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WASHINGTON, DC, August 7, 2006 (ENS) – The federal government is failing to respond to alarming evidence that the oceans are in crisis, ocean experts told a Senate panel last week. Two years after a federal commission called on the Bush administration and Congress to aggressively overhaul the nation's ocean policy, key recommendations have not been implemented and critical ocean research efforts face deep funding cuts. The state of the oceans is not good and "is getting worse," said Leon Panetta, a former California Congressman and cochair of the Joint Ocean Commission Initiative. Pollution, overfishing and coastal runoff are damaging...

by Edward Hudgins What do Britain's astronomer royal Martin Rees and Australian environmentalist David Leary of Macquarie University have in common? Both are concerned that someone might be making profits on outer and inner space frontiers where there are no government regulators or bureaucrats to be found. In 2002 Rees regretted the possibility that private companies might get to Mars before governments do and make it into another Wild West. Today Leary laments that six companies are selling products derived from the deep ocean and that eight other companies are moving in to make bucks at the bottom of the...

United Nations Law-of-the-Sea Treaty Threatens U.S. Sovereignty Written by Tom DeWeese Sunday, June 20, 2004 ~~o~~ Those driving the battle to entangle the United States in the United Nations’ Law-of-the-Sea Treaty (LOST) are fighting back, determined to paint any opponent as a radical who is out of touch with the way the world really works. Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) and his allies are mad because they had hoped to sneak LOST through the Senate before anyone noticed. Opponents to the treaty foiled that trick and blasted it to the nation. Americans rose up in protest and now...

A U.N. treaty governing the oceans could clear the way for U.S. oil companies to tap deep oil and gas reserves offshore, which supporters say would bolster America's energy security. But that access might be blocked, because conservatives opposed to the multinational treaty are fighting hard to keep a strong Senate majority from ratifying the pact. When Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice called in January for prompt ratification of the treaty, she gave American oil companies their best hope yet to tap oil and gas reserves lying under thousands of feet of seawater. <snip>.......... In 2003, about 62 percent of...

Commentary "River Kwai Syndrome" Plays in Law of the Sea Frank J. Gaffney Jr. Proceedings, March 2005 Discuss this article in the eForum. In 1957, Hollywood created the unforgettable image of military men throwing themselves into a construction project, having lost sight of the fact that the result could be used by the enemy to the grave detriment of their comrades and country. Unfortunately, nearly 50 years after The Bridge on the River Kwai entered the public consciousness, the Navy seems afflicted with the same syndrome as it encourages U.S. ratification of the controversial U.N. Convention on the Law of...

So it is with the so-called Law of the Sea treaty negotiated by the late Elliott Richardson and others like him back in the ’70s, rejected by Ronald Reagan in the early years of his presidency and ignored by the Senate when Bill Clinton tried to revive it in the ’90s. But now, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has moved it out of the file of dead ideas to the front burner with a promise to Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) that the Bush administration wants it to be ratified as soon as possible. Thus, Bush is...

LAW OF THE SEA TREATY UPDATE: We may be very close to victory on The Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST). Our sources on the Hill tell us that Majority Leader Bill Frist is inclined to let LOST die an unceremonious death; saying, "the (conservative) 'base' does not want LOST." Thank you to all of you who have participated in this Blast Fax campaign... you are most definitely having an effect. For those of you who are still considering participating... NOW is a good time. We do not want to declare victory prematurely, but one final push may be all...

Senator Richard Lugar wants to give the United Nations the same collection of villains and rogues who brought you the oil for food scam the means to raise your taxes. You read that right! Richard Lugar, with the backing of Condoleezza Rice and other members of the administration, are once again pushing for ratification of The Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST) which will allow the United Nations to impose taxes on each and every one of us. Many of you may remember that we won this battle last year, when Senator Lugar tried to steamroller LOST through the Senate...

Related THREAD on this subject: Lugar, Rice, & Others Pushing For Law Of the Sea Treaty (LOST) Passage WHY WOULD REPUBLICAN SENATORS SUPPORT LOST? Big oil and multi-national firms support LOST because it would codify U.S. rights to explore and mine the ocean up to 200 miles from the American coast and would let the United States stake claims to seabeds outside that limit. LOST means big money for big oil and other multi-national firms and it could actually be of some benefit -- in the short term -- to the U.S. economy. Also, many of the big oil firms...

The ice-cloaked Arctic Ocean was once apparently a warm, biologically brewing basin so rich in sinking organic material that some scientists examining fresh evidence pulled from a submerged ridge near the North Pole say the seabed may now hold significant oil and gas deposits. This is just one of many findings from a pioneering expedition that in late summer sent dozens of scientists and technicians on three icebreakers - one with a drilling rig nine stories tall - into the drifting, crunching plates of sea ice to retrieve the first long-term record of climate and ocean conditions there. The expedition...

...LOST would have our country surrender its sovereignty on the seas to a body called the International Seabed Authority (ISA), whose membership is stacked in favor of Third World nations. If the Senate ratifies LOST, we will have given the ISA the authority to determine what rights our country will have to mine minerals located on the ocean floor and the right to tax their extraction only hope that conservatives across this nation will come to the defense of our country’s sovereignty by making it absolutely clear, in no uncertain terms, where they stand. If everyone does, I am confident...

worthy global treaty has been awaiting Senate ratification for 22 years. If a tiny but noisy group of xenophobic activists, assisted by a callow Senate leadership, have their way, it will wait forever. And the world, the oceans and the strategic interests of the United States will be the poorer. The treaty in question is the Law of the Sea, which, despite its soporific name and noble intent, has inspired lively ideological warfare over the years. Written in 1982 under United Nations auspices, it gives each nation control over its own coastal waters - an "exclusive economic zone" extending 200...

<p>The oceans of the world are being overfished. The solution: roaming robots that bring fish farming to the open seas.</p> <p>About 9 miles southeast of New Hampshire, near the Isles of Shoals, what seems to be an ordinary yellow navigation buoy sways in the Atlantic chop. Like a regular buoy, it's a metal cylinder that extends 10 feet above the surface and blinks its lights to warn away passing ships. Unlike a regular buoy, though, it has an access hatch that leads to an inner chamber crammed with enough electronics to merit its own IT staff. Indeed, this may be the first buoy in history that had its launch delayed by a software glitch.</p>

<p>THE DEFENSE Department, environmentalists, and industry all support the long-delayed US ratification of the international Law of the Sea treaty. But there is a danger that Senate conservatives opposed to any multilateral agreements will keep the chamber from voting on it, at least until after November's election.</p>

SYDNEY - A conservative revolt that waylaid Washington's latest attempts to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea has also set back hopes of a more effective disputes mechanism for contested natural resources in Asia. Continuing a standoff that has existed since the treaty was enacted in 1982, the United States Senate again declined to debate a Foreign Relations Committee resolution, backed by the administration of President George W Bush, that might have led to recognition of the world's most ambitious forum for conflict resolution. Another bid is expected to be made through one of six...

Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., has just thrown sand in the gears of the effort to ram through a treaty that could make America more vulnerable to terrorists. His Senate Committee of Environment and Public Works will hold a hearing March 23 on the Law of the Sea Treaty. Chairman Inhofe clearly intends to see to it that the “world’s most deliberative body” does what it’s supposed to do: deliberate. Up until now, the controversial treaty has been quietly slipping through. Americans were looking the other way, but Sen. Inhofe’s hearings will likely focus their attention. The Law of the Sea...

March 16, 2004 Your efforts are paying off! On March 8th, we told you about the political elite trying to quickly and quietly get the Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST) ratified by the U.S. Senate. This treaty has languished in the Senate ever since President Reagan opposed it in 1982. However, careerists at the U.S. Department of State and other pro-U.N. forces in Washington, who always look for ways to subjugate the United States to the United Nations, thought the time was right to sneak this treaty through the Senate and passed the American public. They were wrong. Senators...

It is like one of those movies with endless sequels. If you care about protecting our nation's sovereignty and homeland security, then you have every reason to hope there is not a surprise ending to the "The Battle over the Law of the Sea Treaty III." The first battle ended happily enough on July 9, 1982 when President Ronald Reagan made clear that we would not participate in the Law of the Sea Treaty because it would clearly undercut our sovereignty. Then, in 1994, our then-UN Ambassador Madeleine Albright signed an allegedly amended version of the Treaty and President Clinton...

Any day now this nation could find itself part of an international treaty that abolishes freedom on seven-tenths of the world’s surface. That’s because the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, a treaty that has remained latent since Bill Clinton’s presidency, has reemerged as a threat to this nation’s sovereignty, thanks in large part to Senate Foreign Relations Chair Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) and his fellow committee members. In February, this committee voted unanimously to bring the treaty to the full senate for consideration; Sen. Majority Leader Bill Frist, who is responsible for scheduling legislation for votes, has not...

BEIJING (Reuters) - China accused the U.S. Navy on Thursday of violating international laws by conducting operations inside China's exclusive economic zone without approval. "We regarded such activities as a violation of the principles of international law and of the interests and jurisdiction of China's special economic zones," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue told a news conference. The U.S. embassy declined to comment. Beijing and Washington have tried in recent weeks to smooth over political and economic differences ahead of a summit in Texas between U.S. President George W. Bush and Chinese President Jiang Zemin on October 25. Zhang gave...