Our Nation and The Sea (USA 1969)

[kach22i]

An interesting find, written 38 years ago.

Our Nation and The Sea
A Plan for National Action
(The Stratton Report - 1969)

Index:
http://www.lib.noaa.gov/edocs/stratton/contents.html

Profound quote:
http://www.lib.noaa.gov/edocs/stratton/chapter5.html

Scales of Motion
Man's increasing dependence on food resources from the sea and his growing capacity to modify the environment lend urgency to the requirement for improved biological prediction. Accurate forecasts of the abundance and distribution of major marine biota must be made. Rates of production and mortality and the interactions with the environment must be predictable for development of new food resources, for evaluation of the effects of man's modification of the environment, and as possible indicators for monitoring and predicting the dynamics of ocean interaction.

Environmental Modification
Modification of weather and ocean conditions by interference with natural environmental processes is a growing reality which the Nation is only beginning to confront. Such modification can be inadvertent, resulting from such activities as the burning of fossil fuels with its consequent effects on atmospheric temperatures and atmospheric pollution, or it can be the result of man's conscious interference, for example, by silver iodide seeding to change rainfall.

Environmental modification problems are inseparable from those of environmental monitoring and predicting. Several recent reports on weather modification, issued by a special Commission on Weather Modification of the National Science Foundation (NSF) and by the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Atmospheric Sciences, have suggested the need for the Federal Government to undertake the research, development, and experimentation required to explore the broad spectrum of weather modification possibilities. More recently, in amending the enabling legislation of the National Science Foundation, the Congress eliminated NSF's statutory responsibilities in the field of weather modification, apparently because of the view that these responsibilities should be assumed by ESSA.

Man is already in the process of modifying his ocean environment, both consciously and inadvertently. By the construction of breakwaters he has modified the flow of nearshore ocean current systems. As a result of the introduction of pollution into estuaries and the near coastal zones, he has modified the quality of the water. There have been numerous proposals for the creation of artificial upwellings to enhance the productivity of certain ocean areas. Studies of the biological consequences of man's major manipulations of the environment by thermal additions, construction of sea level canals, dredging of waterways through marsh areas, and construction of major highways on the seashores have become essential. Recent analytical refinements have established beyond doubt that manmade pollution already has affected the entire ocean. Prime examples of this are the finding of DDT and products of DDT degradation (probably distributed by air into the oceans) in the organs of animals throughout the oceans and the identification of lead from lead-treated gasoline burned by internal combustion engines in the surface layers of the ocean.

We seemed to be much wiser then.

The Global Environment
http://www.lib.noaa.gov/edocs/stratton/chapter5.html

The Nation's interest in the seas, the land beneath, and the atmosphere above require that it attain the capability to observe, describe, understand, and predict oceanic processes on a global basis. The Nation is engaged or must be prepared to engage in operations in all of the world's oceans at increasing depths and in increasingly hostile environments. It has a vital stake in the living and nonliving resources of the global seas. Its industry, commerce, and agriculture are critically dependent on the weather controlled in large measure by global ocean conditions. The safety and well-being of its people and their property must be protected against the hazards of air and ocean.

[charmc]

"Man is already in the process of modifying his ocean environment, both consciously and inadvertently."

Accurate statement. Too bad the modifications are too often based on short-sighted goals, corrupt pols giving in to wealthy individual and corporate lobbying, and complete ignorance of possible consequences and impacts.

Here in the US the federal gov't subsidizes flood insurance and artificial beach "restoration" so corporate resort owners and multimillionaires can build hotels and mansions on barrier islands. Taxpayers pay to fund the rebuilding after big storms, and taxpayers pay to dredge sand and pour it on a beach, destroying the natural life there and changing the current flow, usually, as with breakwaters, causing worse erosion somewhere else. Beach size changes over a period of years naturally, what was worn away will be built up again over time, only problem is when stupid wealthy people build too close to the water. The problem would go away if we phased out the subsidized insurance and stopped stupid "restoration" of beaches.