World Oceans Day: Soon to Be World Dead Zones Day?

People like Art Robinson, who is running for Congress on the GOP ticket, also increase the likelihood that the planet's oceans will become total dead zones. Robinson claimed in an issue of a newsletter he edited in 2004 called Access to Energy:

"Wastes dumped into the deep ocean will soon reach the bottom, where they are less hazardous than nearly any other place on Earth. Most materials will remain there: marine organisms are rare in the deep ocean, food chains are long, and few materials will be carried back to mankind. And that is what waste disposal is all about""

""The oil companies' reckless greed, we are told, has devastated the oceans with their oil spills. Baloney""

""As for oil spills in the open and deep ocean, they amount to far less than natural seeps and river runoff, and any unbiased oceanographer will confirm that they are a boon to marine life, inflicting damage mainly on the oil and shipping companies. For crude oil is a natural, organic, biodegradable product of the earth's ancient plant and animal life, and it is this type of hydrocarbon that marine life in the open and deep ocean is starved for""

""The environment, then, has no better protector than its owner, and no worse enemy than a system where everything belongs to "the people." Species are endangered when they belong to everybody and nobody; and nothing short of the profit motive will protect them."

If the future of the world's oceans are not endangered by arrogant numbskulls preaching the Gospel of the Free Markets like Robinson, then they are significantly at risk by people like Dick Armey who preach the Gospel of Christian Fanaticism (and manufacture Tea Party rallies through ventures like FreedomWorks).

Appearing as a witness at a Republican bicameral hearing on climate change legislation on Capitol Hill in July of 2009, Armey testified:

DICK ARMEY: What I'm suggesting is we have a sort of an eco-evangelical hysteria going on and it leads me to almost wonder if we are becoming a nation of environmental hypochondriacs that are willing to use the power of the state to impose enormous restrictions on the rights and the comforts of, and incomes of individuals who serve essentially a paranoia, a phobia, that has very little fact evidence in fact. Now these are observations that are popular to make because right now its almost taken as an article of faith that this crisis is real. Let me say I take it as an article of faith if the lord God almighty made the heavens and the Earth, and he made them to his satisfaction and it is quite pretentious of we little weaklings here on earth to think that, that we are going to destroy God's creation. [...]

SEN. ORRIN HATCH: Mr. Armey it's great to have you here. Great to see you again and we appreciate all you've done throughout the years and your work on Capitol Hill. Great job. [emphasis added by Think Progress]

What's worse? Armey's comments or the fact that this country has senators like Orrin Hatch who praise people for making pathologically insane comments like these in hearings that should be based in science?

The goals of World Oceans Day are paramount. However, this country doesn't understand the value of the environment. Many may suggest that humans have a duty to protect and preserve the environment but far too many think God or the Almighty Dollar will save the environment and are blind to the reality that Mother Nature is under siege from fanaticism and free market desires.

One can hope more Americans will find the moral fortitude and courage to take on those that spread disinformation to pollute science, which demonstrates global warming is a threat to our oceans. One can hope more Americans will directly call out this country's inability to have a future focus, which forgets short-term profit and favors the long-term protection of the environment for future generations of Americans.

Unfortunately, anger and frustration seem to be better responses than hope. Hope often makes people passive. As it becomes obvious the world's oceans need the help of thousands if not millions of citizens now more than ever, the oceans need physical and meaningful action, not hope.