Despite their intentions, a majority of marine conservation acts passed by Congress have not been enforced properly or are ignored entirely. Some environmentalists argue that we as citizens are to blame because we are too busy with our personal lives to care about the environment—most of us don’t recycle, utilize alternative sources of energy, or think twice about the detrimental effects that our lifestyles and everyday habits have on the oceans, let alone any other ecosystem or even the Earth, for that matter. I hope to find that maybe we as citizens are slightly responsible, for the government has proposed and signed into law quite a few acts that have promoted the marine conservation movement. Marine conservation is a term used to describe
…show more content…
It took nearly a year until House of Representatives Bill 5050 (also known as the Pipeline Safety Act of 2016) was finally introduced on April 26, 2016. It has yet been voted on and has only a 35% chance of being enacted into law. Many would agree that this act should have been proposed a long time ago, and the fact that it has taken this long for such a bill to be introduced in Congress shows the complacency the federal government has towards the effects of oil spills on the deteriorating health and biodiversity of our …show more content…
WildEarth Guardians allege that despite federal mandates and legislation, the US government has not protected marine species at near as high of a rate as land species, as evidenced by the statistic that of the 2,097 species protected by the Endangered Species Act since it was enacted in 1973, “just 94 of these have lived in the oceans and seas” (Biron). That is just 4.5% of the totals species recovered by the ESA, when 737 out of 63,837 species on the IUCN Red List are marine organisms. However, this does not reflect how many oceanic species are actually endangered or near extinction, considering a lot remains unknowns about the world’s oceans, prompting the IUCN, Conservation International and Old Dominion University to “join forces to address [the gap between the number of marine species and terrestrial species on The Red List] and initiate the Global Marine Species Assessment” (Status of the World 's Marine Species). The idea that there are at least 1 million known (and as many as 9 million unknown) species living in the oceans and no one is entirely certain how many of those species are endangered is preposterous, especially considering how much technology has evolved. Looking at this issue holistically, I have reached the conclusion that both the government at all levels are to blame for not enacting sufficient legislation to protect
It took nearly a year until House of Representatives Bill 5050 (also known as the Pipeline Safety Act of 2016) was finally introduced on April 26, 2016. It has yet been voted on and has only a 35% chance of being enacted into law. Many would agree that this act should have been proposed a long time ago, and the fact that it has taken this long for such a bill to be introduced in Congress shows the complacency the federal government has towards the effects of oil spills on the deteriorating health and biodiversity of our …show more content…
WildEarth Guardians allege that despite federal mandates and legislation, the US government has not protected marine species at near as high of a rate as land species, as evidenced by the statistic that of the 2,097 species protected by the Endangered Species Act since it was enacted in 1973, “just 94 of these have lived in the oceans and seas” (Biron). That is just 4.5% of the totals species recovered by the ESA, when 737 out of 63,837 species on the IUCN Red List are marine organisms. However, this does not reflect how many oceanic species are actually endangered or near extinction, considering a lot remains unknowns about the world’s oceans, prompting the IUCN, Conservation International and Old Dominion University to “join forces to address [the gap between the number of marine species and terrestrial species on The Red List] and initiate the Global Marine Species Assessment” (Status of the World 's Marine Species). The idea that there are at least 1 million known (and as many as 9 million unknown) species living in the oceans and no one is entirely certain how many of those species are endangered is preposterous, especially considering how much technology has evolved. Looking at this issue holistically, I have reached the conclusion that both the government at all levels are to blame for not enacting sufficient legislation to protect