change of heart…?

I’m guessing before he leaves, George Bush will do more harm than good, regarding his environmental policy. But he will do some good.

ONE of the George W. Bush’s final acts as US president could be to create the largest marine conservation area in the world. White House officials say that Bush is considering a proposal to turn up to 2.3 million square kilometres of tropical waters, coral reefs and remote island atolls in the Pacific Ocean into US National Monuments (see map).

“As bad as his environmental record has been, he could, as one individual, protect more of the Earth’s surface than anyone else in history,” says Lance Morgan of the US Marine Conservation Biology Institute.

The article goes on to say that Presidents have the authority to designated any part of U.S. land as protected.

For every sand spit and coral reef jutting above the water line, the US retains exclusive rights to the surrounding waters for 370 kilometres in all directions. It is in these areas that Morgan has been working with the White House on a deal to secure permanent “no-take zones” for fishing and mineral extraction. This also includes the Mariana trench, the planet’s deepest ocean canyon.

It will be interesting to see how this transpires. However, maybe we will still lose. Between the changes in the Clean Air Act all the way to the leniencies in water contamination to mining to lead poisoning, will protecting this area be helpful? Or will it be an overall net negative policy?

The article can be found HERE, via NewScientist.