AP Environmental Science

The Joint Ocean Comission Initiative recently released that the United States is received a “C-” for 2006. This grade is not nearly where it should be; however, it is slightly improved from 2005’s grade of a “D+.”

President Bush and his administration have promised an eight percent increase in the federal budget for coastal and marine conservation programs in 2007. The budget previously was 1.75 billion dollars and now an additional $143 million will be added. The majority of this money will go to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; however, approximately 8 million will go the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands National Monument which spands about 14, 000 miles.

At this point the states themselves have been doing better than the federal government at giving money for coastal and marine conservation programs. The cities doing particularly well in this area include: Washington and New York.

I think that it is very sad that we received a grade of a “C-”, although it is an improvement from the year before. I guess that politicians don’t really think of this as a serious issue when soldiers are being killed in Iraq and around the world. Although this might not seem like that important of a thing now, the federal government will regret it if the states don’t continue the funding. I don’t understand if it is the budget/money issue or what it is, but at least it has brought to the administrations attention and they are trying to get it under control.

http://www.enn.com/anim.html?id=1583              Associated Press