Friday, October 30, 2020

Addressing climate through our ocean


For many years multiple organizations have fought to preserve our planet from the effects of climate change. Some policies have been implemented to help reduce greenhouse emissions but through inadequate U.S. climate policy and non-believers it has been a slow process. The new bill introduced by House Democrats on the Natural Resources Committee seems to really be taking climate more seriously. It is mostly aimed at helping to protect our Ocean waters by using ocean and coastal resources to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This will also help the coastal community to learn to adapt to the current climate change that is causing these impacts.

The “Ocean-Based Climate Solutions Act” is the first bill of its kind that takes the ocean into account to help with climate change. This bill will grant permission to halt new offshore oil drilling as well as to promote offshore wind and other ways to protect coastal ecosystems for carbon sequestration. By doing this, it will give aid to improving wildlife habitats as well as coastal storm protection. Many environmental organizations have long ignored fighting big-time oil companies that harm the ocean and caused so much of the world’s pollution. This is quite the wake-up call for all those in the climate community to start looking for different ways to help reduce greenhouse emissions but most importantly to take the vital water source more seriously. It is amazing that the ocean has been ignored for so long since it is an important economic resource that is worth $373 billion, with 127 million Americans that inhabit the coastal counties. Yet the communities are bound by culture and survival they choose to ignore the ocean waters increasing rise, warmth, and acidification.

  Although this newly presented bill seems promising it lacks the inability to remove organizations that are currently causing our oceans to become acidic, warmer, and rising. In order to combat climate change more needs to be done than just stopping new oil drilling in our oceans. There have to be policies implemented that will protect our oceans from being damaged through oil rig spills and further greenhouse emissions. Although the promotion of offshore wind sounds like a cleaner solution it's forgetting that the waste from these offshore winds will be greater and a plan to maintain the waste also needs to be implemented. If we were to introduce more offshore wind, there must be a way to find a cost-efficient way to produce them in order to prevent further waste that will later become an even bigger problem.

From an environmental point of view, people seem to support the ocean bill, yet they probably don't understand that clean energy doesn't mean no waste disposal but a small solution that still promotes business as planned product and productions. In addition, a significant amount of turbine blades will eventually be disposed of into the water causing a whole other problem in the near future. These newly acquired Ocean policies will only come into law if the people see to elect leaders that will systemize environmental economics over their personal interest in fossil fuel.

Source:

https://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/522926-you-cant-address-climate-by-ignoring-71-percent-of-the-planet

 

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