Complete list of press releases

(24 July 2003 — New York)  Environmental Defense today praised Governor Pataki of New York for bringing together nine northeast states that will develop a regional strategy to take action on climate change.  The coalition of states will work together to develop a market-based emissions trading system to reduce emissions from power plants.

“This agreement sets an important national precedent and represents real leadership on the question of how to solve the challenge of climate change,” said James T. B. Tripp, general counsel of Environmental Defense.  “These states are recognizing that climate change has real consequences for health and the environment - and that solutions exist that make sense for the economy.” 

The states that have agreed to take part in this initiative include; New York, Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire, Delaware, Maine, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island.  These states consist of about one-fifth of the nation’s population; making this not only a major regional initiative, but also an important national precedent.  The action by these states comes at a time when climate change is also receiving national attention.  Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Joe Lieberman (D-CT) are expected to introduce an amendment to the Energy Bill next week that will create a national cap on carbon emissions. 

“Earlier this year, Governor Pataki also committed to adopt upcoming California regulations that limit climate emissions from cars and light trucks,” said Tripp.  “Together with full implementation of that commitment, a regional cap on power plant emissions will show how practical, market-based tools can create a multi-sector solution to climate change.  Environmental Defense looks forward to working with these states to determine the best scientific and economic solutions.”

Environmental Defense helped to pioneer the use of cap and trade systems to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions from power plants as part of the federal Clean Air Act amendments of 1990.

(23 July 2003 — New York)  Environmental Defense applauded Governor Pataki and Mayor Bloomberg today for coming to an agreement that allows filtration of New York City’s Croton water supply to move forward.  Under the agreement, Governor Pataki signed a bill that allows construction of the Croton Filtration Plant in Van Cortlandt Park, subject to environmental safeguards, thorough consideration of alternative sites and strong protections for public parkland in the Bronx.

“To ensure clean drinking water for all New Yorkers, a filtration plant for the Croton system must be constructed swiftly,” said Environmental Defense General Counsel James T. B. Tripp.  “The challenge is to find a site that meets the City’s engineering and cost constraints and satisfies community and environmental concerns.  The agreement reached by the Governor and the Mayor will allow for fair consideration of alternative sites.”

The agreement includes a commitment of $243 million for improving public parks in the Bronx.  It also guarantees that, if the plant is to be constructed in Van Cortlandt Park, it will be built completely underground and the park returned to its original condition and use.  Alternative sites to be given full environmental analysis include sites on the Bronx side of the Harlem River and in Westchester County, outside city boundaries.

“This agreement outlines how a filtration plant can be built in a way that is good for New York City’s drinking water, good for the city’s parks and fully consistent with strong environmental review,” said Tripp.  “Environmental Defense is committed to working with the City, the State and community groups to make sure that the commitments are fully implemented.”

Last night, Governor Pataki signed the Croton filtration plant park alienation bill after receiving a letter from NYC Mayor Bloomberg.  That letter made it clear that the City would undertake a full comparative environmental analysis of the Van Cortlandt park site with two other sites that NYC has been considering.  The letter also indicated that the City would make sure that the $243 million in mitigation funds that DEP would make available for Bronx park sites would be well spent and that the City would confer with the Governor about these projects.  The Assembly and Senate passed the bill at the end of this year’s session after the City Council adopted a home rule message urging this action.

Jeff Gearhart, Ecology Center, (734) 663-2400 x 117
Charles Griffith, Ecology Center, (734) 663-2400 x 116
Kevin Mills, Environmental Defense, (202) 387-3500

(23 July 2003 — New York, NY & Ann Arbor, MI) The use of lead in cars accounts for the largest remaining source of lead pollution, finds a new report released today. One car component, the lead starter battery, is responsible for the majority of current lead use in the world.

Getting the Lead Out: Impacts of and Alternatives for Automotive Lead Uses, jointly released by the Michigan-based Ecology Center and New York-based Environmental Defense, documents the release of lead into the environment resulting from automobile manufacturing, use, and disposal. The report calls on the automotive industry to phase out lead use in cars, most notably in the starter battery, and to take responsibility for ensuring the recovery and proper management of lead used in cars.

The report finds that the North American automobile industry is responsible for the release or transfer each year of more than 300 million pounds (136,508 metric tons) of lead through mining, smelting, manufacturing, recycling and disposing of lead-containing automotive components — primarily batteries - - and through normal vehicle use.

Over its lifetime, a car uses as much lead as a house with lead paint, which has been banned for decades. Lead pollution associated with autos gets into the air and soil when lead is produced or recycled for use in cars, and water may be polluted from the disposal of batteries and autos, or when wheel weights are lost on roadways.

“Automobiles are responsible for a majority of lead pollution in North America, or approximately 16 pounds of lead per vehicle over its lifetime” said Jeff Gearhart, report author and Clean Car Campaign Research Director for the Ecology Center.

The amount of lead in cars is particularly significant because of its serious impact on human health, including behavioral problems and learning disabilities. Children are particularly susceptible to lead exposure, which occurs when lead dust contaminates floors, soil, or other areas in which children live or play.

“Research suggests there is no safe exposure to lead,” said Jerome Nriagu, professor of environmental health sciences at the University of Michigan. “Lead poisoning is one of the most serious environmental health problems in the U.S. and the world.”

Lead is used in a number of car components, including lead wheel weights, solder in electronics, and lead car batteries. However, lead-free alternatives are available. Lead wheel weights can be replaced with tin or steel weights. Alternative battery technologies such as nickel-metal hydride batteries are on the road today in gas-electric hybrid cars and can be further developed for use in conventional vehicles.

“Investment in alternative technologies - much like FedEx is doing by introducing vehicles with lithium-ion batteries into its fleet - is critical,” said Kevin Mills, co-author of the report and director of the Clean Car Campaign at Environmental Defense. “The automotive industry can safeguard children’s health by improving vehicle design.”

“This country had the good sense to get the lead out of fuel and paint. Now it’s time to get the lead out of the largest remaining source of lead pollution - cars,” said Jim Rochow, president of the Trust for Lead Poisoning Prevention. “Children deserve the best chance for healthy neurological development. The automotive industry can do their part by removing lead from cars.”

To download a copy of the report, please visit: http://www.environmentaldefense.org/go/lead. You may also view the Executive Summary by clicking here. (Pdf files, Adobe Reader required.) To learn more about lead use in cars, including fact sheets and a Q & A, click here.

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The Ecology Center is a regional environmental organization based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, which works for clean air, safe water, and environmental justice. The Auto Project of the Ecology Center works to address the toxic and health issues related to the production of automobiles and promotes cleaner vehicle technologies. (www.ecocenter.org)

Environmental Defense, a leading national nonprofit organization, represents more than 300,000 members. Since 1967, Environmental Defense has linked science, economics, law and innovative private-sector partnerships to create breakthrough solutions to the most serious environmental problems.

(16 July 2003 - Raleigh, NC) Environmental Defense and the National Coalition for Marine Conservation today praised the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) for approving a plan developed by the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council (SAFMC) that will protect floating sargassum seaweeds in Southeast waters. The action crowns a six-year process to shield one of the most important habitats in southeast waters from commercial harvesting.

“Protecting sargassum will make a lot of fish and fishermen in the Southeast very happy,” said Douglas N. Rader, senior scientist with Environmental Defense, who chairs the SAFMC Habitat and Environmental Protection Advisory Panel. “Floating sargassum provides essential habitat for many important recreational fishes as both juveniles and adults, as well as sea turtles and other migratory vertebrates. Protecting this resource from commercial harvesting is a keystone action in restoring the damaged ecosystems and fisheries of the region.”

The plan to protect sargassum was designed by the SAFMC to prevent development of a widespread fishery for the seaweed, which has been harvested in limited quantities in recent years as a nutritional supplement and feed additive. NMFS, which disapproved a plan originally adopted by the council in 1998, approved the main elements of a revised plan on July 11th. NMFS had previously determined that the SAFMC’s new fishery management plan to protect dolphin and wahoo, important game fishes associated with sargassum, could not be implemented until the sargassum plan was finalized.

“The approval of the sargassum plan protects an important habitat for billfishes and many other offshore species, and now clears the way for measures to conserve dolphin-fish, one of the most valuable recreational species in the southeast,” said Ken Hinman, president of the National Coalition for Marine Conservation and a member of the SAFMC Dolphin/Wahoo Advisory Panel. “The South Atlantic Council and regional administrator Roy Crabtree have shown great leadership in working to protect these important ocean resources.”

(14 July 2003 — Washington) Environmental Defense today praised Senator Lamar Alexander  (R-TN) for joining Senators Lincoln Chafee (R-RI), Judd Gregg (R-NH) and Thomas Carper (D-DE) in supporting a bill that would cut and/or cap power plant emissions of four major pollutants:  sulfur dioxide (SO2), oxides of nitrogen (NOx), mercury and the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO₂).

“Senator Alexander has decided to tackle the real issues caused by power plant pollution,” said Environmental Defense climate change policy specialist Melissa Carey. “His support of aggressive sulfur dioxide reductions and a mandatory cap on the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide prove that he is serious about protecting Tennesseeans’ health and the Great Smokies and reducing our impact on the atmosphere.”

The bill is rapidly gaining momentum as a bipartisan alternative to President Bush’s Clear Skies Initiative, which fails to control global warming pollution and offers fewer benefits to public health and the environment.

“Senator Alexander has shown courageous leadership,” Carey said. “This bill sends a clear signal to the White House that the administration’s Clear Skies plan falls far short of the mark. Senator Alexander’s decision signals a major shift in this debate. Climate protection has become an important issue on both sides of the aisle.”

(10 July 2003 - - Washington)  Environmental Defense, a leading U.S. environmental advocacy organization working on chemicals policy, today filed extensive comments with the European Union (EU) applauding draft EU legislation that would help close the huge information gap on the potential risks posed by the tens of thousands of chemicals in use today.  The EU proposal is known as REACH, for Registration, Evaluation, and Authorization of CHemicals.

“While many people assume that chemicals in use for decades must be safe, the truth is we don’t know ? the data needed to show safety simply aren’t available for most of them,” said Dr. Richard Denison, Environmental Defense senior scientist.  “EU’s proposal tackles this issue comprehensively for the first time.  It could eliminate the perversity in current chemicals policies that rewards ignorance rather than knowledge about the potential dangers posed by chemicals.”

Environmental Defense took the unusual step of filing comments on a proposal that directly applies only to member countries of the European Union, not to the U.S., for several reasons.  First, because of its extensive experience in establishing and monitoring analogous - if less ambitious - domestic and international programs, Environmental Defense can offer a number of “lessons learned” that it believes could benefit REACH.  Second, the global nature of chemical manufacturing and use means that chemical risks - and the nature of the knowledge needed to combat them - know no national boundaries.  Third, because REACH affects chemicals imported into as well as manufactured in the EU, most if not all U.S.-based companies that make or use chemicals in their products will have to comply with REACH.  Finally, if successful, REACH will serve as a model for chemicals policy, as well as spur the development of safer alternatives to toxic chemicals, that can be adopted across the globe.

Using a phased-in approach over 11 years, REACH proposes to require that manufacturers or importers of chemicals, or products containing chemicals, in quantities exceeding one metric ton per year register their chemicals through a newly established EU chemicals agency.  Registration would require producers to develop a base set of hazard and exposure/use information and use it to assess risk and develop appropriate risk management measures, both for them and for downstream users of a chemical.  This information would also be made publicly available.  EU countries or the new agency could then use this information to evaluate chemical risks and the adequacy of existing controls, and to restrict certain uses of chemicals found to be of high concern and allow others only if they are authorized.

In its comments (available at www.environmentaldefense.org/go/toxicchemicals), Environmental Defense drew particular attention to the importance of - and the need for improvements in - REACH’s provisions governing:
- public and consumer access to information and opportunities for public involvement;
- use of alternative approaches to direct testing to fill data gaps, which can reduce costs and the use of laboratory animals but should be used only where scientifically justified;
- the minimal requirements proposed for chemical intermediates, which can still pose significant risks in the event of accidents;
- procedures to ensure that information submitted by manufacturers is complete and of sufficient quality;
- use of chemicals in products (termed “articles” under REACH) that reach consumers; and
- incentives to develop and use safer alternatives for chemicals that pose high risks.

(24 June 2003 — Raleigh)  In cooperation with a panel of leading North Carolina conservation scientists, Environmental Defense today released a report that envisions the health of the state’s environment and natural systems in 100 years.  “Horizon 2100” contrasts the healthy and prosperous North Carolina environment that would result from aggressive and comprehensive conservation with the impoverished environment that will likely result from continuation of current sprawling development, casually managed growth and limited conservation.  The report is at www.environmentaldefense.org/go/nchorizon.

“Horizon 2100 shows the path to the green and healthy North Carolina our grandchildren deserve to enjoy.  It’s based on sound science and offers real specifics to strengthen the prognosis for North Carolina’s environmental future,” said Dave McNaught, senior policy analyst for the Raleigh office of Environmental Defense.

“For too long conservation has been misunderstood as a longing to recreate some idyllic or imagined pristine condition of the past,” said David Jones, director of the N.C. Zoological Park and panel co-chair.  “Horizon 2100 does not seek to recreate what once was, but to allow the natural evolution of the best that still can be.  Aggressive conservation protects the human habitat and will broaden choices North Carolinians will have in the future.”

“In addition to maintaining as much of North Carolina’s diverse array of native plants, animals and ecological communities as possible, we must also restore and protect the ecological processes that drive and define natural systems,” said William Schlesinger, dean of Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences and panel member.  “To have truly conserved North Carolina in 2100, we must also address such inevitabilities as climate change and sea level rise.”

“Horizon 2100 offers some good strategies and recommendations for improving conservation efforts statewide,” said Betsy Bennett, director of the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences and panel co-chair.  “Environmental education is essential.  Every resident of, or visitor to, North Carolina should understand the opportunities and challenges of aggressive conservation, and how their choices today will dictate the possibilities for future generations.”

(24 June 2003 — New York) Today, Citigroup and Environmental Defense announced that all of Citigroup’s Citibank, Global Corporate and Investment Bank, and Global Investment Management locations in the United States have adopted 30% postconsumer recycled copy paper. The new paper will cost the same or less than the virgin paper the company had been using.

“This initiative shows that companies can improve paper practices without increasing costs,” said Iris Gold, Vice President of Environmental Affairs at Citigroup. “We are hopeful that our work with Environmental Defense sets an example for other companies looking to incorporate more environmental practices into their paper purchasing.”

“Switching to recycled copy paper may seem like a simple step, but the environmental benefits are real,” said Jackie Cefola, project manager, Environmental Defense. “Citigroup is the world’s largest financial services firm and at its rate of annual paper use, this change alone will result in potential savings of 6,700 tons of wood each year, enough to build 500 average single family homes in the United States. Environmental Defense and Citigroup now call on other financial service firms to reduce the environmental impacts of their paper use.”

Virgin copy paper is currently the norm in the paper-heavy financial services industry. By working with Environmental Defense to improve purchasing practices, Citigroup successfully increased the recycled content in the copy paper it uses and secured recycled paper at price parity to virgin paper from two paper suppliers. Environmental Defense also consulted with Citigroup to develop an annual evaluation for paper suppliers that addresses manufacturing impacts, forest management practices, environmental management, and regulatory compliance. The two organizations are now cooperating together to reduce overall copy paper use.

The combined efforts of Citigroup and Environmental Defense will generate annual savings of 1,000 tons of solid waste, 19 million gallons of wastewater pollution, and 2,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions.

Citigroup (NYSE: C), the preeminent global financial services company with some 200 million customer accounts in more than 100 countries, provides consumers, corporations, governments and institutions with a broad range of financial products and services, including consumer banking and credit, corporate and investment banking, insurance, securities brokerage, and asset management. Major brand names under Citigroup’s trademark red umbrella include Citibank, CitiFinancial, Primerica, Smith Barney, Banamex, and Travelers Life and Annuity. The Citigroup Foundation focuses its grants primarily in three areas: building communities and entrepreneurs, financial education, and educating the next generation. Additional information may be found at: www.citigroup.com.

(19 June 2003 — New York)  Environmental Defense today commended McDonald’s, one of the largest meat purchasers in the U.S. quick service restaurant industry, for adopting a global policy to help reduce the use of antibiotics in food animal production. 

“By working together, McDonald’s and Environmental Defense have leveraged the company’s purchasing power to help reverse the trend of antibiotics overuse in animal agriculture,” said Gwen Ruta, program director, Environmental Defense.  “McDonald’s new policy demonstrates that reducing antibiotic use is both feasible and affordable.  Now Environmental Defense calls on other purchasers of pork, beef and poultry to adopt similar policies and send a strong message to meat producers that the use of antibiotics must be curbed.”

The policy, which was developed in consultation with Environmental Defense, prohibits direct suppliers from using medically important antibiotics as growth promoters in food animals after 2004.  70% of McDonald’s global poultry supply comes from direct relationship suppliers, suppliers who directly control the stages of production where antibiotics are used and who have facilities dedicated to producing products primarily for McDonald’s.  McDonald’s beef and pork suppliers fall into the category of indirect.

The policy also promotes further reductions in antibiotics use by creating a purchasing preference for companies that work to minimize antibiotic use and establishes guidelines for the appropriate use of antibiotics by meat producers.  McDonald’s policy is unique because direct suppliers will be expected to submit an annual self-certification, testifying that they are complying with the policy.  Complying suppliers will also be expected to maintain records of antibiotic use. 

“McDonald’s announcement is good public health news.  Having a company like McDonald’s recognize the problem helps point the way toward sensible national policies to end inappropriate antibiotic use in animal agriculture,” said Becky Goldburg, Ph.D., senior scientist, Environmental Defense.  “Antibiotics are life-saving miracle drugs, but overuse threatens their effectiveness.  It’s time for more companies to help protect American public health by taking action on antibiotics overuse.” 

By one recent estimate, more than 70% of all antibiotics used in the U.S. are fed to healthy farm animals.  Based on the growing body of evidence, the American Medical Association and more than 275 other groups have called for an end to the routine use of medically important antibiotics in healthy food animals.

(12 June 2003 — Washington)  Environmental Defense today criticized a 54-44 vote in the U.S Senate that narrowly rejected a proposed amendment to the Senate energy bill that would have removed a controversial provision calling for the use of seismic survey ships and other invasive technologies to look for oil and gas potential even within sensitive coastal areas long protected by a bipartisan congressional moratorium.

“America’s coastal national treasures are suddenly in the path of destructive exploration technologies which threatens our fisheries and the economies of our coastal communities,” said Richard Charter, marine conservation advocate with Environmental Defense.  “This shortsighted provision will now need to be removed in the conference committee proceedings between the House and the Senate.”

The rejected amendment, offered by Senators Bob Graham (D-FL), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), Elizabeth Dole (R-NC) and others, would have deleted language in the current Senate energy bill requiring an evaluation of potential hydrocarbon resources within coastal waters now protected under a 21-year legislative moratorium and by executive leasing deferrals first put in place by former President George Bush, Sr. 

The House of Representatives had previously removed a similar measure calling for offshore exploration from their own Energy bill in April.  Since the House and Senate bills now disagree on this issue, the differences will need to be worked out in an upcoming joint House-Senate conference committee.

Today’s Senate action, if signed into law, will undermine the existing offshore drilling moratorium that protects unleased coastal waters off of California, Oregon, Washington, Florida, Alaska’s Bristol Bay, and the entire east coast.

(10 June 2003 — Washington, DC)  A new analysis prepared by Environmental Defense shows that the Camisea gas project in Peru clearly violates the letter and spirit of the federal Export-Import Bank’s environmental objectives and guidelines.  The Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im) is expected to decide in July whether or not to approve a guarantee for more than $150 million worth of commercial bank loans for the gas project — one of the world’s most controversial and high-risk projects.  Information about the Camisea project and its impacts can be found at www.environmentaldefense.org/go/eca

“Camisea will be an important test for the U.S. Export-Import Bank, which has long touted its environmental policies.  Approving Camisea would violate the institution’s own environmental rules and deeply undermine the credibility of these policies,” said Environmental Defense social scientist Aaron Goldzimer.

The newly released analysis shows that the project would violate Ex-Im’s sector guideline on oil and gas development, as well as two of Ex-Im’s seven environmental objectives.  It also demonstrates that the project’s Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) do not provide enough information to fulfill Ex-Im’s own requirements. 

Accompanying the analysis is a newly released cover memo and background appendix commissioned from a group of independent professional engineers.  These independent evaluations are sharply critical of the Camisea EIAs disclosed by the Export-Import Bank.  Among other things, the engineers’ analysis concludes, “The EIA reports do not present a full and complete assessment of all the findings of environmental concern that the reports themselves have identified.”

The $1.6 billion Camisea project is one of the world’s most controversial and environmentally high-risk projects.  It extends from one of the most pristine forest regions of the Peruvian Amazon (partially in a reserve for the protection of nomadic indigenous peoples), across the Andes, to a terminus adjacent to one of the most important marine reserves in all of Latin America and the Caribbean.  This week, 60 pipeline workers were kidnapped in Peru, further highlighting the dangers associated with the Camisea project.

(10 June 2003 — Washington, DC)  This week the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change released the results of a modeling analysis on S.139, the Climate Stewardship Act, sponsored by U.S. Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Joseph Lieberman (D-CT).  The study notes that the McCain-Lieberman bill is the most comprehensive climate policy proposed in the U.S. and, if fully implemented, would result in negligible economic costs. 

“This study shows that climate policy can be done, and done well.  The Climate Stewardship Act makes global warming control effective and cost-efficient,” said Elizabeth Thompson, legislative director of Environmental Defense.  “If you harness the market correctly, you create competition for pollution control, and competition drives down prices.”

The study, available at http://web.mit.edu/globalchange/www/reports.html#pubs, shows that the bill, if fully implemented, would result in a loss to the economy of less than one-fifteenth of one-percent in 2010 and less than one-quarter of a percent in 2020.  For an average family, this is roughly equivalent to the cost of a dinner for four.

“Clear standards and flexibility are the key ingredients for a sound climate policy that maximizes environmental benefits and minimizes cost,” said Melissa Carey, climate change policy specialist for Environmental Defense.  “The study confirms that if you set a clear standard and allow businesses the flexibility to decide how to meet it, great results are achievable.”

The Climate Stewardship Act builds on the Clean Air Act cap and trade system covering sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions from power plants.  As the authors of the MIT study note, “the SO2 trading program has been considered a success, exceeding original expectations.”

The report is entitled Emissions Trading to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions in the United States: The McCain-Lieberman Proposal by Sergey Paltsev, John Reilly, Henry Jacoby, Denny Ellerman, and Kok Hou Tay (June 2003).

“This study shows that climate policy can be done, and done well. The Climate Stewardship Act makes global warming control effective and cost-efficient,” said Elizabeth Thompson, legislative director of Environmental Defense. “If you harness the market correctly, you create competition for pollution control, and competition drives down prices.”

The study, available at http://web.mit.edu/globalchange/www/reports.html#pubs, shows that the bill, if fully implemented, would result in a loss to the economy of less than one-fifteenth of one-percent in 2010 and less than one-quarter of a percent in 2020. For an average family, this is roughly equivalent to the cost of a dinner for four.

“Clear standards and flexibility are the key ingredients for a sound climate policy that maximizes environmental benefits and minimizes cost,” said Melissa Carey, climate change policy specialist for Environmental Defense. “The study confirms that if you set a clear standard and allow businesses the flexibility to decide how to meet it, great results are achievable.”

The Climate Stewardship Act builds on the Clean Air Act cap and trade system covering sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions from power plants. As the authors of the MIT study note, “the SO2 trading program has been considered a success, exceeding original expectations.”

The report is entitled Emissions Trading to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions in the United States: The McCain-Lieberman Proposal by Sergey Paltsev, John Reilly, Henry Jacoby, Denny Ellerman, and Kok Hou Tay (June 2003).

For more information on the McCain Lieberman Climate Stewardship Act, visit www.environmentaldefense.org/go/globalwarming.

(2 June 2003 — Washington, DC)  A new report due out this week from the Pew Oceans Commission finds that the world’s oceans are in peril from pollution, overfishing, global warming and a lack of international cooperation needed to address complex problems plaguing the marine ecosystem.  Despite its focus on the poor health of the ocean, the report is optimistic.  It concludes that action can still protect and restore marine animal and plant life and promote better management of the oceans.  Environmental Defense supports the findings of the commission and is currently working to promote the majority of the policies and practices set forth in the commission’s findings.

“The Pew report leaves no doubt that the world’s oceans are in peril, but it also points to solutions that can reverse this downward spiral,” said David Festa, director of the Environmental Defense Oceans program and former director of policy at the Department of Commerce under the Clinton administration.  “Meeting this challenge calls for a fundamental shift in our stewardship of the oceans.  Compiled by an independent, non-partisan commission including Dr. Jane Lubchenco, an Environmental Defense trustee, the report outlines the steps necessary for responsible management of ocean life.  We also look forward to the upcoming report from a Congressionally chartered commission on ocean policy, which will require that action be taken once its findings are released.”  

To read more about the Commission’s findings or to download a report, visit the Pew Oceans Commission’s web site (http://www.pewoceans.org/oceans/index.asp).