Planktos Urges Supreme Court to Review "Global Warming" Case with Sonar not Radar
Ocean restoration firm Planktos explains why the strongest legal case for EPA CO2 regulation should not be based on the imminent harms of global warming, but on the ecological destruction already occurring in the sea.
During court questioning, some justices seemed to sympathize with the administrations opposition to the suit.
San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) November 30, 2006 — The Supreme Court now ponders the demand by 12 states that the US Environmental Protection Agency regulate CO2 because it harms the environment (Supreme Court docket number 05-1120), but the case seems to focus solely on the imminent “global warming” types of harm. All parties in the proceeding nearsightedly ignore the starved and acidifying oceans where the clear and present danger of high CO2 really lies. Planktos, a firm on the front lines of ocean restoration, urges court members to take a close look at the worlds marine ecosystems to appreciate the devastation already at hand.
There is a lot of conjecture “There is a lot of conjecture,” said Justice Antonin Scalia. “When is the predicted cataclysm?” he asked James R. Milkey, Massachusetts Asst. Attorney General.
That may be accurate with regard to climate effects, but the tragic truth is that the high and rising CO2 levels in our atmosphere have indeed triggered a cataclysm of oceanic breadth and depth. The fact that this cataclysm isnt occurring in the familiar terrestrial arena, but rather in the blue 70% of the planet that we simply call the sea seems to mean it is off the courts radar. This pathetic myopia not only blinds us to the greatest perils we face, it could severely handicap the petitioners suit as well.
“It is not so much a cataclysm as ongoing harm,” Milkey responded.
Planktos therefore implores all the Justices involved in this historic litigation to re-view the case with sonar to see the cataclysmic evidence they demand. It is imperative that we empower and charge our government with the duty to immediately restrain CO2 emissions to alleviate our climate ills and revive our dying seas. It is inexcusable for any residents of this small blue planet, let alone its leadership, to continue to ignore the carnage in the oceans and argue legal semantics while this unprecedented calamity picks up speed.
The administration tried to deny the petitioning States legal standing before the court, claiming they lack demonstrable losses due to high levels of anthropogenic CO2. This ploy can be most effectively countered by presenting the mounting evidence that all coastal states with historically derived revenue and benefits from fisheries or sea life have in fact suffered and will continue to endure enormous losses due to the increasing and unregulated spew of CO2 now fouling our skies and killing our seas.
Second, high atmospheric CO2 has greatly diminished the wind blown dust that normally nourishes the oceans plant life with vital micronutrients. Recent reports from NASA, NOAA and Science magazine clearly show that this nutrient starvation has robbed the ocean of the photosynthetic capacity to fix and remove 4-5 billion tons of CO2 from the global atmosphere each year. This represents a major fraction of our annual output of 6-8 billion tons of manmade CO2 emissions, indicating plankton loss is now perhaps the most significant single factor accelerating global warming.
This also means billions of tons less nourishment at the base of the food chain for fisheries, sea birds and marine mammals. On November 3rd Science reported that this loss of ocean productivity combined with overfishing presaged a catastrophic disappearance of all ocean fish and complex sea life by 2048.
First, ocean acidification, a direct consequence of the long rising CO2 levels in our atmosphere, has made sea water 10% more acidic over recent decades. This escalating acidity is already beginning to attack coral and the tiny shell forming ocean plants on which half our oxygen supply depends. In 2005 the UK Royal Society reported that a global mass extinction of sea life will be well underway by 2050 and profound by 2100.
Planktos is a California company working to develop and deliver practical and affordable solutions to the global ocean and climate crises by restoring ecosystems on land and at sea.
For more information, see our website at www.planktos.com
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