Originally published on the CGS blog on March 16, 2010.
The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) had a meeting about U.S. Ocean Governance on March 8, 2010. The meeting, which began as a general ocean governance discussion, quickly became focused on the Law of the Sea Treaty. Moderator, Scott Borgerson of CFR at one point said “this wasn’t intended originally to be the Law of the Sea party, but as the author of the report outside the door titled The National Interests and the Law of the Sea, I can’t lie that it doesn’t warm my heart a little bit.”
The meeting began with a showing of the Council on Foreign Relation new interactive Web Oceans Governance Monitor. CLICK HERE to watch the remarkable video.
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse from Rhode Island stated: “As the wonderful video said, the oceans really are the dominant resource of our planet, and we’ve paid far too little attention to it. The economic theory of the tragedy of the commons is being worked out on the ocean at a massive scale, and we see it in the changes that the ocean is undergoing. It’s rising. It’s warming. It’s enduring biological changes as it rises and warms. It is continuing to be bombarded with pollution, and it’s facing chemical changes. That’s a lot all at once for this resource”
Admiral Thad Allen, the 23rd Commandant of the United States Coast Guard, emphasized that “rules of conduct and how we interact with each other on the water” are “incrementally changed every time there is a new convention that is ratified through IMO, every time a piece of domestic legislation is passed in any country or a time a new set of regulations is issued in the United States. We have a lot of pending work. [we] should start first with ratifying the Law of the Sea treaty.”
When asked about the reality of ratifying the Law of the Sea Treaty, Senator Whitehouse said “among the scarce natural resources that we have to deal with is the scarce natural resource of Senate floor time. So the notion of bringing up this treaty and having to go through all of the debate, go through the cloture on the motion to proceed, go through cloture on the ratification itself – you’re giving up a solid week of Senate floor time. And if you look out at our economy, … health care … the Law of the Sea, frankly, doesn’t rise very high. So I’ll be optimistic. I think the only way that it changes is when enough of the Arctic opens up that the oil and gas industries start to see . our failure to [accede] to that treaty as a very significant competitor disadvantage, and some of those senators . begin to respond to those forces. It’s as simple, I think, as that.”
Tom Fry, who served as the president of the National Ocean Industries Association since 2000, said that “The oil and gas industry got involved in this issue at the very beginning, has been supportive of Law of the Sea ratification, continue to support it in part of a large coalition of people that’s everything from the environmental community to the Garden Club of America, who supports ratification of the Law of the Sea Treaty… Countries now are making applications to take over some [areas such as the Atlantic and the Arctic that can be part of our economic zone]… and we’re not there, and we can’t say a thing about it, and so we need to get Law of the Sea done.”
David Rockefeller, Jr., A CFR member and active in the council’s Ocean Governance Roundtable Series stated that “whatever one may feel about the pace and direction of climate change and global warming, the fact is that the oceans are challenged by factors that are not just about temperature, and I’ve named them: declining fish stocks, coastal pollution, acidification, and the need for international oversight of all of the above. So if you’re having a conversation with someone who starts as a climate skeptic, you need to remember that those issues are not warming-dependent. Others certainly are. It is vital that advocates for ocean health emphasize that rapid changes in ocean conditions worldwide are challenging the viability of the ocean’s living systems, and we must work together locally, regionally, nationally, and certainly internationally to ensure that ocean health is high on the public agenda for reasons of social, economic, environmental and human health.”
“Law of the Sea — simply put, it’s time to take our seat at the table, ladies and gentlemen, especially in light of the summer opening of the northwest and northeast passages due to melting sea ice. So why not, and why not this year?”
CLICK HERE to support the Law of the Sea Treaty by sending an email to your elected official.
