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Hope is Now A Federal Crime – Bidder 70 Gets 2 Years in Prison

July 26th, 2011 No comments

” … our moral order has been turned upside down”

[Update #4 – LA Times: Activist who faked Utah energy lease bids sentenced to 2 years

Update #3 – big thanks to Sandy Bauers, who writes the “Green Space” blog at the Philadelphia Inquirer: Activist DeChristopher Gets 2 Years

The case hasn’t received much attention around here, but New Jersey environmentalist Bill Wolfe has been following the action and blogged about it, saying, “My heart weeps“ I am speechless and sickened with rage at this injustice,” adding, “Tim is a hero. He was acting in the spirit of a long and noble tradition of American dissidents and heroes.” Wolfe titled his post, “Hope is now a federal crime.”

Update #2- Tim DeChristopher’s extraordinary statement to the Court (h/t Scott Olson). Please read the whole thing – some highlights:

In fact, I have openly and explicitly called for nonviolent civil disobedience against mountaintop removal coal mining in my home state of West Virginia. Mountaintop removal is itself an illegal activity, which has always been in violation of the Clean Water Act, and it is an illegal activity that kills people. …

This is really the heart of what this case is about. The rule of law is dependent upon a government that is willing to abide by the law. Disrespect for the rule of law begins when the government believes itself and its corporate sponsors to be above the law. …

Mr. Huber claims that the seriousness of my offense was that I “obstructed lawful government proceedings.” But the auction in question was not a lawful proceeding. I know you’ve heard another case about some of the irregularities for which the auction was overturned. But that case did not involve the BLM’s blatant violation of Secretarial Order 3226, which was a law that went into effect in 2001 and required the BLM to weigh the impacts on climate change for all its major decisions, particularly resource development. A federal judge in Montana ruled last year that the BLM was in constant violation of this law throughout the Bush administration. In all the proceedings and debates about this auction, no apologist for the government or the BLM has ever even tried to claim that the BLM followed this law. In both the December 2008 auction and the creation of the Resource Management Plan on which this auction was based, the BLM did not even attempt to follow this law.

And this law is not a trivial regulation about crossing t’s or dotting i’s to make some government accountant’s job easier. This law was put into effect to mitigate the impacts of catastrophic climate change and defend a livable future on this planet. This law was about protecting the survival of young generations. That’s kind of a big deal. It’s a very big deal to me. If the government is going to refuse to step up to that responsibility to defend a livable future, I believe that creates a moral imperative for me and other citizens. My future, and the future of everyone I care about, is being traded for short term profits. I take that very personally. Until our leaders take seriously their responsibility to pass on a healthy and just world to the next generation, I will continue this fight.  …

I am here today because I have chosen to protect the people locked out of the system over the profits of the corporations running the system. I say this not because I want your mercy, but because I want you to join me. …

At this point of unimaginable threats on the horizon, this is what hope looks like. In these times of a morally bankrupt government that has sold out its principles, this is what patriotism looks like. With countless lives on the line, this is what love looks like, and it will only grow. The choice you are making today is what side are you on.

I’m with you, Tim. – end update #2]

Update #1: 7/27/11 – An important message from Rising Tide – “We Won’t Be Intimidated“:

Next month in St. Louis, Rising Tide plans to bring this climate fight to Peabody Energy and Arch Coal’s front door.

Along with allies from throughout the Mid-West, we’ve organized the Midwest Rising Convergence on Aug. 12-15. Our movement is not only strong, it is growing..

We invite you to join us. Register here. – end update]

Defense attorney Ron Yengich said during trial that DeChristopher sought to give people hope in the face of environmental degradation, though the judge did not allow him to argue that his actions were necessary to save the planet. Before jury deliberations that some described as emotional, Yengich told jurors they would have to decide “whether a spur-of-the-moment desire for hope is a federal crime.” DeChristopher sentenced to prison, protesters jam commute

Tim DeChristopher just got sentenced to 2 years in federal prison for disrupting an illegal federal coal lease [correction: gas and oil auction by BLM].

In case you never heard of Tim, please watch and listen to Tim’s story.

My heart weeps – I am speechless and sickened with rage at this injustice.

For details of the case and followup activism, please see the “Peaceful Uprising” site.

Tim is a hero. He was acting in the spirit of a long and noble tradition of American dissidents and heroes, like:

Mario Savio -“Speech in Sproul Plaza” (Berkeley, December 2, 1964)  (watch it)

“And that, that brings me to the second mode of civil disobedience. There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can’t take part; you can’t even passively take part. And you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you’ve got to make it stop. And you’ve got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you’re free, the machine will be prevented from working at all.”

Henry David Thoreau (“Civil Disobedience” (1849))

All machines have their friction; and possibly this does enough good to counterbalance the evil. At any rate, it is a great evil to make a stir about it. But when the friction comes to have its machine, and oppression and robbery are organized, I say, let us not have such a machine any longer. In other words, when a sixth of the population of a nation which has undertaken to be the refuge of liberty are slaves, and a whole country is unjustly overrun and conquered by a foreign army, and subjected to military law, I think that it is not too soon for honest men to rebel and revolutionize. …

Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison. The proper place to-day, the only place which Massachusetts has provided for her freer and less desponding spirits, is in her prisons, to be put out and locked out of the State by her own act, as they have already put themselves out by their principles. It is there that the fugitive slave, and the Mexican prisoner on parole, and the Indian come to plead the wrongs of his race, should find them; on that separate, but more free and honorable ground, where the State places those who are not with her, but against her — the only house in a slave State in which a free man can abide with honor. If any think that their influence would be lost there, and their voices no longer afflict the ear of the State, that they would not be as an enemy within its walls, they do not know by how much truth is stronger than error, nor how much more eloquently and effectively he can combat injustice who has experienced a little in his own person.

Martin Luther King, Jr. ( “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” (1963)

But more basically, I am in Birmingham because injustice is here. Just as the prophets of the eighth century B.C. left their villages and carried their “thus saith the Lord” far beyond the boundaries of their home towns: and just as the Apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of of the Greco-Roman world, so am I compelled to carry the gospel of freedom far beyond my own hometown. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid.

Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.

Frederick Douglas (“No Struggle, No Progress” (1857)

The whole history of progress of human liberty

shows that all concessions

Yet made to her august claims

Have been born of earnest struggle

If there is no struggle

There is no progress.

As Chris Hedges recently wrote about Tim in “This Hero Didn’t Stand A Chance”:

His prosecution is evidence that our moral order has been turned upside down. The bankers and swindlers who trashed the global economy and wiped out some $40 trillion in wealth amass obscene amounts of money, much of it provided by taxpayers. They do not go to jail. Regulatory agencies, compliant to the demands of corporations, refuse to impede the destruction unleashed by the coal, oil and natural gas companies as they turn the planet into a hothouse of pollutants, poisoned water, fouled air and contaminated soil in the frenzied quest for greater and greater profits. Those who manage and make fortunes from pre-emptive wars, embrace torture, carry out extrajudicial assassinations, deny habeas corpus and run up the largest deficits in human history are feted as patriots. But when a courageous citizen such as DeChristopher peacefully derails the corporate and governmental destruction of the ecosystem, he is sent to jail.

The rules are written by those who profit from the status quo, DeChristopher said when I reached him by phone this weekend in Minneapolis. “If we want to change that status quo we have to step outside of those rules. We have to put pressure on those within the political system to choose one side or another.”

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Animal Rescue Operation Brings A New Friend

July 24th, 2011 1 comment

About a month ago, Alex, the caretaker of the property I live on, asked me if I wanted a puppy. He told me of a woman who rescued dogs from North Carolina shelters and said she had some Lab pups I might be interested in (I lost my 14 year old Yellow Lab Amber last winter, so Alex knew I was looking for a new friend).

So I said sure – ask her if she has a black lab and I’ll take him!

Well, last Friday I got a call that the woman had a dog for me and would be at a local farm – so I excitedly drove on over to check it out!

The woman’s name is Jessica and she runs an outfit called Saving Fur Kids Rescue, Inc.” (great site, but bad music alert, so turn the sound off or way down). If you have a place in your heart and your home, please rescue one of Jessica’s friends!

So, now meet Buoy (boo – ee). About 3 month old male Lab – Boxer mix – isn’t he gorgeous!

Buoy1

Buoy2

As soon as we took him out of the crate in the back of Jessica’s truck, Buoy literlly jumped into my arms and started licking my face and neck!

He looked hot, so while we filled out the paperwork, I gave him a bowl of water – and on the way home, sure enough, Buoy deposited that in my lap!

But what a great dog. Smart, loyal and – for a puppy – incredibly calm demeanor with amazing discipline. House trained in 1 day. Learned to obey the sit command and stay by my side as I walk almost immediately – a real mind reader.

We are now working on “come”, “stay” and “fetch”!

buoy3

buoy4

Buoy doesn’t seem to like the water (yet!) and the only things he chews on are his toys and a pair of my old sneakers.

The beginning of a beautiful friendship! Hope to soon embark on my Travels with Buoy!

casablanca

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Why The News Blackout on Extreme Weather and Climate Change?

July 22nd, 2011 3 comments

Where are the Activists, Media and Scientists?

Model projection of the number of summer days with temperature over 90 degrees, Boston mass.

Model projection of the number of summer days with temperature over 90 degrees, Boston.

[Updates below]

I frequently complain that local weathermen and media fail to connect the dots between extreme weather events and the predicted impacts of climate change (heat, drought, floods, wildfires, etc – see this for Northeastern US impact assessment).

Extreme heat and declining air quality are likely to pose increasing problems for human health, especially in urban areas.

Heat waves, which are currently rare in the region, are projected to become much more commonplace in a warmer future, with major implications for human health (see Human Health sector).163,68

In addition to the physiological stresses associated with hotter days and nights,360 for cities that now experience ozone pollution problems, the number of days that fail to meet federal air quality standards is projected to increase with rising temperatures if there are no additional controls on ozone-causing pollutants163,361 (see Human Healt h sector). Sharp reductions in emissions will be needed to keep ozone within existing standards.

Projected changes in summer heat (see figure below) provide a clear sense of how different the climate of the Northeast is projected to be under lower versus higher emissions scenarios. Changes of this kind will require greater use of air conditioning (see Energy sector).

But now the coverage is even worse than just ignoring the gorilla in the room.

Media are now actively misleading readers by attributing the cause to “heat domes” and writing about trivial effects (horse racing), instead of real causes and the huge implications.

We have a huge teachable moment that we are not capitalizing on – the world is on fire!

After a week into a record heat wave, do you think news editors could dedicate just ONE story to the extreme weather link to global warming?

The only thing I’ve seen is Todd bates’ blog at the Asbury Park Press.

Maybe environmental groups might hold a press conference to educate the public and force the media to engage the story?

This is particularly timely and important, with public hearings on the Christie Energy Master Plan rollback scheduled for next week (see:

Just think if a river conveniently caught on fire the week before hearings on Clean Water!

Or an oil spill occurred a week before a public hearing on offshore drilling!

Maybe the State Climatologist should step outside his narrow and conservative science orientation and speak out to educate the public.

How bad does it have to get before someone speaks out and takes action?

Where is the leadership?

Hit this link – Watch, read, learn – and DO SOMETHING.

[Update: Timid EPA sure won’t go there – they safely advise the public of only air quality issues.

Climate change not even mentioned. See: EPA and New York City Urge People to Save Energy, Money and the Environment on Hot Summer Days

Not to worry, we’re only experiencing “hot summer days”.

You know, like, from my childhood – the famous Nat King Cole song (listen):

Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer
Those days of soda and pretzels and beer
Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer
Dust off the sun and moon and sing a song of cheer

[Update #4 – 8/31/11 – Sandy Bauers of Philly Inquirer touched on role of climate change in Irene flooding – let’s hope for a more focused  followup: While creeping development brings flooding, change is slow and costly. end update]

Update #3 – 8/7/11: Ding Dong the Witch is Dead! Jim O’Neill of the Bergen Record just connected some of the dots and broke the blackout! But Wolfenotes gets no credit for pushing the story. See: July was NJ’s 2nd-hottest month ever.  Put this quote in Neon lights in Times Square:

“Those data are completely consistent with our understanding of global warming”, said Alan Robock, associate director of the Center for Environmental Prediction at Rutgers. “As the average temperature of the planet warms due to human emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, individual locations are expected to follow the trend, but with a large amount of natural variability thrown in.”

That quote is almost as good as Jim Hansen’s take:

“The standard scientist answer is “you cannot blame a specific weather/climate event on global warming.” That answer, to the public, translates as “no”.  However, if the question were posed as “would these events have occurred if atmospheric carbon dioxide had remained at its pre-industrial level of 280 [parts per million] ppm?”, an appropriate answer in that case is “almost certainly not.” That answer, to the public, translates as “yes”, i.e., humans probably bear a responsibility for the extreme event.”

“In either case, the scientist usually goes on to say something about probabilities and how those are changing because of global warming. But the extended discussion, to much of the public, is chatter. The initial answer is all important. Although either answer can be defended as “correct”, we suggest that leading with the standard caveat “you cannot blame” is misleading and allows a misinterpretation about the danger of increasing extreme events.

Update #2 – State Climatologist  Robinson today reminded me that the Asbury Park Press discussed extreme weather in a recent interview with him, published in this July 8 opinion Q&A. I am well aware of that, having corresponded with APP reporter Todd Bates (who has written about the issue on his blog) and editor Randy Bergmann on this issue before Robinson’s interview. But a single Q&A opinion piece does not alter my overall assessment that there is an ongoing news blackout of the issue. end update]

Update #1: 7/23/11Star Ledger links blizzard with heat wave – with this pathetic stunt.]

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Wingnuts Target NJ Wind and Solar for Elimination

July 21st, 2011 No comments

Christie Followed Koch Bro’s Orders on RGGI – Will Wind and Solar Be Next?

Tom Johnson over at NJ Spotlight today reports that the Koch Brothers funded Americans For Prosperity (AFP) have targeted so called subsidies to off shore wind projects along the NJ coast.

Importantly, they are using the same lies and talking points Governor Christie and NJ business lobbyists have used. 

So this essentially must be considered a coordinated political issue campaign.

These are the same sham tactics used to back Christie’s decision to leave RGGI.

Specifically, AFP is praising free markets, criticizing the high costs of so called subsidies to renewable power, and making the same baseless claims as the Governor about the allegedly high cost of power as a significant factor in NJ’s poor economy.

No credible academic or professional economist attributes high energy costs as a cause of the current deep economic recession, which is the result of Wall Street’s speculative greed, enabled by lax regulatory oversight and deregulation.

As Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., put it in opposing Obama’s nomination of Gensler to be head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the position once held by Born: “Mr. Gensler worked with Sen. Phil Gramm and Alan Greenspan to exempt credit default swaps from regulation, which led to the collapse of AIG and has resulted in the largest taxpayer bailout in U.S. history.” This bailout was engineered in cooperation with the Bush administration by Timothy Geithner, then head of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, who was rewarded for his catering to Wall Street avarice by being named Obama’s treasury secretary.

Therefore, the Governor’s policy is founded on misinformation and thus doomed to failure.

Tom Johnson reports:

Conservative Group Wants to Shut Down NJ’s Offshore Wind Program -  Americans for Prosperity says state subsidies for offshore wind will drive up power prices and squelch economic development

A conservative group that spearheaded efforts to lobby the Christie administration to pull out of a regional initiative to curb greenhouse gas emissions is now trying to undercut New Jersey’s efforts to develop offshore wind farms.

Americans for Prosperity retained the Beacon Hill Institute to do a cost-benefit analysis of the state’s plans to develop up to 1,100 megawatts of wind capacity off the coast of southern New Jersey. The study concluded that “the rush to offshore wind power will produce net economic costs, raise electricity prices, and dampen economic activity.”

It is common knowledge that AFP is funded by the energy industry giant right wing Koch brothers.

The Beacon Hill Institute is far less known, but a quick Google finds that they are global warming deniers (w/ties to the Coors family and the standard stable of right wing think tanks).

Governor Christie already has announced his plans to rollback the renewble energy goals of the Energy Master Plan, eliminate major sources of renewable energy funding via the Societal Benefits Charge, and otherwise slash regulations and programs in order to promote more new in state fossil power generation.

This expanding disaster must be stopped by aggressive and organized citizen protest and Democrats in the Legislature.

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Is Barnegat Bay on the Verge of Ecological Collapse?

July 20th, 2011 No comments

Health Officials Warn That Gas From Rotting Seaweed Could Make Residents Sick

water fleas, from Wired Science. Photo: West Group, Oxford University

water fleas, from Wired Science. Photo: West Group, Oxford University

[Update #3 – 9/14/11 – global warming induced ecological change occurring on a global level: Scientists: Bacteria spreading in warming oceans]

Update #2 – 7/31/11: Kirk Moore writes another killer story in today’s APP, providing more evidence of ecological collapse – Pest report: Bugs down, jellyfish up: Stormwater runoff alters bay’s quality

Bologna has worked on the bay for years, so when jellyfish numbers impress him, you know it’s a problem. The annual eruption of sea nettles seems to get worse every year, and the 2011 outbreak started chasing people out of the water around Father’s Day.

It’s making for a miserable summer in the northern bay, along with washups of rotting algae, twin signals of the bay’s deteriorating ecosystem, scientists say. Along much of the bayfront and residental lagoons, above-ground swimming pools have appeared alongside the docks. – end update]

Update #1: 7/21/11: Don’t worry, DEP’s on it. They took strong action by issuing a press release – it emphasized the lack of sufficient data to take action! DEP wants to collect – at a minimum – 2 more years of data before they 1) “determine the location and extent of water quality problems”, 2) decide whether the Bay is impaired; 3) place the Bay on the Clean Water Act 303(d) list if it is impaired; and 4) then determine whether a TMDL is needed. Hey, but at least they are “beginning“!(that’s DEP’s own word!) The money quote:

“Brown tide outbreaks, declines in hard clam and eel grass populations, and population explosions of sea nettles are some of the most visible signs of the ecological stress the bay is under. Yet the role that specific changes in water quality parameters have in causing these and other bay problems remain unclear.”  WATER MONITORING NETWORK BEGINS WORK TO ADDRESS – BARNEGAT BAY’S ECOLOGICAL RESTORATION

By the time the science is clear and DEP determines, with 95-99% confidence, what the causal mechanisms are, it’ll be an autopsy, not a TMDL.

And how this quote for irony – Dr. Jill Lipoti took one of Bob Martin’s “mad man” management transfers. Dr. Lipoti was the longtime head of DEP’s radiological safety programs. But, ironically, perhaps Barnegat Bay – home of the nation’s oldest Zombie nuke plant with extensive radioactive tritium leaks – is the right place for her:

“Over the course of the project, the DEP and its partners will compile the most comprehensive water quality and flow data set ever developed for Barnegat Bay,” said Jill Lipoti, [new] Director of the DEP’s Division of Water Monitoring Standards.

Dr. Jill Lipoti
New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection

JILL LIPOTI is Director of the Division of Environmental Safety and Health at the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. Prior to assuming this position, she was an Assistant Director with responsility for directing the state’s radiation protection programs. Dr. Lipoti also serves as adjunct assistant professor, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey – School of Public Health, Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, specializing in radiation exposure, and preparedness for chemical and radiological emergencies. She has provided advice to the International Atomic Energy Agency regarding radiation safety and security, and has served on the Radiation Advisory Committee of EPA’s Science Advisory Board. She has M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in environmental science from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
. – end update]

Back in May, we wrote a post –  one of several – that warned about harmful algal blooms and the potential for ecological collapse (see: More Bad News for Barnegat Bay – “ Ecological Indicators At Record Lows)

We may be approaching (or have passed) an ecological tipping point that will result in collapse of biological functions in the Bay.

If so, nuisance jellyfish will look like a minor issue and some real nasty organisms could emerge, making the Bay a stagnant putrescent pool, kind of a liquid landfill.

If that happens, what do you think happens to the property value of all those Bay homes?  What happens to the value of homes near a stinking landfill?

What happens to all those local businesses that depend on boating, fishing, swimming, and tourism?

Forgetaboudit.

Prior to that, last December, we warned that:

Ecosystems can crash. A polluted, warm, shallow, coastal lagoon like the Bay is a perfect petrie dish to grow exotic organisms that can create toxic harmful algal blooms (HAB). A toxic HAB would make stinging jellyfish seem like a picnic, and the media circus and panic that would ensue would make medical waste washups seem mild. A HAB would wipe out billions of dollars of property value and economic tourism.

Well, today Kirk Moore reports:

BRICK – Swimmers, boaters and kayakers should avoid the area around Seaweed Point near the mouth of Kettle Creek, where new washups of rotting sea lettuce and algae have been seen, officials with the Ocean County Health Department said Monday.

Hydrogen sulfide gas from the rotting weed has made life miserable for three weeks and even sickened residents, said Linda Chris of the Seawood Harbor Property Owners Association, which has been pressing government agencies to clean up the shoreline.

“I grew up here. You always got a whiff of swamp gas coming off the marsh, that’s part of life here, Chris said. “But it’s never been like this. It’s the sick condition of the bay.”

The likely cause is a combination of the (climate change induced) heat wave, which is driving warm water temperatures. [Note: made even warmer by the Oyster Creek nuke plant discharge without cooling towers, thanks to the Christie DEP.]

Warm water exacerbates high pollution levels, loss of freshwater flows into the Bay, and shallow sediment choked conditions. The growth of algae and other biological processes accelerate under these conditions, ultimately leading to dead zones.

In other words, the current Bay conditions provide a perfect petrie dish for the emergence and stimulation of of exotic and toxic biological processes that NOAA refers to as “harmful algal blooms”:

Harmful algal blooms (HAB) affect a number of coastal ecosystems with impacts including the devastation of critical coastal habitats, loss of economically and culturally vital shellfish resources, illness and death in populations of protected marine species, and serious threats to human health posed by algal toxins. Just one harmful algal bloom event can cost tens of millions of dollars to local coastal economies. In 2005, harmful algal bloom events were particularity problematic along the New England Coast (the largest recorded since 1972 forcing shellfish closures from ME to RI) and off the west coast of FL (causing respiratory distress, marine mammal mortalities and widespread hypoxia in bottom waters killing vast areas of coral reefs). In addition to HABs, over half of our Nation’s estuaries experience hypoxic conditions, the largest of which is the recurring “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico which has widespread implications for land-use practices in the US (watershed encompasses greater than 40% of the US) especially with emerging efforts to develop ethanol.

NOAA currently provides bulletins of bloom conditions for the Gulf of Mexico including information on chlorophyll levels, wind conditions, for potential or actual bloom events. A resilient and secure coastal community depends on a vibrant economy, healthy coastal ecosystem, and healthy people. Estimates of the economic impacts of harmful algal blooms (HABs) in the United States average $75 million/year over the period 1987-2000. These impacts are the sum of different kinds of direct output impacts across four categories of effects: public health (divided between ciguatera and shellfish poisonings); commercial fishing; recreation and tourism; and monitoring and management costs (Hoagland and Scatasta, 2006). Pathogens led to 20,000 beach closures in 2005.

The inherent pressures from coastal development, rising population, and related non-point source pollution risks are increasing. For example the population of Puget Sound is expected to double by 2020. Vibrio, long-linked to seafood borne infections, are increasing in US waters. Warmer coastal waters have led to recent outbreaks in Prince William Sound with northward expansion likely. These risks affect all coastal states and impact many states concurrently. The nation’s ability to mitigate these impacts depends on effective early warning, and associated tools and technologies. NOAA, through national capabilities and regional partners, is well-positioned to monitor and predict the impacts from these threats and ensure coastal community security and resilience.

Regional systems will begin in the Gulf of Mexico (2010, pathogens and contaminants prototype, HABs operations), followed by the Great Lakes (2011, HABs operations, pathogen prototype), West Coast (2011, HABs and pathogens prototype), Gulf of Maine (2012, HABs operations), the Southeastern US (2012, pathogens and contaminants prototype), California (2013, HABs operations), and Chesapeake (2014, pathogens prototype, HABs operations).

If the Bay were to collapse, maybe local officials, the Ocean County Freeholders, and Governor Christie might rethink their opposition to funding a real Bay restoration program and limiting future development.

And I wonder just how much more data and science DEP needs – recalling this quote:

We need more science and data before we decide whether a TMDL is needed,” Ragonese said.

Just maybe – after all, these Christie DEP folks see things exclusively in economic terms through the lens of cost-benefit analysis tools.

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