as a union leader, you are a master of coalition organizing; we all like that, and there is a lot to say in praise of this kind of thinking.
However, as president of Clean Ocean Action's Board of Trustees, I am alarmed. With your post here, you reveal yourself as a leader in COA fanning the false rumor that the work of Rutgers Geologists, to follow-up on the New Jersey Shallow Shelf Expedition 313 subsea area to learn about sea level and ancient climate change, was really a plot to find oil & gas off New Jersey's artificial beaches.
"If you think our country is investing in science to better understand climate change, you are being naive," you wrote, detailing how supporters of the Rutgers study, now postponed to next year, included institutions associated with energy interests, including BOEM, and the University of Texas.You also observed that University of Texas also studies "energy geosciences" as a research field (in addition to the poetry of Walt Whitman).
"This testing [sic] is a disquise [sic] for the oil and gas industry to get into our backyard," calling this a "backdoor, bogus science experiment."
There are real issues associated with anthropogenic ensonification of the water column, including shipping and dredging and pile driving in addition to acoustic research. There are real issues of pollution in the ocean that implicate fishing industry (by catch) and beach nourishment, both of which kill marine life-- neither of which Clean Ocean Action addresses.
As you wrote, I suggest you "Read up. Learn more. Look deeper at what this is really all about, Follow the money."
The Rutgers project that your organization is trying to destroy with a public campaign shot full of misleading innuendo, is in fact exactly what it is stated to be: real science.
By contrast, you are Board president of a real-estate-sponsored organization that forgot about its mission. COA in this respect "is not cool at all!"
Michael Drake
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