November 23, 2004
11/23 - The 9/11 Commission Report: Putting ocean conservation into the bigger context of American politics
For anyone hoping that the state of protection of Americas oceans might be greatly improved by the two recent reports (Pew Oceans and U.S. Ocean Commission), it is important to be aware of how incredibly difficult politics in Washington D.C. have become. The 9/11 Commission created an excellent model example of how to spend equal amounts of effort on a study and on publicizing it. AND YET ... after doing such an amazing job of communicating its findings and pushing Congress to act on its recommendations ... even with all that mammoth effort and pushing and hustling ... it still looks like Congress is not going to do anything significant to address the problems identified.
If its this difficult for an issue as red hot as terrorism, you can only imagine what the odds are of getting Congress behind ocean conservation in a big way. Not saying its impossible, only that everyone needs to know it is a very difficult time which calls for extra effort.
Get it? Capitol building and ...