1. science
2. ecology
3. pollution

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 [email protected]
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: [email protected]
3
1905 Main Street Huntington Beach, CA 92648 I hbhsmun.webs.com I [email protected]
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 [email protected]
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 [email protected]
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 [email protected]
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 [email protected]
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 [email protected]
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 [email protected]
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 [email protected]
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 [email protected]
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 [email protected]
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 [email protected]
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 [email protected]