December, 16 2009, 03:14pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Paul Achitoff, Earthjustice, (808) 599-2436
Marti Townsend, KAHEA, (808) 372-1314
Andrea Treece, Center for Biological Diversity, (415) 436-9682 x 306
Teri Shore, Turtle Island Restoration Network, (415) 663-8590 x 104; B-roll, still photos available from TIRN
Suit Filed to Stop Hawaii Longline Fishery From Tripling Sea Turtle Kill
Deadly Hooks Also Snag Whales, Seabirds, and Sharks
HONOLULU
Today conservation groups Turtle Island Restoration Network, the Center for Biological Diversity, and KAHEA, all represented by Earthjustice, filed a lawsuit in federal district court in Honolulu challenging the National Marine Fisheries Service's issuance last week of a rule that removes all limits on effort in the Hawaii-based longline swordfish fishery and allows the fleet to catch nearly three times as many loggerhead sea turtles as was previously permitted. The new rule conflicts with the Fisheries Service's own assessment that the North Pacific loggerhead sea turtle is in danger of extinction. That report, released only four months ago, noted that incidental capture in longline fisheries is a primary threat to the species' continued existence.
The new regulations increase allowable capture of threatened North Pacific loggerhead sea turtles from 17 per year to 46 per year. The rule continues to allow the capture of 16 endangered Pacific leatherbacks each year. The Hawaii longline swordfish fishery also catches, injures, and kills false killer whales, albatross, and blue sharks.
"The sea turtles are swimming toward extinction, yet this plan seems intent on continuing the same old fishery policies hastening their demise," said Teri Shore, program director of Turtle Island Restoration Network. "We are disappointed, given Obama's new directives to protect the oceans." The president's Ocean Task Force recently held hearings around the country to develop a national ocean policy, including one in Hawaii last September.
Swordfish longline vessels trail up to 60 miles of fishing line suspended in the water with floats, with as many as 1,000 baited hooks deployed at regular intervals. Sea turtles become hooked while trying to take bait or entangled while swimming through the nearly invisible lines. These encounters can drown the turtles or leave them with serious wounds.
"The Fisheries Service has admitted that loggerhead and leatherback sea turtles in the Pacific face a significant risk of extinction unless we reduce the number of turtles killed by commercial fisheries," said Andrea Treece, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity. "Unfortunately, rather than take action to improve protection of sea turtles, the agency is proposing measures that would actually increase the number of turtles killed."
"The law requires the Fisheries Service to minimize harm to sea turtles, and prohibits harm to albatross, both of which are being driven to extinction mainly because of irresponsible fishing practices," said Paul Achitoff, an attorney with Earthjustice in Hawaii. "The agency is once again disregarding these laws in favor of maximizing swordfish catches and pandering to WESPAC's insatiable appetite for short-term profits."
"Allowing longline fishing for swordfish in the rich waters off Hawaii is like allowing landmines to be used for deer hunting in national parks," said Marti Townsend, program director of KAHEA: The Hawaiian-Environmental Alliance. "You may catch what you are after, but the collateral damage to other wildlife is simply unacceptable."
The litigation is being supported by the Snorkel Bob Foundation of Hawaii, which sponsors results-oriented work that prevents incidental killing of marine species.
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Apr 18, 2024
Amid new reporting that former U.S. President Donald Trump's economic advisers are urging him to cut the federal payroll tax, a key revenue source for Social Security and Medicare, advocates on Thursday urged voters to remember that the presumptive Republican presidential nominee has long threatened to do just that.
"Don't be fooled," said Nancy Altman, president of Social Security Works, which lobbies to strengthen the social safety net for retired Americans. "At the end of his term in office, Trump delayed Social Security's dedicated revenue paid from workers and their employers. He was quite explicit that, if reelected, he would convert that delay into a permanent cut."
Altman was referring to an executive order Trump signed in August 2020, allowing companies to delay payroll tax payments—an option most companies declined to take as the Treasury Department made clear they would have to pay all of the deferred taxes the following year and that employees would see smaller paychecks as a result of the program.
Trump promised to make the payroll tax cut permanent, and as Reutersreported late Wednesday, the former president is discussing the proposal with economic advisers including Fox News host and former National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow and right-wing commentator Stephen Moore.
The former president is weighing cuts to Social Security's revenue stream even as Republicans complain that the popular program is unaffordable and push to raise the retirement age to delay Americans' use of the funds.
The GOP has long claimed Social Security is headed toward insolvency and pushed to privatize the program or cut benefits, but last year's Social Security trustees report found that the program's trust fund currently has a $2.85 trillion surplus and could pay 80% of benefits for the next 75 years even if Congress takes no action to expand it—as long as it continues to be funded through taxes.
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Along with cutting payroll taxes, which are paid by workers and employees and amount to 7.65% of each employee's gross pay in order to fund senior citizens' post-retirement income, Trump has proposed extending the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the vast majority of which benefited the wealthiest Americans, according to the Economic Policy Institute and the Center for Popular Democracy.
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According to SupremeTransparency.org:
The current U.S. Supreme Court has gone rogue. The right-wing justices that make up the court's supermajority frequently toy with precedent and the rule of law to issue opinions that not only defy the will of a majority of Americans, but also rewrite constitutional principles, overturn widely respected legal precedents, and gut longstanding rules that protect the public interest.
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The climate crisis will shrink the average global income 19% in the next 26 years compared to what it would have been without global heating caused primarily by the burning of fossil fuels, a study published in Nature Wednesday has found.
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"That seems like… a lot," writer and climate advocate Bill McKibben wrote in response to the findings. "The entire world economy at the moment is about $100 trillion a year; the federal budget is about $6 trillion a year."
This means that the costs of inaction have already exceeded the costs of limiting global heating to 2°C by six times, the study authors said. However, limiting warming to 2°C can still significantly reduce economic losses through 2100.
"This clearly shows that protecting our climate is much cheaper than not doing so, and that is without even considering noneconomic impacts such as loss of life or biodiversity," Wenz said.
The damages predicted by the study were more than twice those of similar analyses because the researchers looked beyond national temperature data to also incorporate the impacts of extreme weather and rainfall on more than 1,600 subnational regions over a 40-year period, The Guardian explained.
"Strong income reductions are projected for the majority of regions, including North America and Europe, with South Asia and Africa being most strongly affected," PIK scientist and first author Maximilian Kotz said in a statement. "These are caused by the impact of climate change on various aspects that are relevant for economic growth such as agricultural yields, labor productivity, or infrastructure."
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Unlike previous studies, the research predicted economic losses for most wealthier countries in the Global North, with the U.S. and German economies shrinking by 11% by mid-century, France's by 13%, and the U.K.'s by 7%. However, the countries set to suffer the most are countries closer to the equator that have lower incomes already and have historically done much less to contribute to the climate crisis. Iraq, for example, could see incomes drop by 30%, Botswana 25%, and Brazil 21%.
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Wenz told The Guardian that the results were "devastating."
"I am used to my work not having a nice societal outcome, but I was surprised by how big the damages were. The inequality dimension was really shocking," Wenz said.
Levermann said the paper presented society with a clear choice:
It is on us to decide: Structural change towards a renewable energy system is needed for our security and will save us money. Staying on the path we are currently on, will lead to catastrophic consequences. The temperature of the planet can only be stabilized if we stop burning oil, gas, and coal.
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