AT: Add-ons Fishing has no impact on the economy—already on the decline
National Professional Anglers Association 2014 (Federal fisheries agency adjusts misleading economic information; Jun 28; muskie.outdoorsfirst.com/articles/06.28.2014/7099/Federal.Fisheries.Agency.Adjusts.Misleading.Economic.Information/; kdf)
Washington, D.C. - June 26, 2014 - After significant objection from the recreational fishing and boating community, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has taken steps to correct a key fisheries economics report that misleadingly indicated that the domestic commercial fishing industry in the United States was significantly larger than the recreational fishing industry. When imported seafood, which is not regulated or managed by NMFS, is removed from the equation, the corrected data show that the recreational fishing industry is actually $7.9 billion dollars larger than the commercial fishing industry. Furthermore, the corrected data show that the domestic commercial fishing industry actually decreased by $2.3 billion in 2012.
The seafood industry is becoming even more irrelevant than ever
Murphy et al. 13 Tammy Murphy, Andrew Kitts, David Records, Chad Demarest, Daniel Caless, John Walden, and Sharon Benjamin, all contributers to the National Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA Report May 2012- April 2013, "2012 Final Report on the Performance of the Northeast Multispecies (Groundfish) Fishery," www.nefsc.noaa.gov/publications/crd/crd1401/, 6/29/14, MRM
As a consequence of quota reductions for a number of groundfish stocks, landings and revenues were lower in 2012 than in 2011. Landings fell by 5.4 percent and revenues by 7.7 percent. For groundfish these figures are at four-year lows with landings off by 24 percent and revenues by 22.9 percent. There were fewer active vessels, fewer and slightly longer trips, and a continued concentration of revenues onto the highest-earning vessels. As was also the case in the prior year reported, 2011, more than half of the available quota was not harvested. While some in the regulatory and environmental communities have blamed a lack of fish for the inability of fishermen to catch their quotas, industry members cite conflicting or badly-designed regulations and “choke stocks," also known as choke species, that cause fishing to cease on other species when the choke stock’s quota is reached. In home port states Massachusetts, New York and Rhode Island, all indicators of crew employment were at four year lows in 2012.
To balance the trade balance of seafood, the US would destroy the ocean
Leschin-Hoar 2011 (Clare; Ocean of trouble: Report warns of offshore fish farming dangers; Oct 13; grist.org/food/2011-10-12-report-warns-of-the-dangers-of-offshore-fish-farming/; kdf)
“A leading argument used to promote factory fish farming is that we need it to offset the U.S. seafood trade deficit — that is, to import less seafood and produce more seafood,” says the report. But FWW points out that to counter that trade deficit, the U.S. would need to raise almost 200 million fish in ocean cages each year, using “41 percent of the entire global production of fishmeal” as feed. The result, they say, could produce “as much nitrogenous waste as the untreated sewage from a city nearly nine times more populous than Los Angeles and could lead to the escapement of as many as 34.8 million fish.”
The plan hurts the economy- takes away jobs and crushes the tourism industry
Food and Water Watch 2008 (Economic ramifications of offshore aquaculture; Mar 4; www.foodandwaterwatch.org/factsheet/economic-ramifications-of-offshore-aquaculture/; kdf)
Proponents of offshore aquaculture favor allowing this practice of raising fish in net pens or cages between three and 200 miles from shore in large part because they claim it will boost the American economy and create new jobs. When the U.S. Offshore Aquaculture bill, developed by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, was sent to Congress, Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez said: “Today’s action will create jobs and revenues for coastal communities and U.S. businesses by allowing for the expansion of an underutilized industry.” 1 Unfortunately, previous international experience indicates that it is actually more likely that offshore aquaculture will diminish local jobs than create them. By reducing the size of fishing grounds, decreasing the availability of wild stocks, and flooding the market with fish products, offshore aquaculture will threaten the jobs of many commercial fisher men and women. The pollution that fish farms create and the sharks they attract could also threaten the jobs of people in the tourism industry. Compounding the problem, offshore aquaculture operations likely will be highly automated and supported by foreign investment and perhaps staff, so they are unlikely to create many replacement jobs for those lost.
AT: Economy Add-on Tourism ext The plan hurts the economy- tourism
Food and Water Watch 2008 (Economic ramifications of offshore aquaculture; Mar 4; www.foodandwaterwatch.org/factsheet/economic-ramifications-of-offshore-aquaculture/; kdf)
In 2000, 1.18 million people were employed in ocean tourism in the United States.29 It is an extremely important industry for many coastal communities. By polluting offshore areas and attracting dangerous sharks to aquaculture net pens full of fish, offshore aquaculture could significantly damage the U.S. coastal tourism industry. Not only could it threaten the beauty and safety of beaches, but open ocean aquaculture could also take control of space used directly for tourism activities. In the Gulf of Mexico alone, recreational fishing brought a total of $5.6 billion into the regional economy.30 Aquaculture farms could be built in areas previously used for sport fishing and recreational boating, eliminating the jobs of people employed in this sector of tourism and preventing this money from entering coastal communities.
AT: Deforestation Add-on Deforestation is decreasing and biotech trees solve.
Bailey ‘8
Ronald Bailey is the award-winning science correspondent for Reason magazine and Reason.com, where he writes a weekly science and technology column. “Decrying the "Pursuit of Unnecessary Things"”. Reason Online. February 12, 2008. http://reason.com/archives/2008/02/12/decrying-the-pursuit-of-unnece
Revkin also mentions land. So what's happened with trends in land usage? A 2006 study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that "among 50 nations with extensive forests reported in the Food and Agriculture Organization's comprehensive Global Forest Resources Assessment 2005, no nation where annual per capita gross domestic product exceeded $4,600 had a negative rate of growing stock change." Biotech tree plantations would enable humanity to produce all the timber we need on an area roughly 5 percent to 10 percent of the total forest today. This would mean that more of the Earth's forests could remain in their natural states.
No Impact to deforestation - Even with all human destruction forests are still greater than 12,000 years ago and there is no evidence for species loss.
Howard ‘2k
John Howard. July 2, 2000. Scoop Independent News. “A new kind of green-washing.”
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0007/S00005.htm
Philip Stott of the University of London is the author of the book, Tropical Rainforests: Political and Hegemonic Myth-Making," and, like some NZ scientists, he is also speaking out. "One of the simple, but very important facts, is that the rainforests have only been around for between 12,000 and 16,000 years. That sounds like a very long time, but in terms of history of the earth, it's hardly a pinprick. The simple point is that there are now still - despite what humans have done - more rainforests today than there were 12,000 years ago," Stott said. The indigenous people living in the Amazon forest are also angry that people living tens of thousands of kilometers away from their forests, including some Hollywood and music celebrities, are using them and the livelihood for political and financial gain. Some environmentalists also claim that tens of thouands of species are being driven to extinction every year because of destruction of tropical rainforests like the Amazon. But both Moore and Stott disagree. They say that most of these estimates are rooted in the research of Harvard University's Edward O. Wilson, who has argued passionately to stem the tide of extinctions "now 100 to 1,000 times as great as it was before the coming of humanity" - while neglecting to mention that his estimates of 50,000 extinctions per year are based purely on his own computer models. "There is no scientific basis for saying that 50,000 species are going extinct. I want a list of Latin species," says Moore.
Even significant cuts won’t save the forest.
Pascoe 2009
Owen Pascoe. 3/17/2009. “Minds frozen solid as the world warms”. Canaberra Times. http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/opinion/editorial/general/minds-frozen-solid-as-the-world-warms/1461092.aspx
And scientists at an international scientific congress on climate change in Copenhagen last week warned governments to prepare for temperature rises of four degrees by the end of this century, with catastrophic effects on the planet. A four-degree temperature rise would devastate as much as 85 per cent of the Amazon rainforest the lungs of the planet and leave many low-lying parts of Asia and the Pacific extremely vulnerable to extensive flooding. Dr John Church, a scientist at the The Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research, told the meeting the ''most plausible'' global scenario was a total sea-level rise of one to two metres by 2100, affecting the livelihoods of more than 600million people. Only two years ago the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was predicting the sea level would rise less than one metre. The Amazon research, conducted by some of Britain's leading climate experts, shows that even severe cuts in deforestation and carbon emissions will fail to save the emblematic South American jungle, the destruction of which has become a powerful symbol of human impact on the planet.
Amazon deforestation is inevitable – economic demands – it will start a cycle of more deforestation.
Red Orbit ‘9
Red Orbit. “Economic Demands Threaten Amazon”. Ferbuary 19, 2009. http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1642296/economic_demands_threaten_amazon/
The Amazon continues to lose more forest due to excess strain from accelerating rates of industrialized growth in the region, according to a report issued by the United Nations on Wednesday. Supported by the UN Environment Program and the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO), the GEO Amazonia report shows troubling signs of deforestation due to poorly planned human settlements. As of 2005, “857,666 square kilometers of the forest had been transformed, reducing vegetation cover by approximately 17 percent, equal to two-thirds of Peru or 94 percent of Venezuela,” according to the UN. Since then, the rate of deforestation has decreased. However, an additional 11,224 square kilometers (4,333 square miles) of forest disappeared in Brazil in 2007. Deforestation in the region is being driven by foreign markets’ conquests for timber, cash crops and beef, and unprecedented levels of pollution, according to the report, which used data from more than 150 experts in eight nearby countries. “Our Amazonia is changing at an accelerated rate with very profound modifications in its ecosystems,” the eight Amazonian countries declared in the GEO Amazonia report. The region today holds some 35 million people, nearly 65 percent of them in cities, including three with more than one million inhabitants, according to the AFP. The report recommended that Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela should take part in a coordinated effort for sustainable use of the iconic rainforest’s ecosystems. "If the loss of forests exceeds 30 percent of the vegetation cover, then rainfall levels will decrease," the report said. "This will produce a vicious circle that favors forest burning, reduces water vapor release and increases smoke emissions into the atmosphere."
Amazon deforestation is already devastating – its inevitable due to economic demands, infrastructure projects, and demographic pressures.
Osava ‘9
Maria Osava. “Amazon Teetering on the Edge”. IPS News. February 26, 2009. http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45898
The accumulated sum of deforested area, according to the report, was 857,666 square kilometres in 2005, equivalent to 17 percent of the entire Amazon jungle. The expansion of deforestation reached a 27,218 square kilometre annual average between 2000 and 2005. Deforestation already affects more than 18 percent of all Amazonia, and 15 percent of it takes place in Brazil, estimates Verissimo, who systematically monitors the phenomenon in his country. In his opinion, the outlook on the threats to biodiversity is also "conservative" because it is based on information that is already several years old. There are 26 already extinct species, 644 in critical danger, and 3,827 that are endangered or threatened, according to the report. But GEO Amazonia does play a positive role by pressing all countries to improve their ability to research and monitor the region, guiding the studies and establishing priorities, he said. Constant updating is essential. The report does not include, for example, the reduction of deforestation in Brazil last year, which contradicts a traditional correlation: when agricultural prices go up, more forest is razed for crops, noted Paulo Barreto, also of Imazon. In fact, deforestation in Brazil has been on the decline since before the outbreak of the current global economic crisis, when soybean and beef prices were still very high - factors traditionally behind the expansion of the farming frontier in the Amazon, he explained. The portrait painted in the report does not lead to much optimism. Beef cattle, one of the main causes of deforestation, jumped from 34.7 million head in 1994 to 73.7 million in 2006 in the Brazilian Amazon, and continue to expand quickly as well in the Bolivian and Colombian parts of the basin. Soy, lumber and mining, as well as major hydroelectric projects in Brazil and others carried out under the South American Regional Infrastructure Integration Initiative (IIRSA), which the Brazilian government has made a priority, are other economic pressures on the Amazon forest and biodiversity. And demographic pressure is evident in a population growing faster than the national average. The just over five million residents of the Amazon in 1970 have increased six-fold, reaching 33.5 million in 2007 - that is, 11 percent of the total population of the eight Amazon Basin countries.
Amazon is not the lungs of the earth – it is oxygen neutral
Howard ‘2k
John Howard. July 2, 2000. Scoop Independent News. “A new kind of green-washing.”
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0007/S00005.htm
Another familiar claim of environmentalists is that the Amazon constitutes the "lungs of the earth." But according to Antonio Donato Nobre of the Institute for Research in Amazonia in Brazil, and other eco-scientists, the Amazon consumes as much oxygen as it produces and may actually be a net user of oxygen. " In fact, because trees fall down and decay, rainforests actually take in slightly more oxygen than they give out. It's only fast growing young trees that actually take-up carbon dioxide." they say. The tropical rainforests are also basically irrelevant when it comes to regulating or influencing global weather. The oceans have a much greater impact, the scientists say.
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