World Oceans Day

Statement by John Kerry,
Secretary of State

Washington, DC

June 6, 2013

World Oceans Day appropriately demands our focus on protecting our planet’s most critical resource and we reaffirm our responsibility to ocean conservation as environmental stewards.

The United States, working domestically and with partners around the world, has taken significant action to strengthen ocean policy and conservation. Two recent examples are our work with New Zealand to establish a marine protected area in Antarctica’s Ross Sea and our partnership with Ireland and the European Union on Atlantic Ocean research.

We are committed to addressing threats including pollution, overfishing, and ocean acidification. Solving these challenges and ensuring that the legacy of our oceans is available to future generations require both global cooperation and individual action.

Today, I convened a group of high-level U.S. ocean experts to discuss the state of the world’s oceans. I asked them to identify opportunities for the United States to promote international actions to better address these issues and to move the world’s oceans toward a sustainable future.

Whether we’re talking about trade, or climate, or security, or sustainable food sources, there can be no doubt that the oceans deserve our focus. As Secretary of State, I intend to make them a top priority. This fall, I will host an international oceans conference to further explore these issues and work toward shared solutions.

We will maintain the spirit of World Oceans Day throughout the year.

More Coverage: 

Remarks as delivered by Kathryn D. Sullivan, Ph.D.
Acting Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and
NOAA Administrator, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

“Healthy Oceans and Coasts For a Resilient America”
Welcome and Opening Keynote Address
Capitol Hill Oceans Week
Newseum in Washington, D.C.
Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Thank you, Jason [Patlis].

Welcome everyone! What a great turn out! Over 700 registrants. What a great turn out.

Believe it or not, this is my first time at CHOW. It didn’t exist when I served as NOAA’s Chief Scientist in the early ‘90s, much though we needed such a forum.

This is CHOW’s 13th year of convening important conversations about our oceans. Hats off to all of you and the organizations you represent for making CHOW a success year after year! Special kudos to the National Marine Sanctuaries Foundation team for making CHOW happen again this year! May there be many more Capitol Hill Oceans Weeks ahead.

As we gather here during National Oceans Month, I want to take a moment to honor three veteran champions of the oceans, who we lost since last CHOW.

We at NOAA were very saddened to learn of Senator Frank Lautenberg’s passing yesterday. The good Senator was a true statesman and advocate for his constituents and the oceans. He sponsored the Ocean Dumping Act of 1988 and Deep Sea Coral Protection Act. He was also a pioneer in efforts to protect shorelines and critical habitats.

Senator Daniel K. Inouye, another of our great leaders, passed away in December. He was a devoted champion of the oceans and of NOAA’s mission. He sponsored or was instrumental in key federal legislation that today works to protect our citizens and conserve the nation’s ocean resources.

Last year, we also gave our final salutes to Admiral James Watkins. He left a rich legacy of major ocean leadership contributions, most recently, “An Ocean Blueprint for the 21st Century.”

With their first glimpse out the window, every astronaut grasps a profound truth that these ocean leaders clearly knew: that we are citizens of an ocean planet (perversely named “Terra” rather than “Aqua”); that our very existence and the quality of our lives depend critically on the health of our ocean. Daniel Inouye, James Watkins and Frank Lautenberg brought this understanding to life in their individual visions for a healthy ocean — in ways that we will continue to benefit from and build upon for decades to come. We will miss them greatly.

In one way or another, every one of us in this room is moved by a vision of healthy oceans. Every year, Capitol Hill Oceans Week brings us together across interests to share our respective visions, connect our energies and combine our expertise. The conversations that take place at CHOW bring to life the vision of those who crafted the National Ocean Policy — a vision framed by science, and in which people are part of — not separate from dynamic ecosystems; one in which people participate actively in dialogues that underlie the decisions that ultimately define how we live with our ocean and marine ecosystems. This science-informed dialogue can help shape the future of the ocean that is linked so inextricably to the vitality of our communities and our livelihoods.

The nation’s first-ever Ocean Policy, along with the recently released Implementation Plan, signal some of the progress we’ve made in recent years in establishing the frameworks that set the stage for better management of our the oceans and coasts. Other encouraging signals in the policy arena include the Gulf of Mexico Regional Ecosystem Restoration Strategy, the National Strategy for the Arctic Region, and the National Fish, Wildlife, and Plant Climate Adaptation Strategy.

These new policies set the foundation for much-needed progress. Despite these encouraging steps forward, we still face real-world challenges on many fronts: an ever-growing tally of and toll from natural disasters; the prospect of a busier Arctic, and concerns about preparedness for oil spills and other potential impacts of resource development there; a number of fishery disasters, including Northeast groundfish, Alaska Chinook salmon, and Mississippi oyster and blue crab fisheries; Hurricane Sandy added to the roster of fishery disasters; the slow pace of establishing Marine Protected Areas — only about 8 percent of all U.S. waters are in an MPA [marine protected area] focused on conserving natural or cultural resources (This figure excludes fishery MPAs); and more.

These challenges are made more daunting by current budget and resource pressures.

NOAA brings many things to the table to tackle these challenges. Most notable is the strength of our science along with our unique combination of science, service and stewardship. Our mission extends literally from the surface of the sun to the bottom of the sea. Our job is to build an understanding of the Earth, the atmosphere, and the oceans and to transform that understanding into critical environmental intelligence: timely, actionable information, developed from reliable and authoritative science, that gives us foresight about future conditions; that can inform the myriad decisions we confront each and every day as we live our lives and craft our livelihoods on this very dynamic planet … decisions that determine our comfort and our safety, and affect the immediate profitability and long-term sustainability of communities and businesses. Just like the “intelligence” of the security world, this environmental intelligence combines data, information, analysis, modeling, and assessment.

Recent events — the devastating tornadoes and flooding in Oklahoma this past week and Hurricane Sandy last October, to name just two — have renewed an emphasis on resilience as a national imperative. The National Academy of Sciences defines resilience as “the ability to plan and prepare for; absorb; recover from or more successfully adapt to adverse events.” Resilience goes beyond preparedness; it makes us better able to take the blow and rebound readily. This is the sense in which I will use the term today. This is a welcome and promising way forward.

Today, I am going to use coastal zones as the point of departure for my discussion: I will reflect upon the central role that oceans and coasts play in the resilience of this Nation. I will then focus on the role that environmental intelligence plays in fostering resilience, highlighting NOAA’s key role and activities to supply this intelligence. And I will close with some thoughts about what’s needed in the broader landscape of resilience.

So, what do healthy oceans and coasts have to do with resilience?

Let me start with a historical note. When this nation was still young, in 1807, President Thomas Jefferson expressed his ocean vision for the country when he established The Survey of the Coast, the Nation’s first scientific agency and a founding entity in NOAA’s history. Jefferson — along with the Congress that passed the bill with little debate — recognized that charting our oceans and coasts would protect the “lives of our seamen, the interest of our merchants and the benefits to revenue,” as one Congressman put it. America’s charting efforts also were and still are essential to establishing maritime boundaries. Coincidentally or not, on the same day that Jefferson signed the Survey of the Coast bill, he also sent a letter to Congress asking for shallow gun boats to defend our coasts and ports.

Today, these and other oceanic connections to societal resilience remain.

U.S. trade depends on functioning harbors and ports. Some 95% of our trade goods enter and leave this country through our harbors and ports.

The ocean provides at least half of the Earth’s oxygen.

The ocean feeds us. Globally, more than 2.6 billion people depend on seafood as their primary source of protein.

The ocean provides us with jobs as fishermen and women, seafood processors, charter boat operators, restaurant owners, busboys, hotel clerks, boardwalk hawkers and lifeguards in the coastal shoreline communities that are home to 39% of the nation’s people. Each year, more than 1.2 million people move to the coast, adding population equivalent to nearly one San Diego, or more than three Miamis.

The ocean’s shores are our playgrounds, our places of solace and worship. Coastal tourism and recreation dominated both employment and GDP in the ocean economy sectors with 1.7 million jobs (75%) of employment and nearly $70 billion (51%) of GDP.

Given the dense population along our coastlines, their considerable contributions to the nation’s GDP, and the vulnerability of this region to increasingly frequent extreme weather events and other oceanic hazards like tsunamis, it is clear that any concept of resilience in this country must focus strongly on coastal resilience.

One of the most critical enablers of this vision of resilience is foresight: the ability to look ahead, to envision and plan for future conditions quite unlike the present or the past. As I said earlier, this is where environmental intelligence comes in. Robust observations, sound scientific understanding of Earth system processes, rigorous analysis, and modeling and assessment are essential to providing this vital environmental intelligence.

What is the critical environmental intelligence telling us so far?

The frequency of extreme weather and climate events is increasing, making coastal communities more vulnerable to coastal storms and inundation by storm surge.

Multiple threats to the ocean and coastal zones exist from local to global scales — namely, overfishing and IUU (illegal, unreported, and unregulated) fishing, nutrient and chemical pollution, habitat alteration, loss of biodiversity, and invasive species.

Ocean acidification is happening at least 10 times faster than at any time over the past 50 million years. The world’s oceans are absorbing increasing amounts of atmospheric carbon dioxide, leading to lower pH and greater acidity. This literal sea change is causing ocean acidification from pole to pole. Furthermore, climate change and ocean acidification interact with and exacerbate the other stressors I mentioned in complex ways that are not uniform across the globe.

The Arctic Ocean will be nearly free of summer sea ice by 2050. This radical change in accessibility portends major changes to ecosystems, human populations, fish stocks and economic activity in this unique region.

Fish stocks are shifting. In a study of catch composition in 52 Large Marine Ecosystems between 1970 and 2006, warm-water species rose in abundance, while those adapted to cooler waters dropped.

CO2 reached historic levels in the Arctic and Mauna Loa. The 400 parts per million benchmark was recorded last year at our Arctic sampling sites and on May 9 at our Mauna Loa Observatory. We expect Southern Hemisphere measurements to reach this level in the next few years. We dwellers of the Northern Hemisphere see higher levels first because most of the emissions driving the CO2 increase take place in the north.

Resilience is not just about what we measure or know; it is about how and whether we use that knowledge to act. It’s about taking the concept off the pages of policy documents and reports, and putting it into action in our communities.

Hurricane Sandy provided some powerful lessons on this point last October. Sandy was much more than a weather phenomenon. Sandy was a case study — with both positive and negative examples — of the vital importance to our nation of coastal resilience.

Sandy demonstrated again something we know well: Preparedness matters, and foresight is key to preparedness.

A spot-on hurricane track forecast 4 full days in advance gave people, emergency managers, and first-responders in New York and New Jersey communities the early warning they needed to prepare for the storm.

An organized weather enterprise across agencies, across levels of government, in the trenches in communities from emergency managers to first responders, the private sector worked together to prepare for and respond to Sandy.

Ships and planes were quickly mobilized to map debris, hazards and oil spills and respond to oil spills.

But Sandy thrust some stark realities into the spotlight.

Sandy hit New York hardest right where the most recent developments had occurred. Lower Manhattan should have been the least vulnerable part of the island. But it was not rebuilt to be resilient, just “sustainable” green buildings in an energy efficiency sense. Buildings were designed to generate lower environmental impacts, but not to be resilient to the impacts of the environment.

At Old Cape May in New Jersey, sections of the town behind the restored coastal wetland and dune area fared much better during Sandy than sections hard onto the beach that relied on gray infrastructure alone for protection. Green infrastructure — nature’s own defenses — are too often overlooked in coastal planning and development.

We don’t recognize coastal storms as the multi-hazard events they are. People don’t die from wind in a hurricane, they die from water — both surge from the sea and inundation from rainfall. Irene’s upland rainfall surprised many and cost lives. Sandy’s storm surge, which rose well over 8 feet above ground level in some locations, also surprised many and cost even more lives.

The social dimensions of resilience were all too vividly apparent during and after Sandy. The elderly and poor suffer longer. Elderly people often live alone and tend to live in more dangerous places — everyone dreams of retiring near the beach or along the river, right? And they are more likely to die in an event like Sandy.

The lessons? First, the inherent resilience of natural systems provides powerful protection. We should restore them wherever possible. Second, we must factor future risk into our infrastructure planning — both gray and green. We must find ways to incentivize investments that take this into account, given that short-run solutions cost more in dollars and cents than planning for long-term risk. Third, resilience has a critical social dimension: citizen preparedness, bonds of community, strong and empowered institutions are indispensable elements of societal resilience.

Sandy also reveals that resilience can be considered on multiple time scales — from the days and hours needed to prepare for hurricane landfall to the years and decades needed to restore green infrastructure, our natural defenses — and build more resilient gray infrastructure.

Coastal communities around the United States are working to become more resilient on these various scales, very often drawing on NOAA’s environmental intelligence and coastal expertise. The progress is encouraging.

Lake Erie has been plagued by a steady increase of harmful algal blooms (HABs) over the past decade. HABs can kill fish, foul coastlines, and make us sick. NOAA has issued weekly bulletins for HABs in Lake Erie since 2008. To assist communities in responding to this, NOAA uses high time-resolution satellite imagery from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite sensor to develop a forecast that gives them up to 3 days advance warning of a bloom.

NOAA issued its first seasonal ecological forecast of HABs in 2012, accurately predicting a mild bloom for the 2012 summer season. This forecast helped managers in the Great Lakes make decisions about the state’s 2012 tourism season, as well as its water quality management.

In Alaskan waters, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council decided in 2009 to prohibit expansion of commercial fishing in U.S. federal waters in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas until the scientific basis for fisheries management decisions could be established.

As we all know, the decrease in summer sea ice means the Arctic is becoming a busier place. The prospect of much more shipping — possibly trans-oceanic commercial traffic — brings back to the foreground the same fundamental environmental intelligence that moved Jefferson to establish the Survey of the Coast: the need for accurate nautical charts. Until just recently, the only chart available for Kotzebue Sound was a 19th century chart with 3-5 mile resolution. The shoreline has changed radically in this area since the 1800s, and modern-day coastwise traffic demands much finer resolution. NOAA completed a new chart for the region just last May. We also sent the NOAA Ship Fairweather into the Chukchi Sea to re-chart waters off Alaska’s north coast. Re-charting our Arctic waters is a central element of the U.S. Arctic Strategy announced by Secretary Kerry at the recent Arctic Council meeting in Kiruna, Sweden.

Arctic ERMA, a new federal interactive online mapping tool used by emergency responders during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill has been expanded to include the Arctic and will help address numerous challenges in the Arctic posed by increasing ship traffic and proposed energy development.

The signing this past May 15 of an International Agreement on Cooperation on Marine Oil Spill Preparedness and Response by eight nations (Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, the Russian Federation, Sweden and the United States) shows the international recognition of the need for Arctic resilience.

Protection of natural environments is producing both economic and ecological benefits In the Florida Keys. Since “no-take” protections were established in the Tortugas Ecological Reserve within the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary back in 2001:

Overfished species such as black and red grouper, yellowtail and mutton snapper increased in presence, abundance and size inside the reserve and throughout the region;

Annual gatherings of spawning mutton snapper, once thought to be wiped out from overfishing, began to reform inside the Reserve;

Commercial catches of reef fish in the region increased, and continue to do so; and

Key West commercial fishery landings increased from $40M in 2001 to $56M in 2011. No financial losses were experienced by regional commercial or recreational fishers following introduction of the “no take” zones.

These data show that marine reserves and economically viable fishing industries can coexist. The health of our economy and the health of our oceans are not mutually exclusive.

Ocean acidification is a serious threat to shellfish and mariculture enterprises in U.S. coastal waters. Pacific Northwest shellfish growers have already felt the impacts. In 2008, the harvest of one major Oregon supplier to the majority of West Coast oyster farmers plummeted 80% due to acidified seawater. Oyster production accounts for more than $84 million and hundreds of jobs in the West Coast shellfish industry, which supports more than 3,000 jobs. Such precipitous declines can have devastating effects on coastal communities.

NOAA is working to provide shellfish farmers with environmental intelligence that can help them manage this risk. NOAA/IOOS® systems in Puget Sound monitor ocean pH and alert shellfish farms so they can adapt operations accordingly — a great example of critical environmental intelligence as essential Business Intelligence. And, it is a great example of resilience.

I have emphasized that foresight is key to resilience:

… foresight to prepare in the days ahead or grab your go-kit hours before an event.

… foresight to develop a climate change adaptation plans, based on the best available Earth science, sound social science and pertinent community data that enable communities to plan for future risks due to coastal storms, heat waves, flash flooding and other hazards.

… foresight of decades or more to develop a hardened built environment and green infrastructure.

… foresight to understand that vulnerability also is about our choices to live in coastal communities. Today 23 of 25 of the most densely-populated communities are coastal.

… foresight to build communities in areas vulnerable to storm surge not just 10 years from now, but a century from now.

…and, not least, the foresight that citizens and leaders need to foster social resilience, to strengthen community institutions and to prepare every citizen to be a competent first responder.

As cities, states and regions create and revise climate change adaptation plans, having fabulous environmental intelligence is necessary but not sufficient. We’ve learned this lesson in the weather arena. The information must be readily accessible to non-expert decision-makers, media partners and citizens, and delivered in forms and formats that communicate clearly the information they need to build answers to their questions (This is often quite different than the information that the experts thought was important or cool to convey!). In other words, the critical environmental intelligence product and tools for interacting with it are of comparable importance to the intelligence itself. NOAA is working hard in this arena as well.

Tools like Digital Coast can help communities look at future sea level rise in their communities and other potential impacts. Five years ago, NOAA’s Coastal Services Center launched the “Digital Coast” initiative to address timely coastal issues, including climate change. One of Digital Coast’s tools, the Sea Level Rise Impacts Viewer, creates visualizations of the potential physical, ecological and socioeconomic impacts of sea level rise in order to inform the planning efforts of community officials and coastal managers.

While the need for good geospatial data forms the foundation of the Digital Coast, the basic premise of the site is: Data alone are not enough. People need the associated tools, training and information that turn data into information capable of making a difference. And people want this information in one connected package that is easy to use. Digital Coast does just that.

Users who make up the Digital Coast Partnership provide feedback and guide the development of the site. They let the Center know what issues were most important, what type of content they would find most helpful, and the primary barriers they needed addressed. These are tools build to answer questions people ask, not just what we want to tell them.

These tools are currently being applied in Texas and Mississippi and are serving as the basis of a new partnership with the Department of Housing and Urban Development to better understand and prepare for the potential impacts of sea level rise on vulnerable populations, infrastructure and ecosystems in Galveston, Texas.

Another tool, the Social Vulnerability Index, maps the locations of those at higher social risk during a disaster. When social vulnerability maps are overlaid onto inundation maps, the composites can help identify where help might be needed most during response and longer during recovery.

A vision of local empowerment is starting to take shape in places like the Gulf of Mexico. Here The Nature Conservancy and the National Capital Project are using a promising new tool called Marine InVEST (Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Trade-offs) to evaluate how restored oyster reefs can best protect shorelines from coastal hazards, such as storm surge, while stimulating a recovering fisheries economy. About half of the Gulf’s coastal habitats vanished during the past century. The devastating impacts of Hurricane Katrina and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill have lent new urgency to restoring Gulf coasts. Marine InVEST was developed by the Natural Capital Project in partnership with NOAA to facilitate scientific understanding of ecosystem services — and then to help communities make better real-world decisions. InVEST allows users to “test” possible outcomes of different decisions, visualizing trade-offs among environmental, economic and social benefits.

With the latest version of the InVEST coastal protection model, the National Capital Project and The Nature Conservancy are calculating the potential of restored oyster reefs of various designs and in various places for reducing wave height and wave energy in coastal areas. To reach a larger audience, they are working to incorporate aspects of the InVEST coastal protection model into The Nature Conservancy’s interactive web-based mapping application, Coastal Resilience — the only decision-support tool in the Gulf of Mexico region that explicitly addresses ecological and social considerations together. Coming full circle, NOAA is now helping extend the reach of the Coastal Resilience tool through its Digital Coast partnership to provide restoration and coastal inundation issues training to help stakeholders use the information for maximum results.

On the green infrastructure front, NOAA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have developed guidelines to help coastal communities rebuild in a more resilient and sustainable fashion, so they are better able to mitigate the impacts of coastal hazards. We developed a “Principles” document that lays out a unified strategy for our post-Sandy coastal restoration activities. These Principles recognize inter-linkages between natural and ecological systems and the resiliency of physical infrastructure and community well-being. The President’s Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force is referring to the Principles as an example of how to rebuild the coast in a sustainable way. And NOAA is currently developing projects with Sandy Supplemental funds that will support implementation of the Principles.

Each of these activities is a sign of progress in the right direction.

I will close with some thoughts about what’s needed on the broader landscape of resilience. We still have much to do.

We need a resilient observations enterprise. Observations are either not enough, as we see in the Arctic. Or they are aging, like the TAO array that provides the CEI for El Niño and La Niña prediction. An aging infrastructure make us more vulnerable than resilient.

Higher-resolution climate models are needed to provide better regional to local guidance, as well as coastal and marine ecosystem modeling.

We don’t really have our hands around ecosystem modeling. We need integrated ecosystem assessments that link cause and effect.

We need data to be discoverable, accessible and inter-operative. The White House Open Data Policy provides the framework to accomplish that. And ocean.data.gov provides a data portal to make it possible. But data also must be interoperable and integrated to be useful as foresight.

Research on green infrastructure is needed to build the right infrastructure in the right places in coastal communities.

We need more data fusion tools, like Digital Coast, that integrate data and allow people to build the answers they’re seeking, not just what we want to tell them. And we need these tools to make multi-user collaborative interaction possible.

So when we think of resilience for our oceans and coast, we must remember the enterprise that provides the critical environmental intelligence for resilience must itself remain resilient in the face of change — we need a “whole of community” approach, not merely federal actions.

In summary, coastal resilience is a national imperative that can be implemented at the level of communities. Resilience can mean preparedness on a short fuse, as in preparing for an immediate storm, but it also is a resilience for the future, a resilience that can be found in smart advance planning — the gray, the green, and the social.

The National Ocean Policy places before us a framework that is genuinely centered in a vision of oceans “of the people, for the people, and by the people.” Local and regional efforts to build community resilience are beginning to take shape. But the challenges remain daunting; the economic headwinds remain fierce.

Such circumstances never seemed to faze Jim Watkins, Dan Inouye or Frank Lautenberg. When times got tough, they dug deeper and redoubled their efforts; and so must we. The passion and talents in this room are tremendous national assets. CHOW gives us a fabulous opportunity to come together to develop smarter solutions for broader good.

Our beautiful planet “Aqua” was what I woke up to every morning and fell asleep to at the end of my day during my three missions on the Challenger. The profound reality that hits all of us who’ve flown in space: The singularity of this blue planet we call home. How inextricably each and every one of us is linked to all others and to the planet itself. How powerfully dynamic and, at the same time ineffably elegant, are the earth systems that support our existence. How trivial are the boundaries and distinctions we work so hard to draw between “us” and “them” — when in reality there is only We Earthlings. And We Earthlings depend on healthy oceans for our own well-being and for the well-being of our communities, businesses and economies.

CHOW offers a great forum for beginning larger conversations. Let’s keep talking and, most importantly, keep listening to one another.

Senator Frank Lautenberg smiles in a Capitol hallway after the final vote before the August 2012 Senate recess.

By Bridget Hunter
IIP Staff Writer
Washington,
June 5, 2013

Lautenberg, 89, was the last World War II veteran serving in the Senate. He is mourned in Washington by a long list of former Senate colleagues, including the president, the vice president and the secretaries of state and defense.

“The son of working-class immigrants, Frank served honorably in World War II, went to college on the G.I. bill and came back to build one of the most successful companies in America.” Vice President Biden said June 3. “I consider it a privilege to have known him, to have worked with him, and to have called him my friend.”

Describing Lautenberg as “a proud New Jerseyan who lived America’s promise as a citizen, and fought to keep that promise alive as a senator,” President Obama said that “he improved the lives of countless Americans with his commitment to our nation’s health and safety.”

“Teresa and I traveled together with him in 1990 to the first climate change conference in Rio,” Secretary of State John Kerry said. “Frank never lost faith with that commitment to the environment.”

“Frank was a good friend and respected colleague,” Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said in a statement released June 3 at NATO headquarters in Brussels. Lautenberg’s “passion and his leadership will be missed,” Hagel added.

Lautenberg served in the Senate representing the state of New Jersey from 1982 until 2001, retired briefly, and then was elected again in 2002.

LEADER ON ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES

The late senator was a leader on environmental issues like control of toxic substances, safe transport of hazardous materials and cleanup of contaminated land. He particularly fought for better stewardship of Earth’s oceans.

In the 1980s, when used syringes washing up on New Jersey’s beaches threatened public health, Lautenberg authored legislation requiring a tracking program for medical waste. He also authored a 1988 law that banned ocean dumping of sewage and plastics.

The Beaches Environmental Assessment and Coastal Health Act of 2000, known as the BEACH Act, was another Lautenberg initiative. The law, signed by President Clinton, requires consistent water quality standards across all states and enhanced the public’s right to know about the safety of beaches.Following the 2004 spill of more than 1 million liters (265,000 gallons) of crude oil into the Delaware River from the Athos I, a single-hulled oil tanker ship, Lautenberg fought to force oil shippers to switch to double-hulled tankers. His legislation set new standards that nearly tripled liability limits for shippers that continued to use single-hulled vessels instead of the safer double-hulled vessels.

The senator also authored provisions to fund research and protection of deep-sea corals, another habitat threatened by ocean acidification. Those provisions became law in January 2007 as part of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Reauthorization Act of 2006.

In March 2009, Congress passed Lautenberg’s Federal Ocean Acidification Research and Monitoring Act, which established a federal committee led by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to research, monitor and coordinate activities on ocean acidification across federal agencies.

“Ocean acidification is a serious threat to our environment and to our marine life,” Lautenberg said after President Obama signed the legislation. “Changes in ocean chemistry, caused by carbon dioxide, will affect our food supply and the health of our oceans, yet research on ocean acidification is still in its infancy. This new law will provide the needed research to analyze and address the environmental and economic impacts of ocean acidification.”

Oceans require a balanced pH to maintain water quality favorable to marine life. If oceans become too acidic, the shells of scallops, clams, crabs, plankton, corals and other marine life begin to dissolve. In Lautenberg’s state of New Jersey, sea scallops and clams are some of the most important species for fisheries, valued at $121 million, according to NOAA.

Lautenberg’s measure, in addition to establishing the federal committee, also created an ocean acidification program in NOAA — the federal agency with primary responsibility for preserving the health of oceans and marine life.

The law was supported by a wide range of environmental and conservation groups, including the Marine Conservation Biology Institute, Greenpeace, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Marine Fish Conservation Network, the Climate Institute, Environmental Defense, Gulf Restoration Network, Ocean Conservancy, Coastal States Organization, Oceana, Surfrider Foundation, the Nature Conservancy and the World Wildlife Fund.

“I am deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Senator Frank Lautenberg,” acting NOAA Administrator Kathryn Sullivan said in a June 3 statement. “He was a true statesmen, advocate for his constituents and champion of our nation’s oceans, habitats, and coastal communities.

“Our oceans are critical to the economic prosperity of millions around the world. Early on, Senator Lautenberg recognized that the changes and stresses our oceans are experiencing needed to be better understood. He was a pioneer in the efforts to protect critical ocean habitat, such as deep sea corals.”

President Clinton hosted Xi Jinping in the Oval Office in 2012 when Xi was China’s vice president.

Washington,
June 5, 2013

President Obama is preparing for a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping June 7-8 as U.S. presidential advisers lay the groundwork for future agreements to advance a shared agenda.

The two nations have already identified shared priorities in their concern for climate change and the need for actions to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, according to the Obama administration’s special envoy for climate change, Todd Stern.

“We believe that forceful, nationally appropriate action by the United States and China — including large-scale cooperative action — is more critical than ever,” Stern said in a statement issued in Beijing June 3. Stern had meetings with Vice Chairman Xie Zhenhua of the National Development and Reform Commission, who oversees energy policies.

China and the United States, the world’s two largest economies, issued a joint statement on climate change in April and established a working group to advance cooperation on technology, research, conservation, and alternative and renewable energy. Stern was in Beijing as chairman of that group, which seeks “to identify concrete, pragmatic actions that our two countries can take together to reduce our emissions in various sectors.”

In the fifth year of the Obama administration, Stern also cited a number of steps taken in several arenas to reduce greenhouse gas emissions contributing to planetary warming trends. Those actions include:

• New fuel efficiency standards for cars and light trucks.

• Development of clean energy technologies.

• A twofold increase in renewable energy generation.

• Wider application of energy efficiency standards.

The U.S. Department of Energy presented evidence of U.S. efficiency gains in late May with the release of a progress report on the Better Buildings Challenge (BBC). More than 100 partners in the initiative have adopted better practices in 7,700 facilities, for an overall 2.5 percent increase in efficiency. The BBC partners are working to increase efficiency by 20 percent by the year 2020 in public and commercial buildings, one of the nation’s most energy-intense sectors.

Stern said the Beijing discussions “hold promise for reducing emissions in various segments of our economies.” He said the working group will continue to work “to prepare the new initiatives.” The group is on a deadline to present new ideas at a Strategic and Economic Dialogue to be held in Washington in July.

The United States and China established the Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED) in 2009 as a platform to create a positive and cooperative relationship between these two major nations that have so much influence on global economic and environmental issues.

The June 7-8 California meeting will be the first between Obama and Xi since Xi became China’s president. The two had a White House meeting in 2012 when Xi traveled to the United States, serving as vice-president at that time. The two leaders have spoken on the telephone since Xi took office.

Loren Boddy picks apples from a neighbor’s tree before they rot.The apples enter Provo, Utah’s Fruit Network for delivery to those who will use them.

Washington,
June 4, 2013

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced the launch of the Food Waste Challenge June 4, calling for support from farmers, retailers, consumers and food processors and manufacturers to lessen a mountain of food that ends up as garbage.

“Food waste is the single largest type of waste entering our landfills — Americans throw away up to 40 percent of their food,” said EPA Acting Administrator Bob Perciasepe. “Addressing this issue helps to combat hunger and save money, while also combating climate change.”

In U.S. landfills, food waste decomposes to become methane, one of the greenhouse gases contributing to climate change. Food production and transportation also contribute to greenhouse emissions, so preventing waste contributes to further reducing the energy consumed and the emissions produced in those activities.

USDA and EPA are asking American individuals, businesses and institutions to attack the problem three ways: reduce food loss and waste, recover wholesome food for human consumption and recycle discards to other uses, including animal feed, composting and energy generation.

EPA already has some tools in place to help the public achieve these goals, developed from a food recovery program launched in 2012. More than 200 businesses, universities and other organizations have made the commitment to prevent food from entering their landfills with a three-pronged strategy. They take greater care in estimating food needs, divert what exceeds their needs to other users and compost waste into organic material that nurtures further food production.

The EPA Food Recovery Program has won the backing of industry heavyweights such as the Grocery Manufacturers of America and the National Restaurant Association.

For World Environment Day June 5, UNEP is asking people to reduce their “foodprint” and follow recommendations similar to that advocated by EPA. UNEP quotes a U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization estimate that 1.3 billion tons of food go to waste each year, at the same time one in every seven persons worldwide is hungry each day.

Food waste goes beyond the loss of calories and nutrients that a hungry child might need, according to UNEP. It also uselessly discards resources and energy consumed to produce the foodstuffs.

“For example, it takes about 1,000 litres of water to produce 1 litre of milk and about 16,000 litres goes into a cow’s food to make a hamburger,” according to a UNEP document.

UNEP cites food production as the cause of 80 percent of deforestation and 30 percent of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide.

Green roofs, as seen atop a Chicago building, lessen the “urban heat island” effect and can help reduce power demands.

Washington,
May 28, 2013
In businesses, factories, schools and other public buildings, they are dimming the lights and insulating the pipes to increase energy efficiency and reduce energy consumption.

Participants in the Better Buildings Challenge, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, are reporting a 2.5 percent increase in efficiency since they entered the campaign in 2011. Commercial and industrial buildings account for roughly half of the nation’s entire energy consumption each year.

President Obama’s challenge to partners in this sector is to increase energy efficiency in public and commercial buildings by 20 percent in the year 2020, and double energy productivity by 2030. Energy productivity is defined as the amount of economic output achieved per energy unit consumed.

“The leadership and investments of our Better Buildings partners are demonstrating the promise of energy efficiency by reducing energy costs, helping to create American jobs and increasing competitiveness in the private sector,” said newly installed Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz, as the campaign results were announced May 22.

More than 110 organizations — public, private, commercial and industrial — have taken up the challenge. They work with the Energy Department to achieve energy savings across the range of their operations and facilities and then share their methods with others to multiply the effects. Challenge partners have launched efficiency projects in more than 7,700 facilities, according to an Energy Department press release.

Macy’s, among the nation’s largest retailing chains, has committed close to 16 million square meters of space to the challenge. Several state governments — including Delaware, Massachusetts and North Carolina — are working on energy savings in their agencies’ buildings. Big cities, school districts and university campuses are also taking the efficiency pledge.

Chicago, the nation’s third largest city, is stepping up efficiency in its public spaces at the same time owners of commercial and residential buildings are joining the commitment for efficiency.

Prologis leases business and industrial spaces for distribution and manufacturing purposes to companies worldwide. For its part in the Better Buildings Challenge, Prologis is aiming for increased efficiency in almost 9.3 million square meters, aiming to reduce energy consumption by 20 percent by 2020.

Ambassador King handed the 57th IMO Prize to Dr. Zavisa Janjic today at the U.S. Mission

Remarks by Ambassador Betty E. King
Permanent Representative of the United States to the Office of the United Nations
and Other International Organizations in Geneva

at the Awards Ceremony of the 57^th International Meteorological Organization Prize

Geneva,
May 22, 2013

Good afternoon.  President Grimes, Secretary General Jarraud, friends and colleagues, it is a pleasure and a privilege to represent the United States in honoring this year’s recipient of the International Meteorological Organization Prize, Dr. Zavisa Janjic.  I would like to thank the Executive Council of the WMO for the invitation to this event, and for selecting Dr. Janjic as this year’s laureate.  And to Dr. Janjic, congratulations on being honored with the 57^th IMO prize in recognition of your achievements in advancing atmospheric modeling and weather prediction.

Over the course of a distinguished career spanning 40 years, Dr. Janjic’s work in both theory and practice have made lasting contributions to fundamental research, weather forecasting, climate research and our understanding of the atmosphere.  He has influenced scientific thought in the field of numerical modeling, inspired the work of other scientists, and touched the lives of billions through the use of his models in meteorological forecasts.

Dr. Janjic embodies the spirit of international scientific cooperation that is the hallmark of the work of the WMO and of the IMO Prize.  From the start of his career as a research assistant at the University of Belgrade to his current position as research meteorologist at NOAA’s National Center for Environmental Prediction, his career has spanned continents and the influence of his work has literally circled the globe.

It is the international character of science, as well as Dr. Janjic’s contributions that we celebrate with this award.  As President Obama’s science advisor, Dr. John Holdren, has said, in science, we need to work with our friends around the world.  Science, technology and innovation proceed more rapidly and more cost-effectively when insights, costs and risks are shared; and so many of the challenges that science and technology will help us meet are global in character.  And these challenges are too big, and our resources are too limited, for any one country to tackle alone.  Cooperation is key – among nations, among the private sector, the public sector, and the philanthropic sector. We cannot solve the great problems of our time alone – any of us – as individual nations.  In this regard Dr. Janjic has been a leader – both through the influence of his work on international scientific thought and through his service on international scientific bodies.

I would also like to point out that Dr. Janjic and I have something in common – neither one of us was born in the United States, but we both came to the U.S., seized opportunities and found success.  Dr. Janjic rose to receive the highest honor in his field, while I’ve made my way from a small island in the Caribbean to represent the Government of the United States in Geneva.  We can both be grateful for the opportunities that the United States has given us.

America is fortunate that its universities and research institutions attract the best scientific minds in the world.  We have a proud legacy of welcoming people who dream big dreams and reach higher than anybody else.  When Dr. Janjic came to the U.S. in 1987 as a visiting scientist at the National Meteorological Center, President Reagan had just signed into law a comprehensive immigration reform.  Now, Washington is revisiting our immigration system.  I’m happy to say that as part of his immigration proposal, President Obama has given special emphasis to the contributions of foreign graduate students educated in the U.S. in the areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.  So hopefully the United States will continue to attract those scientists who give so much not only to our country, but to the global advancement of science, and one of my successors will also have the pleasure to give remarks as another “hyphenated” American is honored with this esteemed prize.

Thank you.

Canada’s Minister Leona Aglukkaq signs a resolution as other government representatives look on. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is third from left.

By Charlene Porter
IIP Staff Writer
Washington,
May 15, 2013

Representing the United States, Secretary of State John Kerry said the “ominous” threat of climate change is a shared challenge for the world. He said courage will be required to face “the long list of challenges — acidification, pollution, ice melt, rising sea levels, disappearing species, and indiscriminate development practices.”

Kerry said each of those environmental issues produces consequences far outside the Arctic Circle “to each of our economies, to our national security and to international stability.”

At the same time, the council placed economic cooperation at “the top of our agenda” in Vision for the Arctic, a policy document adopted by the eight governments on the council. It also expresses shared concerns for the well-being of Arctic peoples and the development of sustainable Arctic economies to create vibrant, long-lived communities. Recognition of the fragility of the Arctic environment is always of “critical importance,” according to the vision statement.

The council also adopted the legally binding Agreement on Cooperation on Marine Oil Pollution Preparedness and Response in the Arctic, “which will substantially improve procedures for combating oil spills” in the polar region, according to a press release issued by the council secretariat, chaired by the Swedish hosts of the meeting.

Kerry described that agreement as “an important framework for cooperation in the event of an emergency.”

In other business, the council received a research document on Arctic biodiversity, the broadest study ever conducted on the wide range of life in the region with contributions from about 200 scientists worldwide.

The Swedish secretariat presented the council with another first-of-its-kind scientific report on the acidification of the Arctic Ocean. This environmental assessment examines the potential impact of acidification on marine ecosystems, northern communities and indigenous peoples whose lives and livelihoods are largely based on ecosystem products.

Acidity is increasing because the oceans absorb carbon dioxide that petroleum-based fuels release as they are burned to meet energy needs. The Arctic is particularly vulnerable because carbon dioxide is more readily absorbed into cold water.

“Temperatures, we know, in the Arctic are increasing more than twice as fast as global averages,” Kerry said, “and they are endangering habitats and they are endangering ways of life.”

Kerry was also forthright in expressing U.S. responsibility as one of the world’s greatest sources of greenhouse gas emissions. “We need to do more — all of us — urgently.”

Kerry said the United States is acting aggressively to reduce emissions, citing a number of examples: increasing energy efficiency in automobile manufacturing and building construction; promoting energy savings in government and consumer spending; and encouraging the expansion of green energy alternatives.

It is a little-known fact, he said, that the United States has already reduced its emissions in an amount greater than would have been required if the U.S. Senate had authorized enactment of the Kyoto Protocol, an agreement to reduce greenhouse gases enacted by many nations in 2005.

The Kiruna Declaration, adopted by the eight member states, recognizes the need for emissions reduction and for a global plan to limit the increases in global temperatures through the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The declaration also asserts the council’s commitment to other multinational initiatives already in place to address climate change through reductions in short-lived pollutants such as methane and black soot, produced from a variety of sources.

The United States and five other nations launched the Climate and Clean Air Coalition in early 2012. The coalition expanded rapidly in its first year, growing to 30 government partners and about 60 nonstate partners such as the Environmental Defense Fund, the U.N. Development Programme, the International Institute for Sustainable Development and the Clean Air Initiative for Asian Cities.

This photo shows a floating oil drilling rig just off the Alaska coast. The Arctic Council agreement aims to preempt oil-spill damage.

By Charlene Porter
IIP Staff Writer
Washington,
May 10,  2013

Members of the Arctic Council are set to sign an agreement on oil-spill response in the region and to review the first assessment of Arctic biodiversity ever conducted.

The Arctic Council is the only diplomatic forum focused solely on the entire Arctic region, monitoring environment, climate change, biodiversity, marine issues and other topics.

On the way to the council meeting in Sweden’s northernmost city of Kiruna, Kerry will stop in Stockholm to meet with Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt and Foreign Minister Carl Bildt to discuss the council, Syria, Iran, Afghanistan and other issues of global importance.

Members of the council will sign the Arctic Marine Oil Spill Preparedness and Response Agreement, which establishes lines of cooperation and responsibility in the event of an oil spill. The agreement specifies procedures for communication and access so a response framework is in place before an oil spill occurs.

Gustav Lind, representing the Swedish chairmanship of the council, explained that the agreement creates some “how-tos” for emergency responders — for example, “who should talk to whom, what should you bring, how can you enter each other’s territory.” With matters like these resolved in advance of an emergency, Lind said, the agreement aims to enable more efficient cooperation among states and agencies attempting to mitigate an environmental emergency.

Lind’s comments came in an online press briefing conducted May 6.

The first-ever assessment of Arctic biodiversity — encompassing life in all the territories around the North Pole — will also be presented to the council at the May 15 meeting. Lind said the document — a “tremendous achievement,” involving 200 scientists —- identifies the current status of Arctic biodiversity. It also describes how the environment is changing and “how to support and maintain healthy ecosystems and biodiversity,” which people rely on.

The members of the Arctic Council are Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the United States. About 4 million people in the eight nations live inside the Arctic Circle. Roughly 500,000 of those are indigenous peoples, and they have status as “permanent participants” of the Arctic Council. Six different native peoples groups have that status with the “full consultation rights” that it confers.

Lind said another advisory report that will be placed before the council examines the resilience of Arctic ecosystems. Scientists have clearly established that warmer average temperatures are already changing the Arctic environment, and this research attempts to describe how life forms are responding to the changes.

Environmental stewardship of the Arctic is important, but so is economic development, Lind said. Economic development that occurs in a balanced way will be another item on the council’s agenda, with a special emphasis on corporate social responsibility to the environment. Lind said business entities operating in the region must be “extra responsible.”

Sweden has held the revolving chairmanship of the council for two years, and will pass that leadership position to Canada as this session of the council closes.

The council was established by a 1996 agreement between the states to promote cooperation among the interested nations and the indigenous peoples.

In related action, the White House released a National Strategy for the Arctic Region on May 10. It addresses various priorities for the region. A White House statement says a process now begins for gathering information from a range of interested parties to determine how best to implement the strategy.