Newspaper Article

VISIONARY APPROACH REQUIRED, U.S. needs an 'oceans president', National leadership can help protect our seas from pollution, habitat loss and other hazards

FRED KRUPP AND PETER BENCHLEY. Fred Krupp is president of Environmental Defense. Peter Benchley is an author and ocean conservationist. This is from The Washington Post

2004

Overview

Second, just as [Theodore Roosevelt] expanded the area protected in national parks, an oceans president should expand the marine protected areas critical for recovery. These include nurseries and spawning grounds - the ocean's cradles of life. Today only 1 percent of our ocean waters are protected. But there is hope. For example, [George W. Bush] has supported the process to establish the 1,200-mile ecosystem reserve started by President Bill Clinton in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, comprising up to 70 percent of America's coral reefs. The oceans face some challenges that had no parallel in Roosevelt's day, and these must be met with equal vigor and intensity. Science magazine reported last month that the oceans have been doing the world a favor by absorbing nearly half the global warming gases emitted by human activities. But this capacity is limited, and the researchers found that marine life will suffer as the absorbed gases change the oceans' chemistry.

• Publisher: Newsday LLC
• Subject: Roosevelt, Theodore