Coastal Factoid

Acting Against Invasive Coastal Species

"Starting this summer, [Massachusetts] state officials will pay to train scores of volunteers to scour the state's beaches and peer at the underside of docks looking for any sign of invasive species... Officials hope the early discovery of potentially dangerous species will help the state mobilize a strike team to eradicate them." - excerpt from this Environmental News Network article.

Bleak Future Not Only for the Maldives

"There is a realistic threat that we could be the first environmental refugees in the world... Our message to the U.S. is as simple as this. Sea level rise is not just a phenomenon which is just going to engulf the Maldives and then stop. If it affects us tomorrow, it will affect you the day after," said Mohamed H. Shareef, the chief government spokesman for the Maldives. Excerpt appeared in the Nicholas D. Kristof column from 1/8/2006 in the New York Times.

EPA's BEACON Water Quality Site Showing Historical Data Has Big Flaws

Our Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has a web page that shows the number of beach warnings/closures for any given year for individual beaches. However, the EPA has chosen a method of reporting that is (purposely?) misleading and will frequently give people the impression that any given beach had far, far fewer warnings/closures than actually occurred. For example, Poche Beach in San Clemente, CA was listed by the EPA as having only 1 warning/closure for all of 2005. However, that 1 warning/closure lasted 50 successive days, which should really count as 50 warnings/closures. In 2004, Poche Beach had 130 successive days of beach warnings/closures and the EPA counted that as a single warning/closure! You can click down deeper in the EPA's BEACON site to see the actual number of days of each warning/closure, but that doesn't make up for how misleading the EPA's reporting system is. See the EPA's Poche Beach example.

There Are Problems Everywhere

"I think there's definitely increasing recognition that we can no longer think about the ocean as infinitely vast, infinitely bountiful and infinitely resilient. There are problems everywhere." - quote from Jane Lubchenco, an Oregon State University marine biologist and president of the International Council for Science appearing in this article. 

USA's Increasing, Not Decreasing, Global Warming Emissions

"The U.N. conference's Kyoto Protocol... had called for nations to cut their 1990 levels of "greenhouse" gas emissions by 5 percent by 2012. Instead, U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in 2012 would be nearly 25 percent higher than they were in 1990 if they continue at the current pace of growth." - excerpt from the Environmental News Network article at http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=9494

Northwestern Hawaiian Islands -- America's Galapagos

"This refuge [encompassing the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands] that spans 14-hundred miles is America's Galapagos, and Americans don't know it," said Jim Connaughton, chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality. - excerpt appears in the Environmental News Network article.

We Need More Action NOW to Help Our Oceans, Coasts, and Great Lakes

"More Action is needed now - to implement a national strategy to protect, maintain and restore the nation's priceless economic and ecological assets -- our oceans, coasts and Great Lakes. We need a more coherent strategy if we hope to predict, avoid or minimize the challenges facing our oceans and coasts. We must accelerate the implementation of and increase the funding for policies and science that will help protect and enhance the value of the oceans for the long haul, before it is too late." - quote from 12/19/2005 by Admiral James D. Watkins (Ret.), chairman of the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy.

Inadequately Treated Sewage in Our Waters Poses a Significant Human Health Threat

"Health experts estimate that there are 7.1 million mild-to-moderate cases and 560,000 moderate-to-severe cases of infectious waterborne diseases in the United States annually. Many of these cases are caused by exposure to sewage." - excerpt from the Natural Resources Defense Council press release.

Ronald Reagan Wanted to Preserve and Protect San Onofre State Beach

When the San Onofre State Beach park was opened in Southern California in April 1971, then Governor Ronald Reagan characterized the establishment of the park as "the culmination of many months of dedicated effort by many people to enhance and preserve California's grandeur and beauty. I firmly believe one of the greatest legacies we can leave to future generations is the heritage of our land, but unless we can preserve and protect the unspoiled areas which God has given us, we will have nothing to leave them." - excerpt appeared in the Dec. 2005 Southern Sierran newsletter published by the Angeles Chapter of the Sierra Club.

Moving Low-Lying Seaside Communities Inland After Katrina

"Now Louisiana planners are proposing an idea that would have been unimaginable here a few months ago: moving an entire string of seaside towns and villages - and the 4,000 longtime residents who live in them - 15 or 20 miles inland to higher and presumably safer ground." - excerpt from the New York Times article, free registration required.