Posts by Mike Gravitz
Red Fish, Blue Fish: How does the ocean fit into America’s election results?
For voters with environmental values, there are probably as many different ways to interpret this election as there are fish in the sea. Some of us are elated that four years of Trump’s attacks on the environment, climate, and truth will end on January 20th. Others feel disheartened that President Trump still attracted an historic…
Read MoreOcean Based Climate Solutions Act
Photo Credit: NOAA In response to impacts from climate change on the oceans, including, intensified storms, ocean warming that is bleaching shallow corals in the Florida Keys and Pacific marine monuments, problems with shell forming organisms like crabs and mollusks, and threats from rising sea levels to coastal communities in the US, House Natural Resources…
Read MoreClimate, Biodiversity, and Oceans: They’re All Connected
In a world that grows ever warmer and ever more degraded by human activities, scientists and policy makers have watched with unease as the triple crises of climate change, biodiversity loss, and the decline of ocean health have reinforced each other in a downward spiral. Each of the three crises makes the other two worse.…
Read MoreMARCH FOR THE OCEAN
Why should you March For The Ocean on June 9? How will that help ocean ecosystems threatened by overfishing, climate change, plastic pollution and other issues? How can marches with even a hundred thousand people in over a dozen cities support healthier oceans? I often ask myself this question when an organization suggests a public…
Read MoreTrump Wants to Sink the Ocean Budget for NOAA
I have a confession: I’m a budget geek and always have been. Why? Because budgets reflect the values and priorities of a government or organization. They are the best way to learn what their leaders see as important and what their plans for the future are. Using the Fiscal Year 2019 (FY 19) budget proposal–that’s…
Read MoreSave the Marine and Land Monuments: “All for one and one for all”
Remember the rallying cry of the Three Musketeers? When they start their gallant swordfights, they yell, “All for one and one for all!” That’s how we’re resisting the Trump Administration and its attempt to tear our national monuments apart. We’re helping other groups defend our land monuments, and they are helping us defend the marine…
Read MoreTwo Bills Continue Republican Attack on U.S. Marine Monuments
Congressional Republicans continued their attack on our ocean this week as the House Natural Resources Committee discussed the Accessing Strategic Resources Offshore Act (ASTRO) bill and the so-called “National Monument Creation and Protection Act” bill (H.R. 3990). Both bills would eliminate presidential authority to designate future marine monuments under the Antiquities Act, a power used…
Read MoreWhat President Trump’s “Skinny Budget” Means for Our Oceans
Today, President Trump released a budget outline for 2018 that has been called “the skinny budget”. Unfortunately, it is just that for most activities other than defense and homeland security. The Department of Commerce, which houses the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or NOAA, would be slimmed down by $1.5 billion or 16%. This probably…
Read MoreOur Ocean 2016
OCEANS, OCEANS, OCEANS. Can anyone remember three weeks with as much progress in protecting the world’s oceans and marine biodiversity as the last three weeks? I can’t. First, President Obama created the largest protected area on EARTH when he expanded the marine monument known as Papahānaumokuākea in the NW Hawaiian Islands to be three and…
Read MorePort State Measures Agreement
June is a month of important turning points: the solstice on June 21st when summer officially begins; World Oceans Day on June 8th, which heralds a changing relationship between humans and the ocean that supports all of us, and June 4-5th when the course of WWII in the Pacific changed in a climactic battle between…
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