Plan for water.

• Autores: Elizabeth Querna
• Localización: Scientific American, ISSN 0036-8733, Vol. 291, Nº. 2, 2004, págs. 25-26
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • The article discusses how ocean policy and management have attracted more national attention recently. A recent federal report brings together years of research and comes to the long-standing yet little heeded conclusion that the oceans are in trouble. Almost everyone, including conservationists, environmental groups, state officials and industry representatives, applauds the report for taking major steps toward improving management of the oceans. The 450-page report of the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy, a 16-member presidential committee, is the first federal study since 1969 to take a broad look at the health of the nation's oceans, and it propounds an overhaul of ocean policy. Among its proposals are a shift in wildlife management from an approach based on a single species to one based on ecosystems; the creation of a National Oceans Council within the executive branch; and a doubling of federal money allocated to ocean research, from $650 million to $1.3 billion. The commission proposed establishing the Ocean Policy Trust Fund using money already paid to the government by offshore drilling companies that use federal waters. The trust fund, which would be worth about $5 billion annually, would go to several programs already in existence, as well as to states and to federal agencies. Another, possibly larger, point of contention is that the funding structure will pressure states to beef up their oil- and gas-drilling programs. The commission recommended that more money go to the states that engage in offshore energy and gas production.