Green Party of the United States - National Committee Voting

Home	Vote	Results	History	Contacts	Admin
	National Committee Voting

Login

Proposal Details

Proposal ID	526
Proposal	PLATFORM: Ocean Protection
Presenter	Platform Committee presenter, Green Party of California sponsor
Floor Manager	David Strand
Phase	Closed
Discussion	07/26/2010 - 08/08/2010
Voting	08/09/2010 - 08/15/2010
Result	Adopted
Presens Quorum	31 0.6666
Consens Quorum	67 0.6666 of Yes and No Votes

Background

GPUS Bylaws Article IX. Platform

9-1.1 The GPUS Platform represents policies upon which most Greens would agree and serves as a basis for Green Presidential and Congressional campaigns. The Platform may only be amended as provided by this Article.

9-1.3 In even numbered years in which there is no Presidential Nominating Convention, the National Committee shall be the decision-making body responsible for amending the platform. The process shall be as established in the GPUS Rules and Procedures.

9-1.4 Amendments to the Platform may be submitted for consideration by any accredited state party or caucus, or any committee whose Mission Statement authorizes it.

Proposal

Replace the text of the "Ocean Protection" section of Chapter 3 with the following text.
Section title: Ocean Protection

Section subtitle: Restoring our oceans

Our position: Our oceans, with their enormous diversity of life and function, are essential to life on Earth and must be preserved.

Our oceans are threatened by climate change, pollution, whaling, overfishing, factory fishing, bottom trawling, bycatch, pirate fishing and fish farming. Simple, strong policy changes can rejuvenate the health of our oceans and planet.

Green Solutions

1. Protect 40% of the world's oceans as marine preserves, especially near shore coastal habitats. Determine protected zones through a democratic process involving all stakeholders.

2. Ban offshore oil drilling.

3. Ban the siting of liquified natural gas facilities off the U.S. coast.

4. Phase out use of the once through cooling process, currently used by power plants, in and near coastal waters.

5. Require secondary treatment of waste effluent before release.

6. Ban ocean transportation of nuclear and toxic waste.

7. Ban sonar testing in the oceans.

8. Support the ban on international commercial whaling as well as other international efforts to protect endangered marine species.

9. Ban drift-net fishing and long-line fishing and phase out factory trawling.

10. Map undersea toxic dump sites, and investigate methods of rendering them harmless.

11. Ban the importation of fish and fish products caught by drift-nets and other illegal means.

12. Ban the importation of coral products and the destruction of breakwaters.

13. Support the Law of the Sea Treaty that establishes the global sharing of ocean resources.

14. Support complete cleanup of existing and past oil spills. Cost of cleanups and compensation for affected communities should be paid by the corporations responsible for the spills.

Resources

None

References

Visit the Platform Committee webpage for this proposal at: http://www.gp.org/committees/platform/comments/?p=401.

On the webpage, you can see various formats of the proposal created by the GPUS Platform Committee and the amendment proposal sponsors including the 2004 and 2010 texts side-by-side. You can also read and respond to comments from Greens around the country, including many who are not on the Green National Committee.

Here is the 2004 text of the section being amended:

2004 Original Language

Chapter 3: Ecological Sustainability

Section Title: Ocean Protections

Our oceans, with their enormous diversity of life and function, are essential to life on Earth and must be preserved.

Today, the oceans are threatened by both governments and businesses who exploit ocean resources without considering the consequences. Exploitation of undersea mineral wealth is often done without regard for the environmental damage to land and sea. Greed and indiscriminate harvesting techniques lead to needless devastation of marine species.

Ocean vessels contaminate the sea through leaks large and small, and by dumping their refuse with impunity. Whole oceans are threatened with radioactive contamination by ships transporting weapons-grade plutonium, and by oceanic testing of nuclear weapons. The oceans are further contaminated by heavily polluted streams and rivers, and by undersea toxic dump sites with secret contents.

We favor accelerating research on the nature of the oceans that cover most of our planet. It is essential that we learn as much as possible about the effects of global warming, destruction of coral reefs, and depletion of fish populations upon the oceans.

The Green Party supports the following ocean protection measures:

1. Urge the U.S. government to sign the Laws of the Sea Treaty that establishes the global sharing of ocean resources.

2. Support the National Oceans Protection Act which bans offshore drilling to a distance of 50 to 175 miles from U.S. shores.

3. Establish environmental standards for ocean-going vessels.

4. Ban ocean transportation of nuclear and toxic wastes.

5. Map undersea toxic dump sites and, where possible, recover and treat the toxic wastes.

6. Ban drift-net fishing and long-line fishing, practices that indiscriminately kills marine mammals and other species not intended for the catch. Ban importing of fish and fish products from countries that use drift-nets.

7. Legislate phasing out U.S. factory trawlers while promoting sustainable, community-based fishing.

8. Ban importation of coral products and the destruction of breakwaters that are necessary to protect dying reefs.

9. Maintain the ban on international whale trade, which was debated at the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species.

Questions about this system?
Contact the Voting Admin.
The Green Party of the United States voting system is free software, licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL).
You can download a copy here.
To independently verify a ranked choice vote, or for information about how that works, go to Jonathan Lundell's Voting Page and upload the ballot file from the ranked choice vote result page. JL's ranked choice module is licensed under an alternate free software license.

Green Party of the United States