Transcript MDAW14--Affirmative Overviewx

Oceans Affirmatives
Exploration Cases
We Know Very Little About the
Ocean
 Most of the ocean is unexplored—frequent claim is that we
know more about the surface of Mars than we do about most
of the abyssal plain
 Knowledge gaps exacerbate the disruptive effects of human
activity
 We also have little knowledge about (have under-theorized)
how we are connected to the oceans
Monitoring Cases
 Acidification
 Bioindicators
 Climate
 Tsunami
 Weather / Storms
Other Exploration Affs
 Arctic Mapping
 Coastal Mappling
 Expeditions—Deep Sea, for example
 Explorations of Key Issues and Theories as they relate to the
Oceans (Migrations, Radical Ecologies)
 Exploration of How We Are Connected to the Oceans
 Find Flight 370 (Georgetown)
 Wide array of critical affs
Environmental Protection Cases
Ocean Environments Are in
Trouble
 Populations of fish and other animals are WAY down in many
areas
 Critical marine ecosystems are under serious stress
 Coral reefs
 Estuaries
 Mangroves
Marine Protected Areas (MPAs)
 Create zones where particular (or even all) exploitive
activities are prohibited
 Claim to stabilize stressed ecosystems and provide positive
spillover effects to adjacent non-protected areas
 Very popular case on the old oceans topic
 Strong uniqueness angle because of the recent Obama
executive order creating a massive new MPA in the Pacific
 Robust literature support
Whales
 Whaling is governed by the International Whaling
Commission (IWC)
 Most countries have stopped killing whales
 Japan (1000+), Norway (1000+) and Iceland (200+) continue
to kill whales
 Most affirmative teams will try to use different inducement
mechanisms to decrease the killing of whales
 There is solvency evidence for transferrable whaling
quotas—ugh.
 Whaling!!!!
Other Environment Affs
Prohibit / Regulate Bad Practices
 Ballast Water
 Coastal Development
 Cruise Ships
 Oil Transportation
Food Affirmatives
Oceans Are a Critical Food Source
 Somewhere around 1 billion people depend on marine
animals as their primary source of protein
 Fishing is a multi-billion dollar industry in the United States
and other countries
Potential Cases
Aquaculture
 Fund it (R&D)
 Regulation--consistency
Fisheries
 Adjust existing TAC (total allowable catch)
systems
 Shift to individual quota systems (IQ, ITQ)
 Regulate destructive activities
 Bycatch
 Protections for specific species
 Trawling
 Fish-specific management plans
Energy Affirmatives
Why Energy?
 Energy production (development) is really important—
transportation, food production, manufacturing, etc.
 There are major concerns about our energy supply:
 Depletion—peak oil, etc.
 Pollution, esp. climate change
 Equity—the negative effects of energy production are not evenly
distributed
 There is a very large and well-developed literature base
 Cases can take a number of directions and claim a wide
variety of impacts
How Expand Energy Production?
 Exploration: Assess the ocean for particular energy
resources
 Fund: Provide resources for the development of energy
resources
 Research and development of new technology (R&D)
 Incentives—direct payments, tax preferences, etc.
 Direct government development—especially demonstration
projects
 Permit: Remove existing barriers that preclude nongovernmental entities from using the ocean to produce
energy
Renewable Energy Sources
 Include many different technologies—will discuss these
individually in a few minutes
 Cases will typically argue that our current reliance on fossil fuels
is bad and that we need to develop alternative energy resources
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Oil / gas scarcity—peak oil/gas
Oil / gas prices—expensive oil / gas is bad
Oil / gas dependence is bad
Climate change
Pollution—air, water, etc.
Energy equity
 There are many other potential advantages relating to economic
competitiveness, boosting particular industries, etc.
Wind Energy
 This is the packet aff—you are hopefully (somewhat) familiar
with it
 Solvency advocates typically identify at least two major to
wind energy expansion
 Cost—wind energy’s capital costs are high, and wind energy
remains more expensive that fossil fuels
 Regulations—both federal and state regulatory barriers make it
difficult to get new projects approved. Regulatory overlap
between the states and federal government make things even
more complicated
Ocean Thermal Energy
Conversion (OTEC)
 Capitalizes on the difference in temperature between surface
water (warm) and deep waters (cold)
 If you want to see diagrams, let me know and we can talk
about it another time—fairly involved tech
 Ridiculous impact claims…. Just…. Ridiculous
 A lot of the best lit is pretty old (late 70s/early 80s)
Other Renewables
 Hydrothermal Vent Energy
 Tidal Energy
 Wave Energy
Hydrocarbons
 Oil, natural gas, methane hydrates
 The oceans produce a LOT of oil and gas already—production
is centered in the Gulf of Mexico and the Alaska and California
coasts
 Most coastal areas and most of the OCS are *not* open to
oil/gas exploration and development in the status quo
 The EIA and other groups believe that there is a LOT of oil and
gas in the OCS
 Affirmative cases will likely allow for oil/gas exploration and/or
open new areas to leasing and development. There is also
solvency evidence for streamlining the permitting process
Hydrocarbons [cont’d]
 Two main avenues to access impacts
 Production—more oil is good
 Prices—OCS development makes oil / gas cheaper, and that’s good
 Advantage ground is very broad
 Economy
 Domestic—jobs, competitiveness, specific industry, trade deficit, etc.
internals
 International consumer—lower oil prices / higher production benefits the
economies of major oil importers, like China, the EU, India, etc.
 International producer—lower oil prices / higher production hurts the
economies of major oil exporters, like Russia, Venezuela, and Iran
 Leadership (oil dependence)
 Oil Wars / Geopolitics—mitigates competition over oil resources—
lots of scenarios, China is particularly good
Other Affirmatives
 Desalination
 Geoengineering (Iron Fertilization)
 Law of the Sea (LOST / UNCLOS)
 Pop Culture + Oceans + Social Problems = Aff Magick