Bush: Eco-unfriendly monster

A week or so old, but Dubya still deserves props for this: Bush creates world’s biggest ocean preserve

WASHINGTON - President Bush on Thursday created the world's largest marine protected area — a group of remote Hawaiian islands that cover 84 million acres and are home to 7,000 species of birds, fish and marine mammals, at least a quarter of which are unique to Hawaii.

At a White House ceremony, the president designated the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands the United States’ 75th national monument. The islands have been described as “America’s Galapagos” and as the most intact tropical marine region under U.S. jurisdiction.

“To put this area in context, this national monument is more than 100 times larger than Yosemite National Park,” Bush said. “It’s larger than 46 of our 50 states, and more than seven times larger than all our national marine sanctuaries combined. This is a big deal.”

[...] "It's the single-largest act of ocean conservation in history. It's a large milestone," Lautenbacher said. "It is a place to maintain
biodiversity and to maintain basically the nurseries of the Pacific. It
spawns a lot of the life that permeates the middle of the Pacific
Ocean."

[...] Roger Rufe, president of The Ocean Conservancy, agreed the area was on par with Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon. “Teddy Roosevelt is largely considered the father of our national park system,” he added. With this national monument, “President Bush may be securing a similar legacy in our oceans."

Halliburton could not be reached for comment.

Posted by Kyer at June 19, 2006 12:52 PM | TrackBack