Centerblue.org

In an outrageous decision, the Supreme Court has ruled that the US Navy can use sonar that has been demonstrated to seriously injure whales and other marine life, in an unrestricted fashion.

The Navy has been embroiled in a dispute with environmental groups over use of the sonar in training exercises. Lower courts had ruled that the Navy could use the sonar in its exercises so long as it employed mitigation measures such as reducing or suspending sonar emissions when sound-sensitive marine animals are nearby. The Navy was even left with a path whereby it could demonstrate to the court that these mitigation measures had in fact interfered with and impeded its ability to operate effectively.

But no, this wasn’t enough for the Bush Administration, the Navy, or the radical right wing of the Supreme Court. Nothing less than full, unrestricted use of the sonar devices would suffice, with no regard whatsoever for environmental concerns. In making the argument the Bushites resorted to the same, tired but unfortunately effective appeal to a vague national security threat that in their minds require that absolutely nothing get in the way of doing what they please. It’s the same old movie with different actors.

The Court sided with the Navy in a 5-4 decision, which offered blandishments about how the sonar might cause “minor problems”–and rejected the evidence provided by the plaintiffs that showed the exact opposite.

This is what so infuriates me about the radical Right–the pursuit of its interests in a manner that is selfish and without regard to collateral consequences for people, the environment, or future generations. It’s all about what’s important in the here and now, and in the pursuit of a narrow ideology with no room for compromise. Witness the language of Justice Roberts:

Even if plaintiffs have shown irreparable injury from the Navy’s training exercises, any such injury is outweighed by the public interest and the Navy’s interest in effective, realistic training of its sailors…For the plaintiffs, the most serious possible injury would be harm to an unknown number of the marine mammals that they study and observe. In contrast, forcing the Navy to deploy an inadequately trained antisubmarine force jeopardizes the safety of the fleet.

The Court does not, of course, address how some simple common sense mitigation measures “jeopardizes the safety of the entire fleet.” The Navy had more than ample opportunity to use the sonar exercises in places that did not affect marine mammals, and to do so even in locations frequented by the animals if they would just exercise a bit of care. Nobody was asking the Navy to stop using the technology altogether, and the Navy could of course use the sonar in unrestricted fashion in case of war.

National security is obviously an important public interest–but it is not the only one. The public interest is not served if the ocean upon which we rely so much for our food becomes a toilet and a graveyard. Marine mammals are an essential part of the ocean’s ecosystem, and disregarding them so crassly is an assault on all of our long term interests. When two important public interests collide, we should seek out the best compromise possible instead of pretending that one of those interests isn’t really important, as the Court did today.

Hopefully this is yet another senseless decision that will be reversed by the Obama administration.

Just when you thought the news about the environment couldn’t possibly get any worse, it does. The Los Angeles Times is beginning a five-part series today that focuses on the magnitude of destruction we are unleashing on our unseen but essential ocean habitats.

The first article in the multimedia series, “A Primeval Tide of Toxins,” talks about how humanity is quickly knocking the oceans back millions of years on the evolutionary scale. The problem is with the huge amounts of human sewage and fertilizer run-off from farms being dumped into the oceans every day. These substances essentially serve as nutrients for certain species of weeds, algae, and jellyfish that are quickly choking all life around them. They threaten many species, from fish to coral reefs, with imminent extinction as the latter are deprived of oxygen and food.

The statistics and photos in the article are sobering and heart-wrenching to me:

• 75% of kelp forests, prime habitat for many fish, have disappeared off the coast of California in the last 50 years.
• 650 grey whales have washed up sick or dead along the West Coast in the last 7 years.
• 97% of elkhorn and staghorn coral off the coast of Florida has died since 1975.
• 150 ocean-depleted “dead zones” have been identified around the world, including a huge one the size of New Jersey in the Gulf of Mexico off the Louisiana and Florida coasts.
• 90% of the world’s stocks of tuna, cod, and other big fish have disappeared in the last 50 years.

One element in the story I found ironic is that some of the weeds that are now choking fishermen’s nets all over the world are extremely toxic to humans, even if you’re just splattered with water that contained the weeds. It is as if these life forms that are suddenly proliferating have somehow realized that humankind is really their worst natural enemy and have devised a suitable defense.

It doesn’t have to be that way, unless we cherish the idea of a planet with oceans full of nothing but slime for future generations and for millions of years.