I’m glad to see this morning that the National Resources Defense Council has gained some ground in federal court against the White House and the Navy. NRDC has gone to court against the government because of a decision by President Bush to allow the Navy to use high powered sonar equipment in a “no sonar zone”. The zone is known to be the home of large groups of whales and several studies have shown the sonar in question can cause mass death in whales. According to the NRDC, the high-intensity sound waves can travel vast stretches of the ocean and are so intense that marine mammals experience bleeding in their brain before they die.
In January, President Bush argued that the high powered sonar was vital for our nation’s military preparedness exercises and granted the Navy an exemption so they could ignore a court ruled injunction to stop the practices back on January 3rd. U.S. District Judge Florence Marine Cooper released a 36 page ruling stating that the Navy must abide by a previous order which outlawed the sonar use in that particular area of the Pacific. What’s even better, Cooper suggested our President’s attempt to go around the previous ruling was “constitutionally suspect”.
I’m glad Cooper made what seems like a sound ruling both in favor of our environment and in favor of the people who tried to stop it. Our government, and our lame-duck President for that matter, need to learn they just can’t run around doing whatever they want. The people are watching….power to the people!
The NRDC produced a really great 5 minute long video on this issue. It’s called “Lethal Sounds” and is narrated by Pierce Brosnan.
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