More Politicians Talking “Science”

I know very little about this stretch of ocean, but it’s an interesting article:

Moving to protect fragile marine life, President Barack Obama announced plans Tuesday to create the largest ocean preserve in the world by banning drilling, fishing and other activities in a massive stretch of the Pacific Ocean.

Using presidential authority that doesn’t require new action from Congress, Obama proposed to expand the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument, which President George W. Bush designated to protect unique species and rare geological formations. The waters are all considered U.S. territory because they surround an array of remote, mostly uninhabited islands that the U.S. controls between Hawaii and American Samoa.

I don’t know if the pacific fleet does much fishing in these waters, nor can I comment on the potential for wiping out fragile species. Still this leads me to believe it is a boondoggle:

Carbon pollution is making the world’s oceans more acidic, pollution is threatening marine life and overfishing could wipe out entire species, Obama warned as he vowed to expand the sanctuary during an ocean conservation conference hosted by the State Department.

Except it isn’t! Seawater is a natural buffer, meaning you dump acid in it, it turns basic and neutralizes it, add base and it becomes acidic and neutralizes it, it’s the CO2 that MAKES the seawater so stable, not the other way around. Plus “Acid Rain”? Really? And you thought calling it “Global Warming” was passe, 1985 called, and it wants it’s hysterical environmental junk science back! Why not talk about “The Greenhouse Effect”, or “The Coming of a New Ice Age” while wearing a polyester pleasure suit and your hair all done up with Jerri Curl?

And then there’s this little recursive logic:

“If we ignore these problems, if we drain our oceans of their resources, we won’t just be squandering one of humanity’s greatest treasures,” Obama said in a recorded video message. “We’ll be cutting off one of the world’s major sources of food and economic growth, including for the United States. We cannot afford to let that happen.”

Got that, BAN FISHING so that we can preserve the food supply and money that comes from FISHING! God at least the eco terrorists and government grant mercenaries on the East Coast are trying to collapse the fishing industry because FISHING IS EVIL! This is the environmental equivalent of “We had to destroy the village in order to save it!”

As I read on, there appears to be little interest in drilling or fishing in this massive chunk of ocean, and given that to erect a “Fence” (what fisherman call the border of Marine closed areas) all one needs to do is set the coordinates up on a map, it probably won’t amount to much.

Still if this is his way of thinking, I am very wary on the NEXT step.

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3 Responses to More Politicians Talking “Science”

  1. Paul B says:

    Gah, this stuff kills me. Trying to honestly explain the carbonate cycle would be too difficult, I guess. It’s funny, but not too long ago I gamed out this very same idea with a bunch of college students when talking about the value of meat-and-potatoes experimentation at the undergrad level. “Well, if you create a model and input…”

    My response: “Does anyone here know how to make mathematical models using both parametric and nonparametric equations? No. You take a fucking bag of dolomite, a fish tank, some acid and a heat lamp, and stick a fucking pH probe in the tank. After you’ve got a data set from varying each factor in relation to each other, you throw dry ice chips in the tank, put a CO2 meter in and chart it all over again.”
    The dog-hearing-strange-sound face was everywhere.

    Damn kids. I don’t think they had any idea that you can do more with a $5.99 radio shack calculator and the contents of a garden shed than you can with an Ipad.

  2. AZRon says:

    Weerd, I’m pretty sure that I’ve admonished you before on the incorrect use of “boarder/border” before.

    Renew, refresh, relax.

    (allow me this one word grammar-nazi attribute. Being so close to the BORDER has left me overly sensitive to its correct use)

    Fishing restrictions are largely like the Kyoto Protocol. There is no way to internationally enforce restrictions. There is no way to stop breathing air that has come from eastern Asia. They (and we) can sign every U.N. resolution (we won’t do it no more) from now until kingdom come, and nothing will change as long as profits and bu!!sh!t are elevated above the common man.

    If I could just see lower mercury levels in Walleye and channel cats, I’d be a happy man.

    • Weerd Beard says:

      Typo fixed! Thanks man!

      Well like all laws the rules apply to the lawful. They can’t enforce a foreign boat fishing in international waters, but they CAN nail a permitted US boat for violating the terms of their license. Makes perfect sense.

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