Our oceans, with their enormous diversity of life and function, are essential to life on Earth and must be preserved.
Our oceans are threatened by climate change, pollution, whaling, over fishing, factory fishing, bottom trawling, by catch, pirate fishing and fish farming. Simple, strong policy changes can rejuvenate the health of our oceans and planet.
SOLUTIONS
- Protect 40% of the world’s oceans as marine preserves, especially near shore coastal habitats. Determine protected zones through a democratic process involving all stakeholders.
- Ban offshore oil drilling.
- Ban the siting of liquefied natural gas facilities off the U.S. coast.
- Phase out use of the once-through cooling process, currently used by power plants, in and near coastal waters.
- Require secondary treatment of waste effluent before release.
- Ban ocean transportation of nuclear and toxic waste.
- Ban sonar testing in the oceans.
- Support the ban on international commercial whaling as well as other international efforts to protect endangered marine species.
- Ban drift-net fishing and long-line fishing and phase out factory trawling.
- Map undersea toxic dump sites, and investigate methods of rendering them harmless.
- Ban the importation of fish and fish products caught by drift-nets and other illegal means.
- Ban the importation of coral products and the destruction of breakwaters.
- Support the Law of the Sea Treaty that establishes the global sharing of ocean resources.
- Support complete cleanup of existing and past oil spills. Cost of cleanups and compensation for affected communities should be paid by the corporations responsible for the spills.
- Support an international agreement for the full cleanup of all plastic waste currently in our oceans, with a focus on heavily polluted international waters and environmentally sensitive ecosystems in areas like the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and the Great Barrier Reef.
Source: Green Party
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Green Party Platform on the Issues
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