Transport to complete the necessary technical studies as soon as possible in order to put these works out to tender and begin construction.¶ In the maritime port sector, he mentioned the development of world-class strategic ports such as Lázaro Cardenas and Manzanillo.¶ In the Airport Subsector, he said that interconnection should be improved and that the efficient operation and maintenance of this sector should be maintained together with its operating profitability. ¶ “As president, I am convinced that one of the key components for building a prosperous Mexico, which is one of the five major national goals my government has outlined and which Mexicans seek and deserve, is undoubtedly infrastructure development,” he said.¶ The President explained that Mexico is located at a level it must overcome, since according to the World Economic Forum evaluation of 144 countries, it ranked 68th in infrastructure. “We must therefore speed up the pace of the construction and development of more infrastructure to improve this position, because we deserve a higher position. A position that projects the wealth of our country and projects us as such to the world.”¶ He declared that in order to improve the quality of infrastructure and achieve Mexico’s full potential, it is necessary to improve its roads, railways, ports, airports, telecommunications and electricity supply, “That is exactly what we are determined to do in this administration,” he said.¶ Addressing members of the Mexican Chamber of the Construction Industry (CMIC), which brings together over 10 000 companies in the sector, the president declared that his government is determined to promote works that “arise from social demand , where they are needed, where it is important to develop infrastructure to generate better environments and better living conditions for Mexicans.” We access the greatest internal link to toxic air pollution FHWA 11 (Federal Highway Administration, “Greening Transportation at the Border,” 2/23/11, http://www.borderplanning.fhwa.dot.gov/greenborderrpt/green_border_final.pdf, MDM) Vehicles passing through and idling at ports of entry release a host of toxic pollutants into the atmosphere, impacting the health of people in vehicles (drivers and passengers), people outside of vehicles (port of entry employees and pedestrians), and residents in border communities. Measuring the quality of the air inside and outside of vehicles at ports of entry and in border communities will help border officials understand the scope of the air quality problem in the border region. This data will help agencies address and mitigate air pollution at the border.¶ Researchers at San Diego State University performed a study to assess the in-vehicle pollutant exposures experienced by frequent cross-border commuters at the Tijuana-San Diego border crossing at San Ysidro. Participants in the study varied their exposure to ambient air by having the windows open or closed and/or using air conditioning with and without interior air recirculation. The study found that exposure to ultrafine particles and carbon monoxide was highest at the ports of entry while exposure to black carbon was higher in both the U.S. and Mexico, and exposure to PM2.5 was higher in Mexico . However, because of the amount of time spent at the border by crossing vehicles, there is significant concern about the human health impacts of air pollution at the border. San Diego State University partnered with Casa Familiar in San Ysidro to measure air quality for pedestrians crossing the border as well as within Tijuana. The study found that exposure to PM2.5, ultrafine particles, and carbon monoxide was much higher for pedestrians crossing the border at San Ysidro than they were within Tijuana. Reducing vehicle congestion at the port of entry could improve air quality for all users.¶ Air quality is a major concern for communities on both sides of the U.S./Mexico border due to emissions from vehicles passing through and idling at ports of entry. However, the concern is greater in border communities in Mexico - substandard transit vehicles release high levels of pollutants into the air, traffic congestion in the cities increases exposure to vehicle emissions, and poor roadway surfaces (dirt in some cases) contribute to unhealthy air in urban areas. Mexico's BECC is planning for and designing sustainable transportation infrastructure to improve air quality in border communities using air quality assessment data. For example, areas of the city with unpaved roads have very high levels of airborne particulates. In Tijuana, paving previously unpaved roads has been shown to reduce particulates by 25 percent. By measuring air quality, BECC is able to implement the strategy that has the greatest positive impact on local air quality. env justice This is the critical internal link to environmental justice SCERP 12 (Southwest Consortium for Environmental Research and Policy, “White Paper: health impacts of crossings at US-Mexico land ports of entry: Gaps, needs and recommendations for action,” 5/4/12/, http://www.healthyborders2012.com/#!whitepaper/libro-blanco with PDF download, MDM) It has been shown that neighborhoods with high poverty rates tend to experience higher traffic densities, and that these inequalities exacerbate the problem of environmental justice and health disparities in these underserved communities [60]. Disparities in exposure to traffic have been documented and are considered an environmental justice issue in Southern California [61]. Environmental justice concerns the inequitable exposure of poor and minority communities to environmental hazards [62]. In California, Hispanic children have been shown to be more likely to live in areas with higher traffic density than non--‐ Hispanic whites [63]. In addition, despite health risks posed by traffic exposure, some schools in California are located close to traffic sources, and these schools are more likely to be poor and serve Latino students [64]. Studies have found that parental stress can also heighten the adverse effects of traffic exposures on asthma in children [46]. Environmental justice is required to be considered in federal planning as described in executive order 12898 [65]. Mexico is already disproportionately affected by air pollution The Mexpatriate 13 (The Mexpatriate, translator of Mexican newspapers quoting the Clean Air Institute, “Pollution causes 14,000 deaths a year in Mexico,” 5/5/13, http://themexpatriate.com/2013/05/05/pollution-causes-14000-deaths-a-year-in-mexico/, MDM) The Clean Air Institute just published an alarming report on air quality in Latin America; Mexico came in second to Brazil as the country with the most deaths every year caused by pollution. Mexico City has long been plagued by smog but according to the report, Monterrey is the city with the highest levels of Particle Pollution (PM10) in all of Latin America. The concentration of PM10 per cubic meter is 85.9 micrograms in Monterrey; the European Union limits member countries to maintaining levels of under 40 micrograms per cubic meter. Guadalajara’s pollution is also toxic (70.1 mcg/m3) and Mexico City’s looks almost clean by comparison (57.0 mcg/m3).¶ ¶ The report also analyzes ozone levels. Ozone reactive. We need it in the atmosphere to protect us from UV rays, but it’s dangerous is a gas made up of oxygen atoms and it’s highly when it comes into more direct contact with living tissue. According to Air Info Now: “The properties that make ozone a powerful cleaner, disinfectant, and bleaching agent also make ozone dangerous to living tissues. When it comes in contact with living tissues, like our lungs, ozone attacks and damages cells lining the airways, this causes swelling and inflammation. Some have compared ozone’s effect to a sunburn…inside your lungs.” Guadalajara has the highest ozone levels in Latin America, followed by León and then Monterrey and DF. Their only close competitors are Cochabamba, Bolivia and Quito, Ecuador.¶ Pollution has been linked to a wide array of serious health problems, including cardiovascular and respiratory disease, cancer, premature birth and low birth weight, lung disease and early death syndrome.¶ The Clean Air Institute (CAI) and several other NGOs concluded that Mexico needs a federal air quality improvement policy as soon as possible. The director of CAI, Sergio Sanchez, noted that Mexico has no standardized techniques for collecting data or monitoring air quality. The director of atmospheric science at UNAM, María Amparo Martínez, said “one of the problems we have is lack of institutional capacity for monitoring all the different cities in the country.”¶ An article in Proceso published on April 5 titled “In Mexico, even the air kills us”, starts by observing that “most of the population (60%) ignores the quality of the air they are breathing, since the government fails to provide accurate information.” In fact, Mexico’s official “safe levels” of ozone, PM10 and PM2.5 are all significantly higher than the levels recommended by international environmental and health organizations, which allows the government to cheat by declaring that the pollution isn’t at dangerous levels (just don’t ask for a definition of “dangerous”.) Politicians have made a few lame attempts to reduce car dependence and promote a “green” image; the mayor of Saltillo started a bicycle sharing program in March, but the bicycles don’t work. The ex-governor of Jalisco cut the ribbon on two new sections of a major highway on a bicycle – the highway has no bicycle lane.¶ Mexico City has made some progress in the past twenty years and as indicated by the CAI report, its pollution is actually less noxious and dense than in other smaller Mexican cities. It has taken time and effort – the construction of Metrobus, adding cycling lanes, cutting the number of vehicles on the road by improved enforcement of “hoy no circula.” But it still has a long slog ahead.¶ Pollution is indeed the stuff of politicians’ nightmares: it kills constituents, but unlike smoking or fatty foods or alcohol, it’s not their problem to fix. Sure, you can tell people to risk their lives weaving in and out of traffic on bicycles or maybe suggest they don’t inhale when they step outside, but the reality is that any major air clean-up is going to fall on the shoulders of…what? The government? Regulations have to be enforced, public transportation invested in, air quality tested, dirty fuel use curtailed…the list goes on and the politicians yawn, roll over and dream of the next highway construction project bearing their name. warming impact Mexico is key to global warming LASP No Date ( Latin American Studies Program, Cornell University "Global Climate Change: Latin America" lasp.einaudi.cornell.edu/system/files/Global%20Warming%20Latin%20America.pdf) SM Mexico is one of the more developed nations in Latin America. In Latin America Mexico is currently the leading energy-related greenhouse gas emitter. (pnl 31) The leading emission producing activities are transportation, industrial activities, and methane emission from garbage and livestock. Urbanization is becoming a huge concern for greenhouse gas emissions, with Mexico City currently holding over 20 million people, the highest population concentration in the world. (usaid) The expansion of cattle ranching has led to exponential increase in deforestation, another practice having an adverse effect on global climate change (pnl 32) border cause cong The US-Mexico border is an immense source of air pollution; regulations must be made to cut back emissions SCERP 12 (Southwest Consortium for Environmental Research and Policy, “White Paper: health impacts of crossings at US-Mexico land ports of entry: Gaps, needs and recommendations for action,” 5/4/12/, http://www.healthyborders2012.com/#!whitepaper/libro-blanco with PDF download, MDM) This white paper concerns potential health effects of US--‐ Mexico border crossings, especially regarding exposures to traffic emissions associated with the crossings. On May 3 and 4, 2012, stakeholders from both sides of the US--‐Mexico border gathered in San Ysidro, CA to hear presentations on traffic exposures at crossings, health effects of traffic exposures, and potential solutions as well as to jointly identify gaps and needs and to make recommendations concerning health impacts of border crossings (www.healthyborders.com). The United States--‐Mexico border region is a unique area where many different people come together and cross geopolitical boundaries. This is a dynamic region, with a population that has pressing health and social needs, higher rates of uninsured, high rates of migration, inequitable health conditions and a high rate of poverty. The residents living and working along the border come from different economic and political backgrounds, yet they share a common environment and similar exposures to harmful pollutants that are generated at border crossings. U.S. border residents are predominantly Hispanic and have lower incomes than the national U.S. average, with the exception of San Diego County. However, the border area of San Diego, especially San Ysidro, is poor and Hispanic. These characteristics of U.S. border communities suggest important environmental justice issues that need to be addressed. There are 43 points of entry (POEs) on the border between the United States and Mexico. In 2011, over 4.8 million commercial trucks, 61.2 million personal vehicles and 40.2 million pedestrians crossed northbound through the US POEs. The busiest crossings for commercial trucks were Laredo, Texas, and Otay Mesa, California. For personal vehicles, the busiest crossings were San Ysidro, CA and El Paso, TX, and these same two POEs were the busiest for pedestrian crossings as well. Long delays of idling commercial and passenger vehicles are common at many Ports of Entry. These busy border crossings present challenges for both sides of the border, including economic, social, and health issues. Exposures to traffic emissions related to border crossing occur to people while waiting in line in vehicles or on foot to cross the border, while working at the crossing, and to communities near the border crossings or those affected by truck or other traffic moving to and from the border crossings. Traffic emission exposures have been linked to a number of adverse health outcomes in children, pregnant women and the elderly, including respiratory problems, cardiovascular effects such as an increased risk of heart attack, cancer, and adverse birth outcomes. Short-‐term high exposures as well as long term exposures have been linked with health effects. As an additional consideration, potential exposures from being near traffic at border crossings come in addition to background exposures to generally poor air quality along the US--‐Mexico border. Workgroups at the Technical Workshop, Community Meeting and Conference included Planning and Design, Policy and Emissions Reduction, Exposure and Health, and Improving the Crossing Experience. Major gaps, needs and recommendations made by work groups, Technical Workshop attendees and Community members that were approved by the conference are summarized below. Border delays cause loss of competitiveness, oppression, and air pollution SCERP 12 (Southwest Consortium for Environmental Research and Policy, “White Paper: health impacts of crossings at US-Mexico land ports of entry: Gaps, needs and recommendations for action,” 5/4/12/, http://www.healthyborders2012.com/#!whitepaper/libro-blanco with PDF download, MDM) Border delays/ border wait times Waiting in line on foot or in a passenger or commercial vehicle is an often frustrating and potentially avoidable part of the border crossing experience. The delay times at each crossing, with associated volumes of idling vehicles, vary by season, type of use (commercial or passenger) and direction, with northbound crossings usually, but not always, having the longest delay times. The delay time is also called the border wait time, and as such has been formally identified by the US and Canadian working group as “the time it takes, in minutes, for a vehicle to reach the CBP’s primary inspection booth after arriving at the end of the queue.” [17]. Delay times, as well as lanes open for each Port of Entry, are reported by Customs and Border Protection on their website and on mobile apps in real time [18]. In 2010, the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) conducted an analysis of commercial truck border wait times at the US--‐ Canadian Border as a part of an assessment of the improvements from the Free and Secure Trade (FAST) system launched in 2002. They stated that “CBP officials and the 13 border stakeholders, importers, and trade organizations GAO interviewed about wait times questioned the accuracy and reliability of CBP’s wait times data”[19]. They recommended that data be collected to better evaluate border wait times and effects of interventions. In April, 2012, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson of Texas requested that a similar study be performed on commercial crossings at the US--‐Mexican border, and the US GAO is currently performing this evaluation[20]. Both radio and TV stations on both sides of the border report delays times along with traffic reports. Calit2, at UCSD, has developed a mobile app that provides data on delay times at each port by day of the week, and also has a feature that allows users to self--‐report delay times to compare with official CBP data ([21]. Assessment of delay times: How delay is assessed varies. For example, at San Ysidro POE, delays are reportedly assessed by CBP through a combination of visual estimates of queue length, questions to drivers and crossers as to how long they have been waiting, and judgment. At Tijuana news stations, delays are often reported as number of vehicles in the queue, sometimes gauged through aerial means. Apparently, CPB data reflect average wait times at San Ysidro and fail to capture the waits for 2--‐ 3 hours for pedestrians and for passenger that frequently occur during peak crossing hours. For commercial crossings, delays can be assessed by length of the queue, questions to drivers, and also more sophisticated means such as GPS tracking in vehicles, vehicle license plate recognition, and automated vehicle Figure 5: Pharr--‐Reynosa commercial POE wait time data assessed using RFID technology February 2012. Source: Health Impacts of Border Crossings 15 identification. The US FHA/ DOT has sponsored pilot projects related to technologies for assessment and study of delay time, summarized and available at[22]. Although GPS effectiveness was assessed previously at the Otay Mesa commercial crossing [23], a passive RFID system was recently investigated and identified as potentially the most promising technology [24]. Social and economic impact of delays: The economic aspect of border delays was the subject of a recent op--‐ed piece in the New York Times (Escobar, 2013), and called efficient cross--‐border movement to be part of any immigration reform discussion. Several studies have examined the social and economic costs of delays at US--‐Mexico border crossings. In California, the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) has conducted an analysis of the economic effect of border delays on cross--‐border personal travel (2005) and freight travel in a study titled ‘Economic Impacts of Border Wait Times at the San Diego--‐Baja California Border Region [25]. They estimated that freight delays alone cost in total 6 billion a year and the equivalent of over 50,000 jobs in the binational economy, significantly hurting competitiveness. In 1998, the US DOT sponsored a study called Binational Planning and Programming Study, and Phase II Products, Task 10 detailed economic impacts of delays [26]. Fuentes and del Castillo [27] calculated the annual direct costs of 745, 975 vehicles waiting for three hours as 139,870,200 dollars annually, or 466,236 dollars per day For social effects, surveys have been conducted among border crossers at POEs and found border delays were reported by survey responders to increase stress, form a barrier to visiting relatives and friends, provoke feelings of concern regarding physical safety, cause physical distress during the long waiting periods, and lead to a perception of discriminatory behavior at times by agents, as well as other issues [28]. Relation of delay time to number of idling vehicles in the queue: Delay time is not a direct measure of emissions, as emissions are related to number of vehicles idling in line and the type of vehicles, as well as the vehicle speed and load. The number of lanes open also affects delay times, as a border POE with few lanes open might report a long vehicle delay time but have fewer emissions than the same POE with a shorter border wait time but with all lanes open. Vehicle type also affects emissions, as commercial trucks emit more pollutants per vehicle than do passenger vehicles. the number of lanes open and the delay time, together with the type of vehicles at each crossing, form a crude estimate of the potential emissions. For a more sophisticated Therefore estimate, exact vehicle mix, vehicle ages, vehicle registrations, average speed, creep idling vs. pure idling, grade, fuel and other considerations influence the accuracy and need to be estimated from models or direct measurements [29, 30]. Estimates of emissions at border crossings A comprehensive estimate of emissions for all US--‐Mexico Ports of Entry, including the emissions during idling and creep idling in a queue, has not yet been made, although such as effort is currently underway under the direction of the US DOT (see preliminary findings, [29], below). Some initial estimates of the contribution from delay times have been performed. Estimates of criteria pollutant and greenhouse gas 16 Health Impacts of Border Crossings emissions just from the northbound delay period were made for all San Diego County border crossings, (the passenger and bus crossing at San Ysidro POE, the commercial crossing at Otay Mesa POE, and the much smaller crossing at Tecate, which handles both [31], [32]. Official CBP delay times were used for the estimates for the year 2009. The crossing type which contributes the most emissions in these 2009 estimates is very different for greenhouse gases as compared to criteria pollutants PM2.5, CO, etc. For greenhouse gases, San Ysidro Port of Entry delays contributed the majority (76%) of the estimated GHG emissions due to the very large volume of vehicles and long delays ([31], Appendix Figure 1). However, when PM2.5 emissions were calculated, due to the fact that commercial trucks emit much more particulate pollution on a per vehicle basis, delays at the commercial truck crossing at Otay Mesa were the majority contributor, at 63% of emissions for the San Diego County northbound delays ([32], Appendix Figure 2A). The distribution also changes for each pollutant. For example, for carbon monoxide, motorcycles at San Ysidro contributed only 0.4% of PM2.5 but 15.4 % of CO from delays at northbound crossings in San Diego, since motorcycles lack emissions exhaust controls ([32] Appendix Figure 2B). The US DOT in conjunction with Cambridge Systematics began conducting a study in 2012 to estimate emissions at all the US--‐Mexico border crossings, as well as consider options for reduction [29]. The Ysleta--‐ Zaragoza port near El Paso was used as a case study (2010 data) to demonstrate the approach to be used at all US--‐Mexico border crossings (Figure 6, below). The US EPA criteria pollutants PM2.5 and NOx emissions were calculated for four scenarios: 1. "No delay" scenario where vehicles pass through the POE as if it did not exist, 2. "No--‐ action" scenario, 3. "Privately Owned Vehicle (POV) Strategy" that shifts vehicles to the faster SENTRI lanes, 4. "Commercial Vehicle (COM) Strategy" that assumes U.S. and Mexican cargo inspections are combined to eliminate duplicative inspections. Initial estimates indicate that using this approach, the delay accounts for the majority of emissions and reduction in delay time is an effective control measure. Border traffic is the critical internal link to air pollution and hazardous waste transfer Papoulias and Parcher 13 (Diana, researcher for the Biochemistry and Physiology Branch of the US Geological Survey, and Jean, researcher for the international relations branch of the US Geological Survey, “Protecting the Environment and Safeguarding Human Health,” 3/11/13, http://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/1380/downloads/Chapter5.pdf, MDM) Currently, Mexico is the second largest trading partner of the United States , after Canada. Trade between the United States ¶ and Mexico has soared over the past decade since the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) went into effect in 1994. ¶ In 2000, the value of trade had increased by 17 percent per year since 1995 and was projected to continue to grow at about ¶ 5.9 percent per year (Jannol and others, 2003). Trade between the United States and Mexico reached $347 billion in 2007. ¶ Goods predominantly move across the border on trucks, which pass through 39 ports of entry between the Pacific Ocean and the¶ Gulf of Mexico. The current border-crossing infrastructure was not designed to handle the large traffic volumes that have developed¶ since NAFTA, so international trade-related traffic destined for the interior of the United States or Mexico increasingly uses local¶ transportation systems, many of them urban. This large amount of vehicles not only causes problems such as air pollution from ¶ idling cars and trucks waiting to pass immigration inspection, but also contributes to the accumulation of waste tires(fig. 5–2),¶ the prevalence of oil and gasoline storage facilities, and increased transport of hazardous waste. condition key US-Mexico cooperation is key to reduce border congestion Wilson and Lee 12 (Christopher and Erik, Christopher E. Wilson is an Associate at the Wilson Center's Mexico Institute. Erik Lee serves as Associate Director at the North American Center for Transborder Studies (NACTS) at Arizona State University. The two are coauthors of the trade and competitiveness chapter in the forthcoming "State of the Border Report," from which this article was adapted, “Whole Nations Waiting,” 7/12, http://www.siteselection.com/issues/2012/jul/us-mex-border.cfm, MDM) Commerce between the United States and Mexico is one of the great — yet underappreciated — success stories of the global economy. In 2011 U.S.-Mexico goods and services trade reached the major milestone of one-half trillion dollars with virtually no recognition. The United States is Mexico's top trading partner, and Mexico — which has gained macroeconomic stability and expanded its middle class over the last two decades — is the United States' second largest export market and third largest trading partner.¶ Seventy percent of bilateral commerce crosses the border via trucks, meaning the border region is literally where "the rubber hits the road" for bilateral relations. This also means that not only California and Baja California, but also Michigan and Michoacán, all have a major stake in efficient and secure border management.¶ The quantity of U.S.-Mexico trade is impressive, but its quality makes it unique. The United States and Mexico do not just sell goods to one another, they actually work together to manufacture them. Through production sharing, materials and parts often cross back and forth between factories on each side of the border as a final product is made and assembled. As a result, U.S. imports from Mexico contain, on average, 40 percent U.S. content, and Mexico's imports from the U.S. also have a high level of Mexican content.¶ This system of joint production has two important consequences. First, it means that our economies are profoundly linked. We tend to experience growth and recession together, and productivity gains or losses on one side of the border generally cause a corresponding gain or loss in competitiveness on the other side as well. Second, the fact that goods often cross the border several times as they are being produced creates a multiplier effect for gains and losses in border efficiency. Whereas goods from China only go through customs and inspection once as they enter the U.S. or Mexico, products built by regional manufacturers bear the costs of long and unpredictable border wait times and significant customs requirements each time they cross the U.S.-Mexico border.¶ Corridors in Crisis¶ This trade relationship requires major infrastructure to function effectively. The largest trade corridor, often referred to as the NASCO corridor, links central and eastern Mexico to Texas, the American Midwest, Northeast, and Ontario, utilizing the key Laredo-Nuevo Laredo ports of entry (POEs). Other important trade arteries include the CANAMEX Corridor, which connects western Mexico to the intermountain United States and Canadian province of Alberta, as well as the shorter but high-volume I-5 corridor connecting California to Baja California. As the economies of both the U.S. and Mexico grow, it is likely that this network of freight transportation infrastructure — and the land POEs that serve as nodes in this network — will experience added stress.¶ Unfortunately, the infrastructure and capacity of the ports of entry to process goods and individuals entering the United States has not kept pace with the expansion of bilateral trade or the population growth of the border region. Instead, the need for greater border security following the terrorist attacks of 9/11 led to a thickening of the border, dividing the twin cities that characterize the region and adding costly, long and unpredictable wait times for commercial and personal crossers alike. Congestion acts as a drag on the competitiveness of the region and of the United States and Mexico in their entirety. Solutions are needed that strengthen both border security and efficiency at the same time.¶ The integrated nature of the North American manufacturing sector makes eliminating border congestion an important way to enhance regional competitiveness. The global economic crisis forced manufacturers to look for ways to cut costs. After taking into consideration factors such as rising fuel costs, increasing wages in China and the ability to automate an ever greater portion of the production process, many American companies decided to nearshore factories to Mexico or reshore them to the United States, taking advantage of strong human capital and shorter supply chains. Bilateral trade dropped significantly during the recession but has since rebounded strongly, growing significantly faster than trade with China.¶ But the growth of trade continues to add pressure on the already strained POEs and transportation corridors. Several studies have attempted to quantify the costs of border area congestion to the economies of the United States and Mexico. In what is perhaps a testimony to the fragmented and geographically disperse nature of the border region, most of these studies have focused on particular North-South corridors of traffic and trade rather than taking a comprehensive, border-wide approach. The specific results of the studies (see table on p. 108) are quite varied. Nonetheless, one message comes through quite clearly — long and unpredictable wait times at the POEs are costing the United States and Mexican economies many billions of dollars each year.¶ Moderate investments to update infrastructure and to fully staff the ports of entry are certainly needed, as long lines and overworked staff promote neither efficiency nor security. But in a time of tight federal budgets, asking for more resources cannot be the only answer. Strategic efforts that do more with less, improving efficiency and reducing congestion, are also needed. Trusted traveler and shipper programs (i.e. the Global Entry programs, which includes programs such as SENTRI, FAST, C-TPAT) allow vetted, low-risk individuals and shipments expedited passage across the border.¶ Common Voice¶ Improving these programs and significantly expanding enrollment could increase throughput with minimal investments in infrastructure and staffing — all while strengthening security by giving border officials more time to focus on unknown and potentially dangerous individuals and shipments. The development of the 21st Century Border initiative by the Obama and Calderón administrations has yielded some advances in this direction, but the efforts need to be redoubled.¶ The 1990s were the decade of NAFTA and skyrocketing trade. The 2000s saw security concerns grow and recession struck. The new decade has only just begun, but the potential is there for a resurgence of competitiveness and regional integration. There are strong ideas — including trusted traveler and shipper programs, preclearance, customs harmonization, and public-private partnerships — that have enormous potential.¶ The challenge is now for heterogeneous and geographically dispersed border communities to find a way to speak with a common voice, for policymakers in Washington and Mexico City to guide strategic planning for regional competitiveness, and for all stakeholders to engage vigorously in binational dialogue and cooperation There is empirical proof of US-Mexico environmental cooperation Landa 12 (Jose, Eagle Pass Business Journal News columnist, “U.S.-Mexico Environmentalists Join Forces to Fight Open Surface Coal Mines on Rio Grande River,” 8/11/12, http://www.epbusinessjournal.com/2012/08/u-s-mexico-environmentalists-join-forces-tofight-open-surface-coal-mines-on-rio-grande-river/, MDM) In a historic United States and Mexico environmentalists’ meeting celebrated Friday, August 10, 2012, at 10 a.m. at the international U.S.-Mexico boundary at the City of Eagle Pass International Bridge No. 1 between Eagle Pass, Texas and Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico, members of the Maverick County Environmental and Public Health Association and the Consejo Ciudadano Piedras Negras Por Un Mejor did an international ecological friendship abrazo and joined forces to oppose two open surface coal mines , one already opened in Piedras Negras, Coahuila since March of 2011 and a proposed sister open pit coal mine in Eagle Pass, Texas whose permit is pending before the Railroad Commission of Texas, from contaminating their communities’ potable water supply from the Rio Grande River.¶ Eagle Pass Mayor Ramsey English Cantu welcomed the bi-national environmentalists at the international boundary line between the U.S.-Mexico and pledged both his personal and the City of Eagle Pass’ support, who is a contestant at the Texas Railroad Commission permit hearing, to protect both Eagle Pass’ and Piedras Negras’ potable water supply from the Rio Grande from becoming polluted and contaminated due to coal mine waste discharges into Elm Creek, other creeks, underground water aquifers, and the Rio Grande itself.¶ Maverick County Environmental and Public Health Association member, Martha Bowles Baxter, stated that whatever pollution occurs in the proposed Eagle Pass Mine will affect both Eagle Pass and Piedras citizens alike as well as over 3 million Texas-Mexico residents downstream from Eagle Pass-Piedras Negras. Consejo Ciudadano Piedras Negras Por Un Mejor member Victor Manuel Perez Rodriguez stated that the “Tajo Norte/Zacatoza” open surface coal mine in Piedras Negras was illegally approved on December 14, 2009 by the Piedras Negras City Council at a 5 a.m. Meeting pursuant to State of Coahuila laws instead of Mexican federal laws. Both open surface coal mines are owned by subsidiaries of Mexican global steel and energy conglomerate, Altos Hornos de Mexico, S.A. de C.V. (AHMSA) and Grupo Acerero del Norte, S.A. de C.V. (Grupo GAN).¶ The proposed Eagle Pass Mine is owned by a Texas Partnership called Dos Republicas Coal Partnership, which is owned by two Texas corporations who in turn are owned by a Mexican subsidiary of AHMSA/Grupo GAN. The bituminous coal to be extracted at both coal mines is to be sold to a Mexican company who has the coal supply contract with the Mexican government electricity entity, Comision Federal de Electricidad (CFE) , to burn the coal at Latin America’s two largest coal electricity plants located in Nava, Coahuila, Mexico known as Carbon 1 and 2. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency(EPA), these two Mexican-government owned coal electricity plants are among the largest polluters of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide to the State of Texas and United States, including the Big Bend National Park.¶ Dos Republicas Coal Partnership plans to ship the Eagle Pass Mine coal by railroad cars through a private railroad bridge and line owned by the same investors as the coal mine. The Eagle Pass Railroad company has submitted an application with the State Department of the United States for a permit to build and own the private railroad bridge and line and is pending.¶ The City of Eagle Pass, County of Maverick, Maverick County Hospital District, Maverick County Environmental and Public Health Association, and many local farmers, rancher, and residents oppose Dos Republicas Coal Partnership’s application to renew, revise, and expand Permit 42A, Eagle Pass Mine, just three miles north of the Eagle Pass city limits and upstream from both the Eagle Pass and Piedras Negras municipal water treatment plants. Opponents also contend both coal mines will pollute their air, cause methane gas emissions into the air, cause many chronic pulmonary diseases and cancer, and cause the destruction of natural habitats of the federally endangered ocelot and jaurguandi cats. Dos Republicas Coal Partnership denies these allegations.¶ The historic U.S.-Mexico environmentalists’ joint agreement to collaborate on protecting the U.S.-Mexico border from pollution and contamination from industrial economic developments, including open surface coal mines on or near the banks of the Rio Grande River, is a major ecological milestone. Maverick County Environmental and Public Health Association Vice-President Jose Reyna asked for a moment of silence in honor of all persons on both the Texas-Mexico border who have died from cancer. say yes Burgeoning cooperation makes now key to solve, independently means Mexico will say yes de la Parra et al. 13 (Carlos, professor and researcher at the Colegio de la Frontera Norte in the department of Urban Studies and Environment at the Wilson Center, “The State of Sustainability and the Evolving Challenges of Managing the U.S.-Mexico Border Environment,” 5/13, http://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/mexico_state_of_border_0.pdf, MDM) The concern of both nations over environmental quality at their common border ¶ is relatively new, relatively low on the list of priorities of both capital cities, and ¶ ostensibly reactive. In comparison with the framework for managing shared ¶ U.S.-Mexico water resources, which has been in existence for over a century, ¶ joint efforts to control environmental pollution are less than 30 years old, and ¶ research and analysis on the region’s sustainability are in their infancy. In the ¶ years following the United States-Mexico Environmental Cooperation Agreement, also known as the La Paz Agreement,2¶ which was the first U.S.-Mexico ¶ environmental cooperation framework signed by the two countries, successive ¶ border environmental programs were created to address pollution problems ¶ along the border. But funding for border projects competes for scarce resources against other national priorities on both sides of the border, as evidenced by ¶ the shrinking funds in the Border Environment Infrastructure Fund, which saw ¶ appropriations from the U.S. Congress drop from a high of one hundred million ¶ dollars per year in the mid-Nineties to levels of less than twenty million by ¶ 2008.3 The long term stability of U.S. funding for border affairs remains highly ¶ susceptible to the political priorities of Congress and/or the White House. ¶ Despite these shrinking resources, there is growing recognition that sustainability cannot be disassociated from security, quality of life, or economic development. Indeed, sustainability of the environment provides the basis for quality ¶ of life in terms of health, jobs, and sustainable security. Throughout the three ¶ decades of bilateral cooperation on environmental quality, issues and priorities ¶ along the border have evolved. A deficient water and sewerage infrastructure ¶ is no longer the main cause of pollution along the border, nor is pollution, per ¶ se, the environmental issue of greatest concern for both governments. In the ¶ 1980s, cross-border pollution had become a liability in U.S.-Mexico relations. It ¶ was problematic in San Diego, as sewage from Tijuana overflowed into the ¶ sensitive Tijuana River Estuarine Reserve on the U.S. side; it was an issue ¶ in the Arizona-Sonora area, as the copper smelters in Douglas, Arizona and 125 The State of the Border Report¶ Nacozari, Sonora polluted common regional air quality with sulfur dioxide; and ¶ it was an issue in Tecate, B.C. and Matamoros, Tamaulipas when hazardous ¶ waste from U.S. firms began appearing illegally in Mexican rural areas. But ¶ successive U.S.-Mexico environmental programs4 under the La Paz Agreement ¶ provided joint interventions by both federal governments, strengthened by ¶ state government investments in the latest multi-year program, building greater knowledge and capacity to control pollution at the border.¶ solves congestion Getting rid of idling vehicles cuts air pollution Bonner et al. 10 (Former Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection; Former Administrator, Drug Enforcement Administration, “Managing the United States-Mexico Border: Cooperative Solutions to Common Challenges,” 11/4/10, http://www.pacificcouncil.org/document.doc?id=30, MDM) The border region is an area of striking beauty and biodiversity, but also of significant ¶ pollution and environmental damage. Because emissions and effluents cross the ¶ border easily, only coordinated action on this front can safeguard environmental ¶ standards. ¶ In general, efforts to facilitate commerce, promote economic development, and ¶ properly manage water resources will all advance environmental goals. For instance, ¶ cutting wait times at the border reduces air pollution from idling vehicles . In addition to ¶ these measures, however, governments must also take direct steps to preserve the ¶ border region’s natural heritage and reduce environmental degradation. congestion bad Air pollution at the border spreads globally, only reducing congestion solves de la Parra et al. 13 (Carlos, professor and researcher at the Colegio de la Frontera Norte in the department of Urban Studies and Environment at the Wilson Center, “The State of Sustainability and the Evolving Challenges of Managing the U.S.-Mexico Border Environment,” 5/13, http://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/mexico_state_of_border_0.pdf, MDM) The border region, with few exceptions, ¶ consists of a series of common transborder airsheds (volumes of air that circulate ¶ or exist temporarily on both sides of the ¶ border). Two factors in particular work to ¶ make air quality management at the border ¶ challenging: a rapid degree of sprawling urbanization and industrialization, ¶ and the division of legal jurisdiction between the two countries within those ¶ common transborder airsheds. Combine the above with the arid and semiarid nature of the region, the high automobile usage in the Southwestern U.S. ¶ coupled with the lack of public transit in Mexican cities, and the result is urban ¶ air quality that is in fact a mixture of carbon monoxide, suspended particulate ¶ matter (mostly PM 2.5, 6.0 and 10), and ozone. In a study on the levels of ¶ ozone, carbon monoxide and PM10 done for the San Diego-Tijuana and Mexicali-Imperial borders, Quintero et al found air quality compliance for PM10 only in ¶ San Diego, in Tijuana and San Diego for CO, and all four counties/municipalities ¶ were in non-attainment for air ozone quality standards.18 Air quality is especially challenging when we include greenhouse gases. Air ¶ quality issues have always been complicated by their complex mixture of ¶ pollutants, sources, exposures, effects and the susceptibilities of different ¶ populations, and can be compounded in a binational context. What’s more, ¶ maritime flows introduce pollutants from bunker fuels (the relatively dirty ¶ petroleum product burned by ships at sea) and the remote rural and even the ¶ larger and closer community centers have no air quality information.¶ Brick kilns both in the Paso del Norte and the Mexicali-Calexico border are ¶ especially dirty sources of all pollutants. Traditional fuels for kilns include waste ¶ materials like scrap wood, tires, batteries, fuel oil, and almost anything that’s ¶ ignitable. The Mexicali-Calexico area has one of the highest incidences of ¶ asthma in both countries, and two additional power plants built by Intergen ¶ and Sempra Energy aggravated a community already susceptible to respiratory ¶ ailments. ¶ Congestion at ports of entry continues to be a source of air contamination as ¶ the average queue time has increased in the last 10 years. Some trucks wait in ¶ line for several hours.¶ Muñoz-Meléndez, Quintero-Núñez and Pumfrey provide several options to ¶ meet the challenges of air quality management at the border, amongst which ¶ the cross-border trading of emissionreduction credits and the creation of a ¶ clean-air investment fund stand out.19 Air pollution can travel transnationally SCERP 8 (Southwest Consortium for Environmental Research and Policy, “Air quality at the US-Mexican border; current state and future considerations towards sustainability,” 11/17/08, http://www.scerp.org/bi/BI_X/papers/3-Air%20Quality%20at%20the%20USMexican%20Border.pdf, MDM) Many border residents are currently exposed to health-threatening levels of air pollution ¶ by the presence of substances such as ozone (O3), particulate matter (PM), carbon dioxide ¶ (CO2), and sulfur dioxide (SO2). This situation has created concerns on both sides of the ¶ border, and the U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Mexico’s National ¶ Institute of Ecology (Instituto Nacional de Ecologia-INE) have developed regional ¶ strategies to improve air quality based on separate but similar national ambient air quality ¶ standards. ¶ Air pollutants move freely across political borders. Because of physical conditions such ¶ as topography, geomorphology and weather, border communities share air sheds or air ¶ basins that are characterized by changing wind patterns depending on the season. Wind is ¶ the means of transport of air pollutants, and thus any human activity that generates ¶ pollutants on one side of the border will have an impact on the other side. misc baseball diplomacy 1nc Text: The United States federal government should pass the Baseball Diplomacy Act Baseball diplomacy increases relations with Cuba without having to remove the embargo Greller 99 Matthew N. Greller, American University International Law Review, “Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor, Your Fastball Pitchers Yearning for Strike Three: How Baseball Diplomacy Can Revitalize Major League Baseball and United States-Cuba Relations,” 14 Am. U. Int'l L. Rev. 1647, 1999 http://digitalcommons.wcl.american.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1341&context=auilr The drain of talent from Cuba to MLB provides a source of international embarrassment to Cuban President, and baseball fan, Fidel Castro . 5 Castro's distaste for these defections embitters United StatesCuba relations, and is strikingly similar to many MLB teams' distaste for the departure of free agent players to rival teams.' 6 While the original defectors did not represent Cuba's best talent, °7 the subsequent defections of pitchers Osvaldo Fernandez and the Hernandez brothers illustrated that the top-tier players also desired to leave Cuba for MLB.208 To prevent further defections, the touring National Team suspended several players suspected of defecting, and shuffled its roster to exclude some of the best players.2° Many baseball scouts claim that this drastic rearrangement represents the beginning of Castro's effort to prevent further baseball defections to America."' Rather than witness these players defect to the United States, several scouts believe that Castro will sell the rights' to the players cleared for the 2000 Olympics to the Japanese League.'1" Preventing talented Cuban baseball players from competing on the National Team, or sending them to Japan, only balks at the possibility to improve the relations between the United States and Cuba through Baseball Diplomacy.23 The recent changes in the embargo against Cuba indicate the United States' willingness to seek greater contacts between the people of these two nations.1 Moreover, Fidel Castro's recent international agreements recognize the importance of forging political and economic ties to ease Cuba's economic crisis."5 Consequently, changes regarding Cuban baseball immigration can provide the impetus for creating the greater contacts and economic ties desired by both nations. Thus, the incentive exists for Castro to permit Cubans to compete in MLB if such a policy could both rectify the deteriorating conditions of Cuban baseball, 17 and enable the people-to-people contacts needed to energize the relationship between the United States and Cuba."8 Recent statements from Cuban officials indicate a willingness by Cuba to allow its players to compete in MLB, provided that any new arrangement respects Cuban socialist sports.19 Continued adherence to the "El Duque" model will only serve to intensify the many problems that stem from this model. "-0 Adhering to a fourstep process, however, can alleviate these problems, and create an effective Baseball Diplomacy to improve the quality of MLB and United States-Cuba relations. A. FIRST BASE: ENDING EXCLUSIONARY PRACTICES To facilitate changes in Cuban baseball player immigration, MLB, Cuba, and the United States must first abandon their policies of exclusion. For this to occur, MLB must abandon former Commissioner Kuhn's 1977 Directive, which prevents MLB teams from scouting or signing Cuban players.2 ' Such a change will bring MLB closer to Kuhn's ultimate goal of utilizing baseball to improve bilateral relations between Cuba and the United States. 2 1 In addition, Castro must remove the 1960 ban on Cubans competing in professional sports, which discourages Cuban participation in MLB. 23 For the United States, however, changes in Cuban baseball immigration require neither abandoning the economic embargo against Cuba, nor the overall policy that seeks people-to-people contacts to hasten a democratic transition.-" Such changes merely require precise modifications of portions of the embargo to permit an effective Baseball Diplomacy to begin.- These changes will indicate a will- ingness to allow Cuban baseball players to join MLB, and allow Baseball Diplomacy to reach First Base. B. SECOND BASE: DRAFTING CUBAN PLAYERS To remain close to the Cuban government's desire to respect the principles of Cuban sports226 and to bolster the competitive balance within MLB, Baseball Diplomacy requires further proactive efforts. Accordingly, MLB must implement a system that exposes Cuban players who desire to play in MLB to the June Draft, instead of allowing these players to follow the "El Duque" model." Drafting Cuban players will comply with Kuhn's desire to establish an orderly system that allows for the fair distribution of Cuban players. "2 Such a change will spread the rich Cuban talent around the thinning MLB rosters, and instill pride in the hearts of Cubans throughout the northem hemisphere. 9 Moreover, draffing Cuban players will allow poorer MILB teams to acquire some of the best international talent that they currently cannot obtain.2-0 Consequently, drafting Cuban players will provide the opportunity for these teams to enjoy increased fan support, media interest, attendance levels, and television and radio ratings that can buoy their financial solvency.23 ' To do so, MLB must amend both Rule 4(a) and Rule 3(a)(1) to permit the drafting of Cuban players, and allow these newly drafted players to sign contracts with the teams that draft them. An amended Rule 4(a) should read, "For purposes of this Rule 4, the term 'United States' shall mean the 50 States of the United States of America, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and any other Commonwealth, Territory or Possession of the United States of America. Additionally, for the purposes of this Rule 4, a player may be eligible to sign if said player resides within the Republic of Cuba.232 Moreover, Rule 3(a)(1)'s provisions for the First-Year Draft should include this amended language to enable the signing of Cuban players.233 Drafting Cuban baseball players, however, will not deprive these players of the ability to command large contracts. In fact, the amendments will allow Cuban players to be treated like all the other MLB players who are entitled to salary arbitration after three years of service within MLB, and who can obtain free agency after six years with the same team.2 " 4 The drafted Cuban baseball players will receive these conditions as well. Drafting Cuban players, therefore, will allow Baseball Diplomacy to move halfivay towards its goals, and advance to Second Base. C. THIRD BASE: A CUBAN CONTRACT TAX To SUPPORT CUBAN BASEBALL To support the Cuban League that will provide MLB with Cuban talent, MLB should impose a moderate tax on teams that sign Cuban players. Much like the payroll and player salary taxes that go to baseball's central revenue fund,ns MLB teams should pay a tax on the contracts signed by Cuban players into a MLB fund designed to support both the Cuban baseball infrastructure,2 and the Cuban scouting efforts of all thirty MLB teams. -7 This tax will apply to those Cuban players that continue to pursue the "El Duque" model, as well as Cuban players that naturally become free agents after six seasons with the same team. If a 2.5% tax2' exists the next time a Cuban player like "El Duque" signs a $6.6 million contract, that player's team will pay $150,000 into a MLB fund that supports Cuban baseball and the scouting efforts of all MLB teams within Cuba.2 1 9 Thus, while the United States will absorb talented Cuban players, the success of these players will assist the development of future Cuban stars by improving the infrastructure of Cuban baseball through better equipment and training.240 This money will not go to the Cuban government,24 ' but rather will remain under the auspices of MLB while directly going to the Cuban people through baseball.4 Additionally, this tax can provide Castro the opportunity to redirect funding previously earmarked for Cuban baseball2 "' towards alleviating the rampant conditions of poverty that plague the Cuban people.2 " Enacting the policies of Baseball Diplomacy from First to Third Base will decrease the incentives for Cuban players to follow the "El Duque" model."5 Moreover, the economic reasons for players to defect will dissipate.46 Although some Cuban players may still seek to immediately command lucrative contracts under the "El Duque" model, most of the Cuban talent will still remain available to the majority of MLB teams through the Draft.4 Such a draft system will not eliminate the dichotomy between rich and poor teams. It will, however, afford poorer teams access to Cuban players by allowing them to scout, draft, and trade these players for greater financial and competitive success. 24 Thus, a Cuban Draft and a tax on Cuban contracts supporting the Cuban baseball infrastructure will assist the struggling economies of both MLB and Cuban baseball, and will enable Baseball Diplomacy to safely move to Third Base. D. HOME PLATE: CHANGING UNITED STATES IMMIGRATION LAWS These changes by MLB and Cuba, however, will not succeed unless efforts begin at home. The United States must change its immigration policies to look beyond the current Cuban communist government, and instead seek to reach out to the Cuban people through baseball. 249 Prior to the enactment of the Helms-Burton Act250 and the establishment of the "El Duque" model, New York Congressman Jose Serrano first introduced legislation designed to permit Cuban baseball players to play in the United States. In the 106' Congress, this legislation, House Bill 262, remains before the House Subcommittee on Immigration and Claims.-"2 Serrano based the aptly titled "Baseball Diplomacy Act" on the ability of sports to unite people from various backgrounds,2" and provides the impetus for an effective Baseball Diplomacy. By passing such legislation, Congress will illustrate that the United States no longer will force Cuban baseball players to defect in order to compete in MLB. -" Moreover, passage of House Bill 262 will illustrate a dynamic approach to United States-Cuba policy by increasing people-to-people contacts2 " through baseball player immigration. Additionally, by permitting targeted modifications in the application of the United States embargo to allow the immigration of Cuban baseball players , House Bill 262 will not drastically depart from the overall United States policy to pressure the Castro government.2 6 Subsequent versions of Serrano's proposed legislation, however, should amend Section l(a)(1) to provide "O-1" or "P-i" visas for Cuban players instead of the current language that calls for pro- viding "H-2B" visas.257 Authorizing the appropriate "0" or "P" visas for players and their families will diminish the difficulty of playing in the United States, and will eliminate the need to defect.21 Furthermore, allowing Cuban baseball players to receive "0" or "P" visas will allow these players to enter the United States the same way as other foreign baseball players.5 9 Admittedly, preventing the Castro government from seizing the salaries of these players may prove difficult. Undoubtedly, supporters and members of the CubanAmerican lobby will seek to prevent enactment of House Bill 262 because of their opposition to any interaction with Castro, and because of the possibility that the Cuban President may benefit by seizing the player's salaries.2 ° Implementing this legislation, however, will provide the first step towards allowing a Draft that will display Cuban talent throughout MLB.261 Coupled with a tax on Cuban contracts that will support Cuban baseball, the incentives for seizing players' salaries will diminish.262 Enacting the four proposals of Baseball Diplomacy requires strong leadership, and a commitment to move around the Base-Path. MLB Commissioner Bud Selig, and Presidents Castro and Clinton must seize the opportunity to catch Baseball Diplomacy.2' Their efforts to finalize the details of the Orioles-Cuban National Team exhibition series indicates a potential willingness to try Baseball Diplomacy.2' Despite the political and financial difficulties of organizing these exhibition games,265 the series reaffirmed the ability to bring the Cuban and American people closer together through baseball.266 CONCLUSION Like good fundamental baseball, MLB, Cuba, and the United States must move Base-by-Base to succeed. Each time one side decides to move ninety feet to the next Base, the years of animosity and the ninety miles separating Cuba and the United States begins to fade. All three sides stand to gain from the aforementioned proposals of Baseball Diplomacy. Baseball Diplomacy, though, is not a panacea. These small steps will not bridge the ideological gap separating a communist dictatorship from a democratic republic, 67 nor will they allow the Montreal Expos to dethrone the New York Yankees.26 Enacting these policies, however, will act as a catalyst in that direction, and allow the world's baseball fans to collectively cheer for the best baseball available. Ultimately, such changes will insure a true World Series each October. 2nc solves Defections are specifically detrimental to relations- we solve their advantage best Greller 99 Matthew N. Greller, American University International Law Review, “Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor, Your Fastball Pitchers Yearning for Strike Three: How Baseball Diplomacy Can Revitalize Major League Baseball and United States-Cuba Relations,” 14 Am. U. Int'l L. Rev. 1647, 1999 http://digitalcommons.wcl.american.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1341&context=auilr Rene Arocha's foray into MLB followed the tenor of existing United States-Cuban relations.175 The larger forces of Cuba's struggling economy,'76 coupled with the appeal of lucrative MLB salaries,177 heavily influenced Arocha's defection and the desires of other Cuban baseball players to defect.17 ' This rebirth of a Cuban-trained presence in MLB coincided with several external events that drastically affected United States-Cuban relations.' Following the arrival of these Cuban players, legislative developments in the United States hastened the collapse of the Cuban econ- omy,"8° and subsequently encouraged further baseball defections."' Unlike Jackie Robinson's' pioneering entry into MLB, that eventually enabled societal changes regarding race relations,' the legislative developments following Arocha's arrival additionally aggravated the relations between the United States and Cuba.""' Ultimately, by encouraging further defections, this legislation extended animosity to the baseball diamond.'' aff- links to politics Baseball diplomacy is extremely controversial Greller 99 Matthew N. Greller, American University International Law Review, “Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor, Your Fastball Pitchers Yearning for Strike Three: How Baseball Diplomacy Can Revitalize Major League Baseball and United States-Cuba Relations,” 14 Am. U. Int'l L. Rev. 1647, 1999 http://digitalcommons.wcl.american.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1341&context=auilr Few things ignite such heated passion in America as discussions about baseball 2 or the United States' international relations with Cuba.' Recently, the Clinton Administration's proposal to ease the United States' trade embargo against Cuba4 thrust these two seemingly diverse realms together,5 permitting exhibition games between the Baltimore Orioles and the Cuban National Team' in Havana' and Baltimore! Despite the Cuban government's reactionary measures towards the new United States initiatives,' and stem rebukes from influential Cuban-Americans," Cuban and Major League Baseball ("MLB") players met on the baseball diamond 2 for the first time in forty years." ofac cp 1nc Department of Treasure’s Office of Foreign Assets Control should grant licenses to US scientists and conservation professionals for the purpose of collaborating with Cuban scientists and conservation professionals Boom, 12 (Brian M., Director, Caribbean Biodiversity Program, Ph.D in Biological Sciences, “Biodiversity without Borders”, September 2012, http://www.sciencediplomacy.org/article/2012/biodiversity-without-borders, jld) A few months before the Brookings/EDF gathering, the American Council of Learned Societies/Social Science Research Council Working Group on Cuba and the Christopher Reynolds Foundation sponsored a two-day workshop. “Workshop on the Future of Environmental Collaboration between the United States and Cuba,” held in November 2008 in New York City, helped identify and define the issues that led to the Brookings/EDF event and to a number of others. This workshop was attended by thirty-two representatives of environmental NGOs and private philanthropic foundations. One of the outputs was a letter, dated December 11, 2008, which was signed by twelve CEOs of environmental NGOs, addressed to then PresideWnt-elect Barack Obama urging him to “take action to increase scientific exchange and collaboration between the United States and Cuba.” The letter specifically suggested issuing U.S. visas to Cuban scientists and conservation professionals; directing the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to grant licenses to U.S. scientists and conservation professionals planning to collaborate with their Cuban colleagues; giving OFAC licenses to U.S. entities to enable Cuban scientists and conservation professionals to travel to third countries when U.S. funds are used; directing federal agencies, such as NOAA, to encourage more collaboration between U.S. and Cuban scientists and academic and conservation professionals; and amending OFAC regulations that govern educational exchanges between the United States and Cuba to allow more flexibility.