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Oceanus News

An Oceanic Government for a Watery Planet

By Admiral M. W. McCloskey

We live on the water planet. It is the global oceans that make our planet unique in the solar system.

Life on land has existed for less than half of the 3.5 billion years there has been life in the seas. Human history is only about 5 million years old. In the last 10,000 years, our species has grown from only a few thousand people to a billion in 1800, two billion by 1930, four billion by 1980, and over six billion today.

We appear to be a great success as a species. Our technological advances in so short a time are astounding. However, in the past century alone, we have removed billions of tons of living creatures from the sea, and replaced them with an equal amount of poisonous substances. The ultimate consequences of these actions are, for the most part, unknown.

Global warming is one known consequence of human activity. It is directly affecting our climate, and we know that worse damage is sure to ensue. Some microbiologists predict the faster and wider spread of infectious diseases. Financial disaster for the world insurance industry seems a real possibility.

A global average temperature difference of only three degrees Celsius separates today's world from the last Ice Age 10,000 years ago. Half of Europe was under ice then, and the average sea level was 390 feet lower.

While all this is understood, nation-states continue to invest billions of dollars in weapons testing and space exploration. Is it any wonder that people feel disenfranchised?

Somehow, humans have come to look at the sea as apart from the land. There is little intrinsic recognition that life on land is totally dependent on the life of the sea. Water comprises 95 percent of our biosphere. Logic would suggest that we expend our efforts mainly on studying and protecting our life source.

Nature seems to be beginning to bash humanity for our cavalier attitudes toward our biosphere. Current techniques for world management of world problems do not allow us to hear Nature's message. Solutions are lost in the subterfuge of political and economic powers.

Real power rests with the individual. The seas belong to us all.

Oceanus Government is the world's only non-exclusionary consensus movement for our global seas. The more people who participate, the stronger we become. We have the capacity to shape public policy in accordance with the will of the majority-not just with the will of those who produce oil or manufacture oil-burning machines.

Such change will take a leap in human thought processes and the overcoming of some ancient superstitions.

We seem to relate better to birds as a species than to fish. We put billions of dollars into space exploration and little into oceanography. But what we have learned about the rest of the universe should bring us directly to our most important mission.

To preserve life on Planet Earth, we must preserve our global seas.

The Government of the Country of Oceanus is the only political entity attempting to meet that challenge.

Admiral Maris McCloskey was the second elected Admiral-President of Oceanus, and now serves in Admiral Fergus O'Kelley's cabinet as communications commissioner.

Oceanus Now on the Internet

Information about the government of the country of Oceanus is now available on the Internet, a network of computers that reaches approximately 30 million people around the world.

"The politics of democracy requires communication," says Oceanus chief executive officer Admiral Fergus O'Kelley. "Joining the Internet is a logical step for this global democracy of the country of the planet's ocean seas. The global oceans are the common heritage of everyone, and we must use every tool available to reach our global constituency," O'Kelley said.

Oceanus Government is joining this technological revolution in the form of non-interactive Web pages. "We know it's critical to get information about Oceanus out there," communications commissioner Maris McCloskey said. "Regrettably, we don't have the manpower to be interactive on the Net at this time."

The Oceanus Web pages offer information about the government's programs and services, while allowing users to print out Oceanus document applications from their own computers.

Oceanus can be found on the Internet at: http://www.netins.net/showcase/birchbark/oceanus/oceanus.htm.

Record Turn-Out for '95 Oceanus Elections

Voter participation in this year's election for the Oceanus legislature was double that of the 1993 election, according to officials associated with the government of the high seas. (The figures were not available at press time.)

"We have to assume this is the result of high-caliber candidates generating greater attention," said Oceanus spokesman Maris McCloskey.

This was also the first Oceanus election in which a candidate for the chancellery was endorsed by an international organization. Professor Franz Pfeiffer of Santiago, Chile, a longtime diplomat for Oceanus, was endorsed in his bid for South American chancellor by the Cruzasa Mundial de la Amistad (World Friendship Crusade). The endorsement came from the peace organization's founder, Dr. Ramon Artemio Bracho, at its headquarters in Asuncion, Paraguay.

In addition to Pfeiffer, those elected in the July voting were Isabel B. Herrero (North American chancellor); David Potter (chancellor for Europe); and Selda d'Ombrain (worldwide chancellor). D'Ombrain, who ran unopposed, has been a leader of Oceanus for over 20 years.

Only one worldwide Senate seat was contested this year. Leah D. Johnson replaced Corinna Hadlock in a rather remarkable upset. Johnson serves until 1999. Two other worldwide Senate seats come up for election in 1997.


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