Explanation of advantages— Science Diplomacy

1AC

1AC Polar Fleet

1AC Inherency

The federal oceanographic fleets needs ship modernization or faces inability to research

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Daniel, Reporter, London. Daniel joined Nature in 2007. He reports on chemistry, nanoscience, materials, business, “US science fleet's future is far from ship-shape” pg online at http://www.nature.com/news/us-science-fleet-s-future-is-far-from-ship-shape-1.13164//sd)

The icebreaker Nathaniel B. Palmer of the US Antarctic Program is part of a rapidly shrinking fleet. They already have to contend with cruel seas and crueller grant reviewers, but American marine scientists may face an even bigger problem: barring major investment, the federal oceanographic fleet is going to be down to half its current size by 2026. At the end of May, the White House released an assessment of the vessels run by its various agencies for research and survey work. It shows a fleet battered by multiple issues. Government pressure on budgets has led to a number of ships being sold or mothballed, staffing costs have increased and fuel costs for research ships have risen fourfold since 2003. “The community is deeply concerned that the ability to go to sea will be significantly reduced in the next decade, as research ships are retired or laid up,” says Mark Abbott, dean of the College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences at Oregon State University in Corvallis. The average age of the ships is more than 23 years, and many are scheduled to retire in the coming years. Unless new vessels are built, the total number of vessels available to scientists will plummet (see graph). Abbott, who is president of the Oceanography Society based in Rockville, Maryland, says that the community is also concerned by the rising costs of operating ocean facilities, which restrict the money available for science. Not all news about the fleet is bad. The Sikuliaq, a new vessel for use in polar regions, has been funded, and two research ships are being built by the US Navy. The Neil Armstrong and the Sally Ride will be operated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, California, respectively. But these vessels, even if they enter service as scheduled, will not be sufficient to stem the decline of the fleet. More help could come from the National Science Foundation, which is looking into commissioning another three ships, currently called the Regional Class Research Vessels. But no decision on whether these will actually be built has yet been taken. ”Fleet renewal efforts can’t stop with these acquisitions,” says Clare Reimers, a marine biochemist at Oregon State University and chair of the Fleet Improvement Committee run by the University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System, which coordinates ship schedules and research. Reimers says that the community is “is quite concerned about the lack of growth in support for the core disciplinary research and facilities” but that “some decrease in fleet capacity is viewed as necessary to make way for more capable, modern vessels”. The more aged parts of the fleet lack features crucial for much research, such as the ability to stay exactly in position at sea. So a decline in numbers may be in part offset by an increase in the capabilities of those vessels in service. The report states that modernization efforts mean that there will be nine retirements and six additional ships in the fleet up to 2022. “With the introduction of highly advanced ships and the retirement of older, less-capable vessels, the Fleet will become more efficient and capable of supporting stakeholders’ demands over the next decade,” it says. However, after 2022, “the Fleet will experience a reduction in size and capacity due to several vessels nearing their projected end of service life”. For reasons that are not entirely clear, the number of requests for ship time on the academic fleet also seems to be declining. However, demand still outstrips supply, and this disparity is likely to worsen. “I foresee a continued demand for ships, consistent with what it’s been in the past several decades,” says David Checkley, a marine scientist at Scripps. “The decline in fleets that’s projected is worrisome. We need an investment that is congruent with very large projects that governments undertake if we’re to continue to study the oceans.”

1AC Solvency

Polar icebreaking fleet for science and research is necessary for Arctic activity

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(National Research Council. Polar Icebreakers in a Changing World: An Assessment of U.S. Needs. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 2007. http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=11753&page=R1//sd)

The United States has enduring national and strategic interests in the Arctic and Antarctic, and the importance of these regions is growing with time. In the north, the United States has territory and citizens above the Arctic Circle, creating significant national interests. In the south, the United States maintains three year-round scientific stations to assert U.S. presence and ensure U.S. leadership among the nations that are signatories to the Antarctic Treaty. The United States uses this leadership to ensure that the Antarctic Treaty area, comprising all land and waters below 60 degrees South latitude, is preserved for peaceful purposes and scientific research. Antarctica is an ice-covered continent surrounded by an ocean, parts of which are seasonally ice covered. The central Arctic Ocean is perpetually ice covered, and in the winter ice extends along the northwestern Alaskan coast and south through the Bering Strait. Asserting national interests and achieving national purposes in both polar regions requires polar icebreakers, ships capable of operating in a variety of challenging ice conditions. Over the past several decades, the U.S. government has supported its polar interests with a fleet of four icebreakers. Three of these, including the world’s most powerful nonnuclear icebreakers, POLAR SEA and POLAR STAR, and the modern research icebreaker HEALY, have been operated by the U.S. Coast Guard. These three ships are designed to support U.S. Coast Guard missions and to support science: They are referred to as “multimission” ships as opposed to single-mission vessels. The National Science Foundation (NSF) leases a fourth ship that has limited icebreaking capabilities and is dedicated entirely to Antarctic research—a single mission. Today, the POLAR STAR and the POLAR SEA are at the end of their designed service lives of 30 years. As directed by Congress, the U.S. Coast Guard requested the National Research Council of the National Academies to convene the committee on the Assessment of U.S. Coast Guard Polar Icebreaker Roles and Future Needs. The committee was asked to provide a comprehensive assessment of the current and future roles of U.S. Coast Guard polar icebreakers. The committee was also asked to analyze any changes in roles and missions of polar icebreakers in the support of all national priorities, including consideration of ongoing and predicted environmental change, and to assess whether changes are needed to the existing laws governing U.S. Coast Guard polar icebreaking operations to address potential new missions and new operating regimes. Appendix A contains the committee’s Statement of Task. This report documents the findings and recommendations of the committee, which are summarized below. ICEBREAKING NEEDS IN THE ARCTIC During winter, the entire Alaskan northern coast and a substantial portion of the Alaskan western coast are ice bound. In summer the Arctic sea-ice margin retreats northward, although not uniformly or predictably, usually creating open waters along the entire coastline for several weeks to several months. Summer sea-ice extent is expected to continue to retreat over the next several decades, creating more broken ice along the Alaskan coastline. Economic activity is predicted to increase and move northward as a result of sea-ice retreat. Those deploying fishing fleets, cruise ships, mining, and the associated ore transit ships, as well as petroleum recovery and tanker ship transport, anticipate increased operations in the region. When current orders for ice-strengthened tankers have been filled, the worldwide fleet of these vessels will double in number. Ice retreat increases the cost-effectiveness of using the Northern Sea Route (primarily north of Russia) and the Northwest Passage (primarily north of Canada) for transporting petroleum, ore, and cargo. Both routes include U.S. Arctic waters. The potential for increased human activity in northern latitudes will likely increase the need for the United States to assert a more active and influential presence in the Arctic not only to protect its territorial interests, but also to project its presence as a world power concerned with the security, economic, scientific, and international political issues of the region. Possible ratification of the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea implies that the United States would require extensive mapping of the U.S. continental shelf off Alaska, should the United States wish to use Article 76 in the Convention to extend its continental shelf beyond the 200 nautical mile economic zone and/or to counter territorial claims by other Arctic nations. More variable and less predictable weather and sea-ice conditions now occur in the Arctic. Both have made it more difficult for indigenous populations to predict when to initiate and terminate the culturally important, annual whale hunt, as well as when it is safe to travel over coastal ice or hunt further from shore. Over the past decades the U.S. Coast Guard has not conducted routine patrols in ice-covered waters due to a lack of funding. The growing human presence and increased economic activity in the Arctic will be best served by reinstating patrols in U.S. coastal waters and increasing U.S. presence in international waters of the north. To assert U.S. interests in the Arctic, the nation needs to be able to access various sites throughout the region at various times of the year, reliably and at will. While the southern extent of the Arctic ice pack is thinning and becoming less extensive during the summer, there is no question that polar icebreakers will be required for many decades for egress to much of the Arctic Basin. Ice conditions in the U.S. Arctic are among the most variable and occasionally challenging through the circum-Arctic. National interests require icebreakers that can navigate the most formidable ice conditions encountered in the Arctic. Recommendation 1: The United States should continue to project an active and influential presence in the Arctic to support its interests. This requires U.S. government polar icebreaking capability to ensure year-round access throughout the region.