In an article titled “Marine Protection as Empire Expansion” published by Foreign Policy in Focus, authors David Vine and Miriam Pemberton expressed their curiosity as to why a president “who rarely saw a public land or offshore site he didn’t want to drill on” suddenly exhibited such concern for marine life in the Pacific ocean.
“One possible clue: This protective blanket will extend only 50 miles beyond land, rather than the 200 that the law permits,” they write. “Could it be his real concern was for the land itself rather than for the water around it?”
The protected ocean under the proclamation encompasses the Mariana Trench which borders Guam, Saipan, Rota, Tinian, and Farallon de Medinilla.
The authors suggest that the establishment of the marine sanctuary is linked to the Pentagon’s military buildup plan on Guam.
“Many in Guam are opposed to the expansion of the military’s presence, concerned about increased crime, accidents, violence against women, health and environmental damage, and other forms of social and cultural disruption,” Vine and Pemberton write.
They called on environmental activists to “make sure that the Pentagon does not use the mantle of environmental protection as a cover for its profligate and environmentally damaging plans to use military bases to control the Pacific.”
“With around 1,000 military bases outside the 50 states — each one a possible environmental disaster area — now is the time when we should be closing and consolidating our overseas bases, not finding new and increasingly stealthy ways to solidify their presence,” the authors wrote.
They maintain that the people of Guam and the CNMI should be given full control over the protected areas and the water surrounding its territory in full accordance with international law.
“To fulfill the Pacific marine reserve’s promise of environmental protection and conservation, environmental groups initially enthusiastic about the Bush plan must unite with allies on Capitol Hill and a growing movement of those critical of the Pentagon’s expanding reach to press the new administration to reverse this expansion,” Vine and Pemberton suggested.
