UNEP - hbhsmun
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UNEP - hbhsmun
UNEP topics: United Nations Environment Programme Effects of Pollution on Marine Life Environmental Consequences of War Chaired by the Honorable Paola Deloscobos, Becky Chacon, and Gaby Gaffney S i n c e HBHS April 25th, 2015 1 9 7 8 Novice hbhsmun.webs.com Huntington Beach High School Model United Nations UNEP April 25th, 2015 Welcome to the United Nations Environment Programme! Hello fellow delegates! My name is Paola Deloscobos and I will be one of the chairs for the United Nations Environmental Programme committee. I am a sophomore and I have been involved with Model United Nations for two years now and plan to be a part of it for the rest of high school. MUN has granted me the opportunity of becoming educated on the international community’s most recent and complex dilemmas. Throughout these two years I have grown a strong passion for Model United Nations and have been heavily influenced to ensue this career path in the future! Apart from MUN I am involved in Huntington Beach High School’s very own Track and Field! I specifically am involved in pole vault along with extracurricular such as the Down Syndrome Club and Doctors Premed. I’m very intrigued on how the debate about resolving and taking care of our planet will be so please become prepared for a well-researched committee! Hello delegates! My name is Becky Chacon and I will be one of the three chairs for the UNEP Novice Committee this year. I am currently a junior in high school and have been doing MUN since my freshman year. I have grown to appreciate MUN so much because of all of the invaluable tools that it incorporates. Not only does MUN better writing, researching and speaking skills, but it also helps you learn about the world’s most pressing international issues. Outside of the realm of MUN, I love anything to do with animals excluding spiders and centipedes. I am also involved in my high school’s track team and compete in hurdles and high jump. As for extracurriculars, I am in the NHS program and enjoy doing community service in hopes of bettering my surrounding community. I am currently in advanced piano and love almost any type of music because of the different styles each one carries. I am interested to see how everybody in the UNEP committee will try to resolve these current environmental issues and cannot wait for a great and well-researched committee! 2 1905 Main Street Huntington Beach, CA 92648 I hbhsmun.webs.com I unep.novice37@gmail.com UNEP April 25th, 2015 Hello delegates! My name is Gaby Gaffney and I will be one of your chairs for the UNEP Novice Committee for 2015. This is my third year in MUN and I am a junior at Huntington Beach High School. I used to be so terrified of public speaking but thanks to MUN I have gotten over that fear and have improved those skills greatly. I never used to have an awareness of current events but now, not only am I more engaged in these topics, but I spend time researching these international conflicts and matters. Like my other co-chairs, I too am on the Track and Field team; I compete in the hurdles and four hundred meter relay races. Also, I am really excited to be chairing for the UNEP committee because outside of MUN I volunteer for the Long Beach Marine Institute and last year I was involved with an abalone and sea bass program at our school. I am really looking forward to seeing your solutions throughout committee and anticipate a creative and engaging debate. Position Papers must be submitted to your Dais’s central email no later than 11:59 PM on April 19th, 2015 to be considered for a Research Award. Research Awards will be presented during committee; please be sure to follow the HBHSMUN Position Paper format available on our website. Your Dais’s central email is: unep.novice37@gmail.com 3 1905 Main Street Huntington Beach, CA 92648 I hbhsmun.webs.com I unep.novice37@gmail.com UNEP April 25th, 2015 I. Effects of Pollution on Marine Life Topic Background The main contributors to the decline of the marine system are pollutants such as oil, toxic materials, and debris. Humans have contaminated every inch of the earth with pollutants, and with the amount of toxins released, it has negatively affected over forty percent of all marine life.iv Though the myriad of oil spills add up to a very large total amount of oil, only the very large oil spills receive any significant press. The actual amount of oil being thrown into the ocean adds up to over a million gallons per year. The global marine life suffers heavily as the oil that ruins their fur and restricts them from doing tasks such as flying or maintaining homeostasis. Fish commonly suffocate due to oil that can obstruct their gills creating mass amounts of dead fish. It affects the amount of reproduction since the oil on the beaches damages the breeding grounds and common feeding places. Not only does this inhibit their daily life, but causes much of the marine life to get sick, creating a domino effect that reduces the amount of births and increases mortality rates. v In addition, oil creates a layer on top of water that prevents light from reaching the plants, limiting growth, and causing the production of food for the animals to come to a halt. Toxic materials are a major problem due to the industrial and modern type of life in which a majority of the world lives. Chemical waste such as mercury, fertilizers, and dioxins are released into the marine system where they will commonly reside at the bottom of the ocean. Marine life at the bottom of the food chain, such as Pollution is not a new manifestation that arose with the beginning of the industrialized world. There has been a dramatic increase of marine pollution over the last two centuries due to the amount of waste and materials that the population is careless about. i The marine ecosystems cover over seventy percent of the earth, and humans’ thoughtless acts have created detrimental effects to the majority of them. Beginning in 1929, chemicals known as Polychlorinated Biphenyl or PCBs were introduced into the manufacturing world. PCBs are man-made chemicals that can either be very concentrated and toxic, or have minimal effects. The reason for their increase in production can be attributed to the fact that PCBs are very stable, great insulators, non-flammable, and maintain a high boiling point. ii As these seem to be positive characteristics, companies all around the world created hundreds of commercial and household products that contained PCBs such as: air conditioners, electrical equipment, freezers, paint, rubber, paper, and hydraulic systems.iii Unaware of the unfavorable effects it had on the environment, PCBs were used in production until 1979, when they were banned because of studies demonstrating their harmful effects. Throughout the years it was utilized countries were dumping immense amounts of waste into the ocean, having chemical leaks, and creating landfills permeated with unknown harmful materials. In turn, this damaged the marine life in ways that are impossible to reverse. 4 1905 Main Street Huntington Beach, CA 92648 I hbhsmun.webs.com I unep.novice37@gmail.com UNEP April plankton, will consume toxic materials, which will then contaminate the animals that eat the plankton. As each animal higher on the food chain ingests another, the concentration of the toxic material increases with every level. The small are eaten by the larger, and the larger eaten by the largest, causing a buildup of the waste in the marine ecosystem. Species such as dolphins, seals, and whales have extremely high amounts of toxins in their systems, which shorten their life span, and reduce the amount of survival of the food chain as a whole.vi One of the largest contributors to the pollution of marine life is the trash and debris that gets discarded into the ocean on a daily basis. Plastic, bags, water bottles, balloons, cans, and cartons, even if not directly put into the ocean, will find their way to the water and beaches. Many animals are incapable of differentiating the waste of plastic and the food that they commonly eat, which results in the ingestion of items that are not edible or decomposable. Much of marine life that has been studied was found with some trace of trash in their stomachs. Trash can entangle turtles, birds, and mammals digestive track, causing a severe amount of pain and resulting in their death. Scientifically, as trash slowly decomposes, it leeches oxygen from the surrounding water, diminishing oxygen levels to a state where animals cannot survive. vii Noise pollution is a large pollutant that is commonly disregarded in the communication about marine life hazards. The sound waves made by boats, submarines, and oil derricks, are usually found to be on the same frequency that animals like whales and fish generally use to communicate. This disrupts the patterns 25th, 2015 of breeding and feeding that have been used for centuries. As we continue to pollute the ocean with toxins and trash, it makes it easier for man-made products to conduct sound wave and transmit noise farther and farther.viii With the amount of pollution that the population is producing, the marine life and ecosystems will continue to quickly deteriorate if our common harmful ways are not evicted immediately. United Nations Involvement Under the UNEP, the UN takes a very active approach in trying to decrease ocean pollution as much as possible. One of the UNEP’s main programs that work in this division is the Regional Seas Program (RSP), which aims to preserve oceanic and coastal regions of the world through sustainable development and protective strategies that require international cooperation. ix For example, some of their programs include the Partnerships for NonPolluting Development Program and the Green Economy in a Blue World Program.x These associations and more were also some of the main topics discussed at the most recent Global Meeting of the Regional Seas Conventions and Action Plans in 2014. xi But the RSP’s most successful development has been their implementation of the Regional Seas Visioning Workshop. This workshop has enabled multiple UN organizations to launch the very first World Ocean Assessment under the Regular Process for Global Reporting and the State of the Marine Environment. This assessment in turn will allow for the RSP to deliver country-specific goals and outlines in improving our world’s oceanic resources 5 1905 Main Street Huntington Beach, CA 92648 I hbhsmun.webs.com I unep.novice37@gmail.com UNEP April 25th, 2015 packaging. xv As far as response to ocean pollution incidents, the IMO has also encouraged its member states to invest more into developing incident protocol and response capacity.xvi They have a variety of regional response centers in place to assist countries in containing pollution disasters as efficiently as possible. According to The Marine Environment Emergency and Preparedness and Response Regional Activity Center, these centers “are dedicated to both the protection of the marine environment, and to working together to combat marine pollution in the sea.”xvii Overall, the UN has committed itself to addressing all categories of ocean pollution through a variety of organizations, programs, and strategies. However, these tools have only been successful up to a point. Alongside overarching conventions and environmental protocol, the UN has funneled its ocean pollution methods towards international cooperation. All recent developments, like the International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange and Regional Seas Visioning Workshops, have a common goal of multigovernmental collaboration. The UN and its many facets to confront marine pollution have focused themselves on establishing these partnerships in order to limit this problem in the most efficient way. without degrading environmental sustainability and health. xii The implementation of both the workshop and assessment, as established by UNEP (DEPI)/VW.1/INF.7, was enabled by the RSP’s coordination with the UNEP’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC). Like the RSP, the IOC works under the UN to promote the most sustainable and safe usage of marine resources in correspondence with environmental preservation. The IOC’s specific objectives include marine hazards, ecosystem health, and environmental management. The IOC has been very proactive in trying to aid countries in dealing with these objectives. At last year’s forty-seventh session of their Executive Council, they passed the IOC resolution EC-XLVII/2 to further their commitment to the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research, particularly the 20152020 strategy to improve the safety of the Indian Ocean Global Ocean Observing System. xiii A unique addition to the IOC is also their International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange. As of February 16, 2015 the IOC is using the Ocean Biographic Information System (OBIS) as a way of encouraging intergovernmental cooperation through joint research and science missions.xiv Furthermore, in the additional attempt to prevent ocean pollution the International Maritime Organization (IMO) has adopted the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, which is more commonly referred to as MARPOL. The MARPOL convention and protocol work to eliminate pollution deriving from ships in all forms including oil, noxious liquid substance, sewage, garbage, and Case Study: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch As a main contributor to one of Earth’s most critical ecosystems, oceans, rivers, and lakes involuntarily receive over one hundred and eighty thousand tons of waste each year. The majority of the waste 6 1905 Main Street Huntington Beach, CA 92648 I hbhsmun.webs.com I unep.novice37@gmail.com UNEP April contains deadly toxins such as arsenic, mercury, lead, cyanide, and thirty more outrageously threatening chemicals.xviii One day while traveling from Hawaii back home to California from a yacht race, Charles Moore and his shipmates began to observe incredibly tiny pieces of a substance floating around the water for miles and miles. Although it is typically believed that garbage in the ocean mainly consists of large mountains of piled debris, this is incorrect. Since plastic is one of the least biodegradable materials, the substance melts into pieces that are sometimes not even visible to the naked eye. The area where the accumulation of the debris took place is called the North Pacific Subtropical Convergence Zone located in north Hawaii where trash is linked together in warm water from the South Pacific and cool water from the Arctic. In addition to this, the North Pacific Subtropical Convergence Zone makes it extremely difficult to trace all of the trash since four currents connect and rotate in a clockwise direction and could travel from the California Current to the Eastern of Western Garbage Patches. Specifically, the majority of the debris is located from the West Coast of North America to Japan. This has become recently known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, also referred to as Pacific trash vortex. Not only does the Great Patch consist of small pieces of plastic, but also billons of small trash islands that are underwater, making it difficult for scientists to investigate and study.xix In the ocean, the sun is able to melt plastic into tinier pieces which is a process referred to as photo degradation, which 25th, 2015 severely harms algae and plankton that the marine ecosystem heavily depends on. Algae and plankton are autotrophs, which are organisms that produce their own food supply by utilizing oxygen, carbon, and sunlight. Animals that commonly feed upon these two producers will suffer the most due to the lack of availability. If this were to ever occur, the entire food chain would be distorted, which would lead to the extinction of many marine creatures due to their extraction from the ecosystem. Due to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch being inbetween nations and its locations in international waters, nations refuse to take responsibility due to the high cost presented that portends a possibility of becoming bankrupt. Although it may seem simple to filter the ocean, many methods such as ghost fishing cause severe harm to the ecosystem and marine life. Even if nets that were specifically designed to remove debris were created, the task would be far too timeconsuming and would approximately take sixty-seven ships to clean up less than one percent of the North Pacific Ocean. Due to the dangerous habitat marine life are currently living in, many organizations such as the Plastic Pollution Coalition have become dedicated to improving the situation.xx Thousands of animals are dying every single day due to the massive amount of non-biodegradable debris that mankind has created. One of the many results of our betrayal of our planet is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. 7 1905 Main Street Huntington Beach, CA 92648 I hbhsmun.webs.com I unep.novice37@gmail.com UNEP April 25th, 2015 II. Environmental Consequences of War Topic Background in Agent Orange, was detrimental to not only the food supply, but also the citizens of Vietnam. Over eighteen million gallons of this herbicide was sprayed over crop fields and forests throughout the nation. As the perpetrators of this crime, the United States refused to implement any of their aid towards investigating the affects the herbicide had on civilians. In local Vietnamese hospitals such as the Tu Du Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City during 1980, doctors regularly saw children being born with congenital defects nearly every single day. Not only did the children experience detrimental effects of Agent Orange, but the mothers as well. Compared to northern Vietnam, fifty percent of mothers that lived in southern Vietnam had a tremendous amount of dioxin levels in their breast milk, resulting in the deprivation of breast milk for all children.xxiv Other substances such as toxic dust are formed because of deforestation, climate change, and drought. Many Iraqi soldiers have inhaled this deadly toxin, leading to respiratory defects that make everyday duties such as exercising difficult. xxv Moreover, the lives of animals throughout differentiating ecosystems face the possibility of extinction due to war. Excessive use of military machinery has created uneven terrains and even habitat destruction, which poses a serious disruption in ecosystems worldwide. Throughout the Rwandan civil war, nearly three-quarter of a million people lived in Virunga national park, home to critically endangered gorillas, chimpanzees, and elephants. Many of the citizens began to The impact of war is believed to only affect political, economic, and social situations, but many of the times environmental factors are completely ignored. Nations who are attacked with such catastrophic methods do not only suffer economically, but also environmentally. Our Earth has endured an excessive amount of destruction that results in deforestation, endangered species, soil dysfunction, and even human defects. Many geological experts have classified this act of destruction towards nature as ecocide, which is exactly defined as the killing of our environment.xxi As an example, during the Iraqi war the United States utilized military missiles that contained depleted uranium, benzene, and perchlorate. The result of releasing this weapon into Iraqi soil was the complete and utter contamination that resulted in the population consuming extremely harmful toxins in their groundwater and crops.xxii In addition to weapons and bombs polluting soil and water, bomb blasts and bullet damage to pipes can cause bacteria in water. Moreover, inadequate irrigation can also be a result of the damage of pipes and contaminated water, along with landmines being placed in crop fields. xxiii Human defects along with life threatening diseases are contracted from bombings and gases applied in warfare. One of the most horrific atrocities that has occurred throughout history is the utilization of Agent Orange in Vietnam. Dioxin-laden, one of the primary chemicals 8 1905 Main Street Huntington Beach, CA 92648 I hbhsmun.webs.com I unep.novice37@gmail.com UNEP April construct shelters with feed cooking fires, which nearly damaged 105 square kilometers of the forest near the end of the dilemma. Whenever rebels entered the national park, they were supplied with resources that they utilized, such as: bush meat, ivory, timber, charcoal, and minerals.xxvi Although there have been several attempts of enforcing international laws that restrict any negative effects on the environment, many are outdated, making them irrelevant today. The dilemma with many environmental laws is that they are only affective during peacetime and are restricted by the Law of War that implements human necessities before anything else. xxvii Moreover issues such as how to effectively endorse strict international laws are continuously debated. Overall, the result of war towards political, economic, and social aspects needs to be taken into account, including the environment. Attention all throughout the globe must be directed towards this ongoing dilemma in order to restore and aid all destruction and permanent marks mankind has left on our planet. 25th, 2015 currently working with the partners of the DFS, DPKO (Department of Peacekeeping Operations and Field Support) and UNDP (United Nations Development Program) in order to assess and accurately aid countries that are rebuilding from war, and how to do so in an ecofriendly manner. In addition, the UNEP has collaborated with the Governing Council Decision from 2005 (23/1/IV), which voiced the concerns that they wish to achieve. Focusing on assessments, cleanups and awareness, the UNEP has been working to help the environment recover from the wars in the past. xxviii The 1949 Geneva Convention was modified in 1977 to have an Additional Protocol 1, which determines if a country is wrongly damaging the environment in article 35 and 55 if it is considered, “widespread, long-term, and severe” enough.xxix Although this specific protocol is vague, since it was one of the first laws placed for protecting the environment in war, it has been highly utilized and successful. In the World Charter for Nature, resolution A/RES/37/7 passed by the UNGA in 1982, it directly states that in the event of a war, the surrounding nature cannot be degraded or unlawfully controlled.xxx Due to the overwhelming adoption of member states, this charter is considered to be international. In 1998 The Rome Statute was passed in order to allow for the International Criminal Court (ICC) to have the necessary framework and background that allows them to prosecute different people when crimes are committed that negatively affect the environment. This statute works hand in hand with the NIAC (Non-International Armed Conflict) and IAC (International Armed Conflict) to provide United Nations Involvement The United Nations is actively involved in the reduction of the damage done by war that has previously and is presently occurring. The UNEP (United Nations Economic Program) has become one of the largest platforms that aid in the reduction of the amount of destructive wars. The UNEP has contributed by providing many of the assessments that determine whether or not the actions in war are harming the environment. This program is 9 1905 Main Street Huntington Beach, CA 92648 I hbhsmun.webs.com I unep.novice37@gmail.com UNEP April 25th, 2015 devastated by wartime conflict. xxxv The IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) passed a treaty in 1985 that prohibited the dumping of nuclear waste into bodies of water. more evidence as to when environmental damage becomes a crime. xxxi The ICRC (International Committee for the Red Cross) created the “Guidelines on the Protection of the Environment during Armed Conflict” in 1994. This made a set of standards that spread awareness throughout the international community on how to not damage the environment in the middle of conflict, in hopes of reducing the amount of criminal offenses. Additionally, the International Red Cross has visited many countries facing starvation from war. The ICRC began teaching places such as Somalia how to use fish as a vital resource. xxxii But after many years of this practice, overfishing became the outcome and was ignored by the international community, harming the environment even more. A/CONF.151/26 was held in the General Assembly during 1992 in Rio de Janeiro. The most important aspect that was created out of this conference was principle 13. This key principle states that any country or state needs to create a law detailing that if the environment is damaged, the person or country is liable for the damage and needs to compensate for the harm done.xxxiii When in war, money is needed to keep up the available fighting power, and for many years the ivory trade was the answer to the problem. Due to the degradation of the ecosystem around the elephant, CITES made an international ban of the trading of ivory in 1989. xxxiv The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has created a list of the worlds most endangered environmental places that has helped to bring awareness to the spots most Case Study: The Gulf War Besides the already devastating losses that resulted from the Gulf War from 1990-1991, one of the worst felt casualties of this war was the environment. In January of 1991, accounts of one of the most controversial oil spills began to gain the media’s attention as reports revealed that Iraqi forces had intentionally leaked Sea Island oil valves into the Persian Gulf. The oil spill was seen as a war strategy against the United States, after which the US government proceeded to accuse Iraq of “environmental terrorism.” In addition to the usual environmental impacts of war, including land deterioration caused by heavy artillery and troop transport, solid waste accumulation threatening soil and groundwater sanitation, and complete demolition of native plant life, the Gulf War devastated that coastal region.xxxvi Furthermore, the burning of Kuwait’s oil fields would also contribute to an environmentally damaging outcome. Carl Sagan, a renowned environmental scientist, announced his prediction at the time of the initial oil fires; he anticipated that “the net effects would be similar to the explosion of the Indonesian volcano Tambora in 1815, which resulted in the year 1816 being known as the year without summer.”xxxvii At that time, other researchers agreed that the hundreds of burnt oil fields would cause a mass amount of smoke trapped in the upper atmosphere and possibly cause a nuclear 10 1905 Main Street Huntington Beach, CA 92648 I hbhsmun.webs.com I unep.novice37@gmail.com UNEP April winter. xxxviii Though reports that were completed after the end of the Gulf War concluded that damage was not considerable enough to result in such an extreme situation, the substantial oil fallout only deteriorated the coastal environment further. In fact, the contaminated fallout nearly doubled the amount of oil in the gulf.xxxix Regarding the attempts to contain the vast oil spill, response efforts were not able to be immediately effective because this region was already considered inaccessible due to its proximity to the ongoing war zone. Alongside the six million barrels of oil burned each day; an additional eight million barrels smothered the Persian Gulf. xl In addition, response teams were greatly hindered by a lack of organization and accessible resources and finances. Due to these challenges, oil continued to be discharged into the Persian Gulf for another four months. Predominant north wind cycles pushed the spillage along the coastline, only aggravating the situation further. Southward movement of the oil led to an amassment at the Saudi Arabian coast, causing irreparable damage to delicate intertidal zones, and countless ecosystems like the liquid jungles and mangrove forests. Because most of the wildlife and vegetation had been killed off, shoreline destruction was so severe it caused several millions of 25th, 2015 dollars’ worth of damage to the Saudi Arabian fishing industry.xli The coastal environment of the Persian Gulf was invaluable to the socio-economic development of the countries in this region. Not only were most of the fisheries located in the gulf, but the desalination plants that accounted for the majority of the freshwater supply were situated here as well. Not to mention the loss of many species of fish, birds, and other organisms that were endemic to this ecosystem, which would now be irrevocably changed. These priceless resources will continue to be endangered today because of the Gulf War. According to the Coastal Research Institute of Alexandria, the numerous oil and weaponry ships that were sunk in battle pose an everlasting threat to the gulf, alongside the 50,000 m3/day of raw sewage dumped into the Kuwait Bay.xlii In 1991, the UN issued Security Council Resolution 687 after the end of the Gulf War. This resolution held Iraq responsible for the total environmental destruction resulting from their unlawful invasion of Kuwait. xliii Four years later, Kuwait would continue to seek compensation and file for financial reparation for environmental damage amounting to millions of dollars.xliv No matter the amount of compensation, the majority of the damage resulting from the Gulf War has been predicted to take years to even begin initial recovery. 11 1905 Main Street Huntington Beach, CA 92648 I hbhsmun.webs.com I unep.novice37@gmail.com UNEP April 25th, 2015 Questions to Consider Effects of Pollution on Marine Life: 1. How do the pollutants, toxins and waste that go into the marine ecosystem affect the environment as a whole and degrade the surrounding materials? 2. To what extent can ocean pollution be avoided and what are possible repercussions (i.e. where would trash currently being disposed in the ocean then be placed?) 3. Has your country been tied to a major oil spill in the past? What solutions were used to respond to this event and are there preventative measures that can be put in placed for the future? 4. In what ways does ocean pollution impact biodiversity? Why is that important and what solutions have your country implemented to combat this issue? 5. Has your country developed or is involved with any agencies/organizations for environmental protection? 6. Has your country signed any international conventions involving ocean pollution (i.e. AFS or CLC)? 7. What is considered to be the most harmful material to the marine environment overall? Why? Environmental Consequences of War: 1. Has your country been involved in a military conflict in which the environment was negatively impacted? If so what counter-measures were taken to address the damage? 2. How has your country been affected by the result of war? Has this caused any dilemma health wise or economically? 3. What are the exact effects that your country’s environment faces due to war (i.e. herbicides, bombings, damage to pipes, gas)? 4. Has your nation taken any part of damaging any other nation while in war? What were the effects they experienced afterwards? 5. Due to many countries not being economically sustainable after war, has your country been in this type of dilemma where repairing the environmental defects was difficult? Has it been solved or does it still remain destroyed? 6. What are some endangered species and limited resources that are currently in your nation’s environment? What are the different types of environments in your nation? 12 1905 Main Street Huntington Beach, CA 92648 I hbhsmun.webs.com I unep.novice37@gmail.com UNEP April i 25th, 2015 http://ocean.nationalgeographic.com/ocean/critical-issues-marine-pollution/ http://www.epa.gov/wastes/hazard/tsd/pcbs/about.htm iii http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/pcbs.html iv http://www.bluevoice.org/news_issueseffects.php v http://greenliving.lovetoknow.com/Effects_of_Ocean_Pollution_on_Marine_Life vi http://www.planetagenda.com/chemicals.htm vii http://greenliving.lovetoknow.com/Effects_of_Ocean_Pollution_on_Marine_Life viii http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/01/big-idea/noisy-ocean ix http://www.unep.org/regionalseas/about/default.asp x http://www.unep.org/regionalseas/publications/brochures/pdfs/regionalseas_brochure.pdf xi http://www.unep.org/regionalseas/globalmeetings/default_ns.asp xii http://www.unep.org/regionalseas/globalmeetings/Visioning_Workshop/Regional%20Seas%20 Visioning%20Ocean%20Goals-uploaded.pdf xiii http://www.iocunesco.org/index.php?option=com_oe&task=viewDocumentRecord&docID=13224 xiv http://www.iode.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=444:obis-satt-1report&catid=23&Itemid=115 xv http://www.imo.org/About/Conventions/ListOfConventions/Pages/International-Conventionfor-the-Prevention-of-Pollution-from-Ships-(MARPOL).aspx xvi http://www.imo.org/OurWork/Environment/PollutionResponse/Pages/Preparing-for-MarinePollution-Incidents.aspx xvii http://merrac.nowpap.org/activities/connector/3/oilSpillAccidents xviii http://www.earthisland.org/journal/index.php/elist/eListRead/over_180m_tons_of_toxic_waste _dumped_into_worlds_oceans_rivers_and_lakes_ea/ xix http://www.sustainablecommunication.org/eco360/what-is-eco360s-causes/plastic-garbage xx http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/encyclopedia/great-pacific-garbagepatch/?ar_a=1 xxi http://eradicatingecocide.com/the-law/what-is-ecocide/ xxii http://costsofwar.org/article/environmental-costs xxiii http://www.sierraclub.ca/national/postings/war-and-environment.html xxiv http://www.mindfully.org/Pesticide/Agent-Orange-Dioxin-Damage.htm xxv http://costsofwar.org/article/environmental-costs xxvi http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/nov/06/whats-the-environmental-impact-ofmodern-war xxvii http://www.edmonds-institute.org/pimiento.html xxviii http://www.un.org/zh/events/environmentconflictday/pdfs/int_law.pdf xxix https://www.icrc.org/customary-ihl/eng/docs/v2_rul_rule45 xxx http://www.un.org/documents/ga/res/37/a37r007.htm xxxi http://www.un.org/zh/events/environmentconflictday/pdfs/int_law.pdf xxxii https://www.icrc.org/eng/resources/documents/misc/57jn38.htm xxxiii http://www.un.org/documents/ga/conf151/aconf15126-1annex1.htm xxxiv http://bjc.oxfordjournals.org/content/49/4/451.abstract xxxv http://whc.unesco.org/en/158/ xxxvi http://www1.american.edu/ted/ice/kuwait.htm xxxvii http://www.csicop.org/si/show/carl_sagans_life_and_legacy_as_scientist_teacher_and_skepti c ii 13 1905 Main Street Huntington Beach, CA 92648 I hbhsmun.webs.com I unep.novice37@gmail.com UNEP April xxxviii 25th, 2015 http://geo.arc.nasa.gov/sge/jskiles/fliers/all_flier_prose/kuwaitioilfires_pilewskie/kuwaitfires _pilewskie.html xxxix http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2014/10/27/oil-fallout-from-bp-deepwater-horizonspill-coats-miles-of-gulf-floor-study-says xl http://www.counterspill.org/disaster/gulf-war-oil-disaster#timeline xli http://www.oneonta.edu/faculty/baumanpr/geosat2/Environmental_Warfare/ENVIRONMENT AL_WARFARE.htm xlii http://cmsdata.iucn.org/downloads/gulfwar.pdf xliii http://daccess-ddsny.un.org/doc/RESOLUTION/GEN/NR0/596/23/IMG/NR059623.pdf?OpenElement xliv http://digitalcommons.lmu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1375&context=ilr 14 1905 Main Street Huntington Beach, CA 92648 I hbhsmun.webs.com I unep.novice37@gmail.com