Obama hit on whaling turnaround

[Freddie Stubbs]

WASHINGTON, June 6 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama is breaking a campaign promise as his administration backs an effort to lift a 24-year ban on commercial whaling, critics say.

Environmentalists, already unhappy with the administration's allegedly lackluster response to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, say the president is going back on his campaign pledge to end the slaughter of whales, FOX News reported Sunday.

The administration is leading a push within the International Whaling Commission to lift the ban on whaling against Japan, Norway and Iceland, the three countries in the commission still hunting whales, FOX News said.

The White House says a new agreement will save whales by keeping the three countries from exploiting loopholes in the current moratorium, but environmentalists say they aren't buying it.

more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2010/06/06/Obama-hit-on-whaling-turnaround/UPI-67531275860640/

[LaurenG]

1. Where is Flvegan ?

Is this true, since Faux news said it I have my doubts about the accuracy of what is really happening.

ET Clarify.

[Tesha]

2. Doubtless some Republican someewhere would say something mean if Obama kept his promise.

'Can't have that happen, y'know!

Tesha

[ProSense]

3. It was a campaign promise? "FOX News said"? U.S. Whaling Commissioner:

FPC Briefing
Cristián Maquieira
Chair, International Whaling Commission
Monica Medina, U.S. Commissioner, International Whaling Commission
Foreign Press Center
Washington, DC
May 27, 2010

<...>

MS. MEDINA: Good morning. Again, my name is Monica Medina and I’m the U.S. Commissioner to the IWC. I want to begin by saying that the U.S. commends Chairman Maquieira for his leadership during this difficult time for the IWC and this most intense process. And I want to say that we, the U.S., agree with his assessment that the IWC is fundamentally broken and must be fixed.

The goal of the United States in this process has been, and will continue to be, to conserve whales. The Administration recognizes that there are significant benefits outlined in the proposal that has been put forward by the chair and vice chair of the commission. And we will continue to work with them on the proposal, but we don’t believe it’s in a place where we can accept it yet.

As you may know, the process began several years ago. The Obama Administration inherited the process. We joined it midstream. But we decided it would be best to try and work through the process to attempt to fix the IWC and to achieve the goal that we seek of greater conservation for whales. We’ve worked diligently alongside the chair and the other members of the commission who have been supporting him in this process and we will continue to work hard through the end of the annual meeting. We’ll continue to work to see if there’s a way to find a diplomatic solution.

That said, it must meet our objectives to improve the conservation of whales, to better coordinate research on whales, and to address new and emerging threats to cetaceans such as climate change and ocean noise. If we don’t see that the IWC is going to be able to do those things in this new – under the new agreement, we wouldn’t go forward with it. But we are hopeful and optimistic that we can reach agreement because the alternative is the status quo, which has been a deadlock in the IWC and a failure in the IWC to actually achieve our objectives as I just stated them.

So we will continue to work hard through this process. We, as I said, don’t believe the proposal as it’s currently drafted is sufficient, but we do believe it was a good basis for us to begin our negotiations in earnest. And we have about five weeks to go, and hopefully we’ll find a solution. Thank you.

link

In March, Senator Kerry introduced the International Whale Conservation and Protection Act of 2010

[Xavyman]

5. I think I know what the broken campaign promise was

On April 16, 2008, Obama said, ""allowing Japan to continue commercial whaling is unacceptable."

http://www.ifaw.org/ifaw_international/media_center/press_releases/04_22_2010_61393.php
Now Obama accepts commercial whaling from Japan.

[HughMoran]

4. If it's negative

you'll post it.

Doesn't even matter if it's deceptive right-wing propaganda...