Peace Voyager
12-09-2010, 10:15 AM
Head of NOAA addressing the public today in Ukiah
By JUSTINE FREDERIKSEN The Daily Journal
Updated: 12/08/2010 11:59:49 PM PST
Group will present petition asking that Navy's permit for testing be rescinded
If You Go
What: Public meeting with NOAA administrator
When: Today, 1 to 3 p.m.
Where: Board of Supervisors Chambers, 501 Low Gap Road
The head of the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) will be in Ukiah today to discuss issues surrounding the environment, wildlife and industry of the Mendocino County coast.
"The ocean and rivers of our district are essential to the well-being and prosperity of the families and the economy of the North Coast," said Rep. Mike Thompson, (D-Napa), who requested that NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco hold the public meeting with his constituents. ""I'm pleased that (she) has agreed to come and listen to the concerns of the residents of our district."
At least one district resident is very concerned about the permit NOAA recently granted to the U.S. Navy to begin five years of "warfare testing and exercises" in the Northwest Training Range Complex, which includes Northern California, Oregon, Washington and Idaho...
The Navy plans involve SHOCK & AWE weapons testing of missiles, new
weapons systems, sonar (during gray whale migrations), bomb blasts,
use of toxic chemicals, ocean dumping of toxic chemicals, explosive
detonations, gunnery and bombing exercises, along our Northern
California coastline and over land areas within the NWTRC.
In a Letter from several Senators including Senator Dianne Feinstein
to NOAA-June 17, 2009:
“...In many regions, the Navy plans to increase the number of its
exercises or expand the areas in which they may occur, and virtually
every coastal state will be affected. Some exercises may occur in the
nation’s most biologically sensitive marine habitats, including
National Marine Sanctuaries and breeding habitat(s)...In all, the Navy
anticipates more than 2.3 million takes (significant disruptions in
marine mammal foraging, breeding, and other essential behaviors) per
year, or 11.7 million takes over the course of a five-year permit...”
U.S. Congressman Thompson has been working heroically to protect many
of these areas. It is time that the public weigh in on this topic and
attend this meeting on Thursday, December 9th, to request that NOAA
rescind the permit that they issued to the U.S. Navy until we can
adequately protect these ocean areas and the marine life in them.
NOAA mitigation measures that protect our marine mammals only 9% of
the time are inadequate. And the use of sonar during the gray whale
migration is not acceptable today.
For more information Contact: The Agriculture Defense Coalition (707)
485-7520 or E-Mail: [email protected] Website:
https://www.agriculturedefensecoalition.org/?q=us-navy
AD PAID FOR BY AGRICULTURE DEFENSE COALITION.ORG
=====
> Dr. Lubchenco will be taking comments from constituencies regarding such
> issues as the new National Ocean Policy and Coastal and Marine Spatial
> Planning initiative, fishing catch shares, salmon fishery issues, and other
> topics of local interest. Speakers from various entities are invited to make
> a short presentation and there will be time to respond to written questions.
> For more information on the upcoming meeting contact Congressman Thompson's
> office at 707-962-0933.
++++++++
RESPONSIBLE PROTEST AGAINST NAVY TRAINING RANGE EXPANSION OFFSHORE
NORTHWEST PACIFIC COAST
By Richard Johnson
I am publisher of the MENDOCINO COUNTRY Independent with
decades of experience writing to protect our coast from offshore oil
drilling. I was among the first to research and warn against the US
Navy plan to conduct five years of live fire training excersizes on
122,000 square nautical miles offshore Washington, Oregon and northern
California. I was also first to explain the National Ocean Policy Task
Force initiative of the Presidentís Council on Environmental Quality.
Lately, I have been authorized by the Green Party of California
and the Mendocino Environmental Center to organize working groups to
develop a petition opposing the Navy War Games project.
Congressman Thompson has invited Jane Lubchenko, NOAA chief and
another person representing the Navy to speak here in our county on
these topics. In recent days, a number of bulk environmental emails
have gone out which first of all implies that Ms. Lubchenkoís agency
has some kind of power to cancel or modify the Navyís project. It
doesnít. The actual role of the OPTF can be found at HYPERLINK
"https://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/initiatives/oceans"
www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/initiatives/oceans
Information about the actual relationship between the OPTF and the
Navy project can be had at HYPERLINK
"https://www.mendocinocountry.com" www.mendocinocountry.com It took
me months to write these articles and they are not entertainment. Most
ocean activists I ask say they have not bothered to read this
information.
Next, these emails follow in a long tradition of trafficking in
exorbitant claims and hysterical rantings which over the years have
become viral in the discourse to the extent that US senators and
representatives have rebroadcast without independent verification that
the Navy training will kill over 11 million whales, for example. The
actual figure for marine mammals at risk for injury or death in the
Northwest range is actually 14, according a permit recently issued by
NOAA.
The recent wave of messages also contain claims that the Navy
project is a War against Nature that could upset the ecological
balance, and the agency customarily ignores all environmental
regulations.
Among other obstinate refusals to correct misinformation, the
peddlers of these claims continue to refer to the Navy project as
ětesting.î According to responses to public comment in the draft EIS,
the only testing and evaluation in the project concerns unmanned
drones. Otherwise, the ships, munitions, submarines, artillery,
missiles, depth charges and sonar are not being tested. The purpose of
the project is to graduate trained Naval officers and airmen who have
successfully performed under realistic battle conditions to fight the
wars of today and tomorrow, including in the Middle East.
Throwing doubt on the validity of the process, one writer
charges the Navy and NOAA can change the terms of the EIS and the
Letter of Authorization to take wildlife at any time without public
notice. There is no basis in the documents for such a claim.
Most of the misinformation being repeated by activists and
regurgitated by the press originates from Rosalind Peterson of Redwood
Valley (who warns on her website the government wants to kill us with
weather modification).
In the past she has claimed that the project area extends all
the way to the Bay, that the project will involve depleted uranium
munitions and that bombs detonated in the ocean could cause
earthquakes. Shown over and over that these statements are false, she
persists in defending them even today. In March of 2010, she was
reported in the Fort Bragg Advocate News that the Navy had killed the
project out of concern for marine mammals. The newspaper printed it as
fact, even though the agency pointedly denied it.
The Navyíís expansion of the Northwest Training Range complex
should be vigorously opposed by a coherent movement uniting
environmentalists, innkeepers, recreational and commercial fishing
interests and the broad mass of citizens of the Nortwest Pacific
Coast. Unfortunately, there is at present no competent leadership for
such a movement given the shrill and hysterical statements of self
appointed spokespeople who apparently lack the technical expertise to
understand or who feel they donít need to study the facts underlying
the issues.
I urge anyone who wants to work responsibly to stop the Navy
live fire war games to write me at HYPERLINK
"mailto:[email protected]"
[email protected] . Meanwhile, read what Iíve already
written over the last few years at HYPERLINK
"https://www.mendocinocountry.com" www.mendocinocountry.com Thank
you.
======
By JUSTINE FREDERIKSEN The Daily Journal
Updated: 12/08/2010 11:59:49 PM PST
Group will present petition asking that Navy's permit for testing be rescinded
If You Go
What: Public meeting with NOAA administrator
When: Today, 1 to 3 p.m.
Where: Board of Supervisors Chambers, 501 Low Gap Road
The head of the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) will be in Ukiah today to discuss issues surrounding the environment, wildlife and industry of the Mendocino County coast.
"The ocean and rivers of our district are essential to the well-being and prosperity of the families and the economy of the North Coast," said Rep. Mike Thompson, (D-Napa), who requested that NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco hold the public meeting with his constituents. ""I'm pleased that (she) has agreed to come and listen to the concerns of the residents of our district."
At least one district resident is very concerned about the permit NOAA recently granted to the U.S. Navy to begin five years of "warfare testing and exercises" in the Northwest Training Range Complex, which includes Northern California, Oregon, Washington and Idaho...
The Navy plans involve SHOCK & AWE weapons testing of missiles, new
weapons systems, sonar (during gray whale migrations), bomb blasts,
use of toxic chemicals, ocean dumping of toxic chemicals, explosive
detonations, gunnery and bombing exercises, along our Northern
California coastline and over land areas within the NWTRC.
In a Letter from several Senators including Senator Dianne Feinstein
to NOAA-June 17, 2009:
“...In many regions, the Navy plans to increase the number of its
exercises or expand the areas in which they may occur, and virtually
every coastal state will be affected. Some exercises may occur in the
nation’s most biologically sensitive marine habitats, including
National Marine Sanctuaries and breeding habitat(s)...In all, the Navy
anticipates more than 2.3 million takes (significant disruptions in
marine mammal foraging, breeding, and other essential behaviors) per
year, or 11.7 million takes over the course of a five-year permit...”
U.S. Congressman Thompson has been working heroically to protect many
of these areas. It is time that the public weigh in on this topic and
attend this meeting on Thursday, December 9th, to request that NOAA
rescind the permit that they issued to the U.S. Navy until we can
adequately protect these ocean areas and the marine life in them.
NOAA mitigation measures that protect our marine mammals only 9% of
the time are inadequate. And the use of sonar during the gray whale
migration is not acceptable today.
For more information Contact: The Agriculture Defense Coalition (707)
485-7520 or E-Mail: [email protected] Website:
https://www.agriculturedefensecoalition.org/?q=us-navy
AD PAID FOR BY AGRICULTURE DEFENSE COALITION.ORG
=====
> Dr. Lubchenco will be taking comments from constituencies regarding such
> issues as the new National Ocean Policy and Coastal and Marine Spatial
> Planning initiative, fishing catch shares, salmon fishery issues, and other
> topics of local interest. Speakers from various entities are invited to make
> a short presentation and there will be time to respond to written questions.
> For more information on the upcoming meeting contact Congressman Thompson's
> office at 707-962-0933.
++++++++
RESPONSIBLE PROTEST AGAINST NAVY TRAINING RANGE EXPANSION OFFSHORE
NORTHWEST PACIFIC COAST
By Richard Johnson
I am publisher of the MENDOCINO COUNTRY Independent with
decades of experience writing to protect our coast from offshore oil
drilling. I was among the first to research and warn against the US
Navy plan to conduct five years of live fire training excersizes on
122,000 square nautical miles offshore Washington, Oregon and northern
California. I was also first to explain the National Ocean Policy Task
Force initiative of the Presidentís Council on Environmental Quality.
Lately, I have been authorized by the Green Party of California
and the Mendocino Environmental Center to organize working groups to
develop a petition opposing the Navy War Games project.
Congressman Thompson has invited Jane Lubchenko, NOAA chief and
another person representing the Navy to speak here in our county on
these topics. In recent days, a number of bulk environmental emails
have gone out which first of all implies that Ms. Lubchenkoís agency
has some kind of power to cancel or modify the Navyís project. It
doesnít. The actual role of the OPTF can be found at HYPERLINK
"https://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/initiatives/oceans"
www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/initiatives/oceans
Information about the actual relationship between the OPTF and the
Navy project can be had at HYPERLINK
"https://www.mendocinocountry.com" www.mendocinocountry.com It took
me months to write these articles and they are not entertainment. Most
ocean activists I ask say they have not bothered to read this
information.
Next, these emails follow in a long tradition of trafficking in
exorbitant claims and hysterical rantings which over the years have
become viral in the discourse to the extent that US senators and
representatives have rebroadcast without independent verification that
the Navy training will kill over 11 million whales, for example. The
actual figure for marine mammals at risk for injury or death in the
Northwest range is actually 14, according a permit recently issued by
NOAA.
The recent wave of messages also contain claims that the Navy
project is a War against Nature that could upset the ecological
balance, and the agency customarily ignores all environmental
regulations.
Among other obstinate refusals to correct misinformation, the
peddlers of these claims continue to refer to the Navy project as
ětesting.î According to responses to public comment in the draft EIS,
the only testing and evaluation in the project concerns unmanned
drones. Otherwise, the ships, munitions, submarines, artillery,
missiles, depth charges and sonar are not being tested. The purpose of
the project is to graduate trained Naval officers and airmen who have
successfully performed under realistic battle conditions to fight the
wars of today and tomorrow, including in the Middle East.
Throwing doubt on the validity of the process, one writer
charges the Navy and NOAA can change the terms of the EIS and the
Letter of Authorization to take wildlife at any time without public
notice. There is no basis in the documents for such a claim.
Most of the misinformation being repeated by activists and
regurgitated by the press originates from Rosalind Peterson of Redwood
Valley (who warns on her website the government wants to kill us with
weather modification).
In the past she has claimed that the project area extends all
the way to the Bay, that the project will involve depleted uranium
munitions and that bombs detonated in the ocean could cause
earthquakes. Shown over and over that these statements are false, she
persists in defending them even today. In March of 2010, she was
reported in the Fort Bragg Advocate News that the Navy had killed the
project out of concern for marine mammals. The newspaper printed it as
fact, even though the agency pointedly denied it.
The Navyíís expansion of the Northwest Training Range complex
should be vigorously opposed by a coherent movement uniting
environmentalists, innkeepers, recreational and commercial fishing
interests and the broad mass of citizens of the Nortwest Pacific
Coast. Unfortunately, there is at present no competent leadership for
such a movement given the shrill and hysterical statements of self
appointed spokespeople who apparently lack the technical expertise to
understand or who feel they donít need to study the facts underlying
the issues.
I urge anyone who wants to work responsibly to stop the Navy
live fire war games to write me at HYPERLINK
"mailto:[email protected]"
[email protected] . Meanwhile, read what Iíve already
written over the last few years at HYPERLINK
"https://www.mendocinocountry.com" www.mendocinocountry.com Thank
you.
======