Fyi who has how many icebreakers
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- Coast Guard doesn’t have enough ice-breakers to facilitate safe oil drilling now
- Arctic drilling without effective support guarantees oil spills
- Oil spills collapse the ecosystem
- Migrating Species Magnifies the Internal Link
- Biodiversity loss guarantees multiple scenarios for extinction, including nuclear war
Adv – Oil SpillsThe Status Quo virtually guarantees deadly oil spills – we need more Arctic scienceNuka Research and Planning Group LLC 10 November, “Oil Spill Prevention and Response in the U.S. Arctic Ocean: Unexamined Risks, Unacceptable Consequences,” http://www.pewtrusts.org/uploadedFiles/wwwpewtrustsorg/Reports/Protecting_ocean_life/PEW-1010_ARTIC_Report.pdf This remote, extreme northern portion of the OCS has a harsh environment with high winds, extended periods of heavy fog, seasonal darkness, subzero temperatures and weeklong storms. As a result, the risks, difficulties and unknowns of oil exploration in the Arctic OCS are far greater than in any other area of the OCS. Seasonal sea ice, lack of infrastructure, and distances from major population centers present challenges that may heighten the risks of a spill occurring while also limiting the potential effectiveness of spill cleanup technologies. The prospect of mounting a response to a catastrophic spill in the Arctic OCS is daunting, and the consequences of a major spill in this region could be dire. Scientific knowledge of Arctic ecology is based on incomplete information about marine mammals, fisheries and the marine ecosystem, and there are no computer models that can predict how an oil spill in the Arctic OCS would interact with that dynamic sea ice regime. Arctic regions are already under considerable strain from climate change, and Arctic species and ecosystems are highly sensitive to pollutants and much slower to recover from damage. Coast Guard doesn’t have enough ice-breakers to facilitate safe oil drilling nowDlouhy 6/24 (Jennifer, http://www.chron.com/business/article/Coast-Guard-girds-for-heavier-traffic-in-the-3657039.php, Chron.com, Posted 3:35 P.M., “Coast Guard girds for heavier traffic in the Arctic”) The Coast Guard is bolstering its armada of ships, planes and people in Alaska in anticipation of Shell's planned oil drilling this summer and a surge of other commercial traffic. But the service is combating a dearth of resources, including vessels capable of plowing through multiyear ice in the region. The Coast Guard has only one icebreaker in service, and that ship will spend its summer far from Shell's planned oil exploration on a scientific research mission. And though the Coast Guard is bringing its 36-year-old Polar Star heavy icebreaker back into operation, that won't happen until 2013. "We've got zero capability to respond in the Arctic right now," Coast Guard Commandant Adm.Robert Papp warned Congress a year ago. "An oil spill, a collision, a ship sinking in the Arctic keeps me awake at night because we have nothing to respond or, if we respond, it's going to take us weeks to get there." Arctic drilling without effective support guarantees oil spillsGreenpeace 11 (April, “Risks and potential impacts of oil exploration in the Arctic” Briefing, http://www.greenpeace.org/international/Global/international/publications/climate/2011/FinalArcticBriefing2011.pdf) The United States Geological Survey estimates that 90 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil lies in offshore reservoirs in the Arctic. That’s about a third of the size of Saudi Arabia’s reserves. A blowout in a scenario where a relief well cannot be completed in the same drilling season could lead to oil gushing unchecked for two years, with split oil becoming trapped under sheets of thick ice. The environmental consequences of a spill in the Arctic environment would be far more serious than in warmer seas such as the Gulf of Mexico. Serious impacts of the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska are still being felt 20 years later. Baffin Bay is home to 80 to 90% of the world’s Narwhals. The region is also home to blue whales, polar bears, seals, sharks, cormorants, kittiwakes and numerous other migratory birds. According to a senior official at a Canadian firm that specializes in oil-spill response, “there is really no solution or method today that we’re aware of that can actually recover oil from the Arctic. Freezing temperatures, severe weather and a highly remote location pose unprecedented challenges to any spill response. The U.S. Minerals Management Service estimated a one in five chance of a major spill occurring over the lifetime of activity in just one block of leases in the Arctic Ocean near Alaska. Oil spills collapse the ecosystemNuka Research and Planning Group 7 October, World Wildlife Foundation, “Oil Spill Response Challenges in Arctic Waters”, http://www.worldwildlife.org/what/wherewework/arctic/WWFBinaryitem24363.pdf Lingering oil from the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill (EVOS) in Prince William Sound, Alaska has persisted far beyond initial forecasts (Peterson et al., 2003). In 2005, EVOS oil was found only slightly weathered under beaches across the spill impact area. The lingering oil remains toxic and biologically available, and scientists predict that this subsurface oil may persist for decades to come (Short et al., 2003). The lingering effects of oil spills have also been documented in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, where recent studies published by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution found that oil remains in the sediment layer of some coastal marshes from a 1969 oil spill. The lingering oil continues to impact on the behaviour of burrowing fiddler crabs, which have been observed to actively avoid digging burrows into this oiled sediment layer. The crabs have also been observed to show signs of toxic impacts from the 38-year-old oil (Culbertson, et al., 2007). Migrating Species Magnifies the Internal LinkUNEP 10 (United Natins Environment Program, Johnsen, K. Alfthan, B. Hislop, L. Skaalvik, J. F. (Editors), “Protecting Arctic Biodiversity: Limitations and Strengths of Environental Agreements” UNEP Grid Arendal, 2010, Online [HT]) The Arctic contribution to global biodiversity is significant. Although the Arctic has relatively few species compared to areas such as the tropics, the region is recognised for its genetic diversity, reflecting the many ways in which species have adapted to extreme environment2. Hundreds of migrating species (including 279 species of birds, and the grey and humpback whales) travel long distances each year in order to take advantage of the short but productive Arctic summers2. Biodiversity loss guarantees multiple scenarios for extinction, including nuclear warTakacs 96 Environmental Humanities Prof @ CSU Monteray Bay, 1996 (David, “The Idea of Biodiversity: Philosophies of Paradise” pg. 200-201) So biodiversity keeps the world running. It has value and of itself, as well as for us. Raven, Erwin, and Wilson oblige us to think about the value of biodiversity for our own lives. The Ehrlichs’ rivet-popper trope makes this same point; by eliminating rivets, we play Russian roulette with global ecology and human futures: “It is likely that destruction of the rich complex of species in the Amazon basin could trigger rapid changes in global climate patterns. Agriculture remains heavily dependent on stable climate, and human beings remain heavily dependent on food. By the end of the century the extinction of perhaps a million species in the Amazon basin could have entrained famines in which a billion human beings perished. And if our species is very unlucky, the famines could lead to a thermonuclear war, which could extinguish civilization.” 13 Elsewhere Ehrlich uses different particulars with no less drama: What then will happen if the current decimation of organic diversity continues? Crop yields will be more difficult to maintain in the face of climatic change, soil erosion, loss of dependable water supplies, decline of pollinators, and ever more serious assaults by pests. Conversion of productive land to wasteland will accelerate; deserts will continue their seemingly inexorable expansion. Air pollution will increase, and local climates will become harsher. Humanity will have to forgo many of the direct economic benefits it might have withdrawn from Earth's wellstocked genetic library. It might, for example, miss out on a cure for cancer; but that will make little difference. As ecosystem services falter, mortality from respiratory and epidemic disease, natural disasters, and especially famine will lower life expectancies to the point where cancer (largely a disease of the elderly) will be unimportant. Humanity will bring upon itself consequences depressingly similar to those expected from a nuclear winter. Barring a nuclear conflict, it appears that civilization will disappear some time before the end of the next century - not with a bang but a whimper.14 Directory: file -> view view -> Western Europe after wwii view -> Author study: paul fleischman view -> Qpa1 7ela study Guide view -> Arctic Oil/Gas Neg view -> November 1970 Approximately 150,000-500,000 deaths Bhola Cyclone Bangladesh view -> Grade Level: 6 Unit of Study: Caribbean glce view -> Citation: Duffield, Katy view -> Table of Contents Lesson # view -> Chinese Wind Energy Disad Download 0.8 Mb. 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