Shifting Baselines Blog

3/14 - US Oceans Commission Report Released TODAY: It's no 9/11 Report (why not?)

I know what you're thinking, "Of course the USCOP Report is not like the 9/11 Commission Report, how could it be, that was terrorism, this is fishies in the sea." But that's not what I'm talking about. As I have pointed out repeatedly, the 9/11 Commission pulled their head out and, even though virtually everyone in the U.S. was interested in their findings, they went ahead an allocated almost equal resources to the communication of their final report.

In contrast, almost no one in this country is interested in the state of the oceans (by "almost no one" I mean less than 5 percent of the general public which I guarantee you is the case). So you would think that the Commission in charge of the oceans would allocate even more resources to communicating their findings than the 9/11 Commission. But that's not the case. The report is being released with the standard belief of, "Everybody's dying to hear what we have to say. All we have to do is make it available at a website and the public will flock in."

Sorry to keep singing this tune, but it's true.

The 9/11 Commission Report was literally a best-seller. If you think it's naive to have that sort of aspiration for the oceans, you just may be part of the problem.

Posted by Randy Olson at March 14, 2005 11:15 AM