Resolved: The United States of America should create coral reefs along its coastlines(Policy debate)

in this debate we will simply examine whether the USFG should implement Artificial Coral reefs on its coast lines. We will debate on the standard and accepted rules: 1.)silence is compliance and dropping an argument or responding to it after the point when rebuttals starts means that you concede. 2.)Disadvantages must be run, and arguments made in an orderly fashion, they must be labeled as any of the following: Offcase arguments, Disadvantages, tradeoffs, counter plans, k's, theory arguments...and the like. 3.) You must label all of your claims in an obvious manner so that the opposition can easily see what arguments there are to counter, however you do not have to inform them of what they have conceded until rebuttals begin. I hope to see you on the battlefield of intellect, here are my opening arguments: Inherency: a.) Research published in the Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, point out that coral declines are reaching crisis proportions: Astro Biology Magazine 12 "Coral abundance in the Caribbean Sea has gone down about 80 percent in the past 30-40 years, and about one-third of the corals around the world are threatened with extinction," b.) Misconceptions about reef resilience are stopping large scale coral initiatives now: Goreau 5 Ph.D in Biogeochemestry and President of the Global Coral Reef Alliance threats from globally rising temperatures are found everywhere. Corals are in no way resilient to such stresses, and the confusion caused by claiming that resilience to small-scale, short-term stresses, confers resistance to continually increasing global stresses, has effectively baffled policymakers about the effects of human activities on coral reefs. the plan: -The United States federal government should substantially increase its development of artificial coral reefs on U.S. coastlines through the use of mineral accretion. -The plan will take place on all feasible costal states: (California, Louisiana, Texas, South Caronlina, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, New Jersey, and Maine) are all up for consideration -The total cost of the plan will be $8 billion funded through Congressional passage - This funding allows for 50,000 mi of reef development, the coast of the US is 60,218mi excluding Alaska thus we will provide protection to an upwards of 80% of our shoreline cities -We will exclude any regions which are inaccessible, unusable or infeasible. -The reefs will be placed in a baffled form in order to preserve normal ocean wave patterns -The Affirmative team observes the right to define all terms and clarify our case as necessary Advantage 1- Storm Surges and Hurricanes a.) Hurricanes exacerbate suffering and lead to needless deaths " decimates basic human rights: Clinical professor of law at Berkeley University 2005 natural disasters, make vulnerable populations even more vulnerable. Disasters wipe out the investment and savings of economic actors, leaving them unable to reestablish their livelihoods. a tsunami leads to destruction of identity papers and makes it impossible for survivors to receive aid, secure employment, obtain health care, and receive inheritance Women and children, are at risk of exploitation, without the safety net of family and community to protect them b.) The Average cost of a hurricane is between 1.8 and 9 billion dollars: Accuweather 11 $1.8 billion is the average amount of damage caused by an Atlantic hurricane in the United States. The median cost is the most accurate measure of a hurricane at close to $9 billion. c.)Most hurricanes strike Florida and Texas: NOAA Hurricane Research Division 2013 on average, close to seven hurricanes every four years strike the United States, Eighty-eight percent of Major hurricanes strikes have hit either Florida or Texas d.) A new study finds that coral reefs reduce the wave energy that would otherwise impact coastlines by 97 percent: United States Geological survey "Coral reefs serve as an effective first line of defense to incoming waves, storms and rising seas," said Dr. Michael Beck, lead marine scientist of The Nature Conservancy and a co-author of the study Advantage 2 Pharmaceuticals a.) Coral reefs key to new developments in medicine"chemical compounds are already showing major advances: NOAA 11 the identification of beneficial chemical compounds found in coral ecosystems is termed bioprospecting and has been common in terrestrial environments for decades. bioprospecting is relatively new in the marine environment and is nowhere close to realizing its full potential. Creatures found are important sources of new medicines being developed to induce and ease birth labor; treat cancer, arthritis, asthma, ulcers, human bacterial infections, heart disease, viruses, and other diseases b.) Doctors develop Cancer-curing drugs from Sea Sponges from Coral reefs: Caron 12: Stephanie Wear describes the reefs as the "New York City" of the oceans, "where everything is happening," because it is 400 to 600 times more likely to find a source for a drug in the ocean than on land. But climate change threatens the sea life that house these healing properties. "The coral reef population is diminished by about 80-90 percent across the Caribbean. scientists hope put out corals in order to battle some of the worst diseases known to humankind like: cancer, leukemia, AIDS Lupus, Alzheimer"s, and Parkinson"s. Arden O'Connor, a 34-year-old who lives in Boston,, beat leukemia with help from Ara-C, a chemotherapy drug derived from sea sponges that thrive in the coral reefs. Halaven, another drug also derived from sea sponge and has improved survival rates among women who have metastatic breast cancer."In order to make this natural product a drug by synthesis, we would require over 60 steps," "the typical drug which can be found in reefs is produced in 10 steps or less. c.) Coral reefs offer a unique protein to prevent the spread of HIV: Lamontagne, Member of American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 2014 Researchers have discovered a new class of proteins capable of blocking the HIV virus from penetrating T-cells, this protein appears to block HIV infection"and to do it in a completely new way. there is a pressing need for anti-HIV microbicides. the proteins block HIV transmission without encouraging the virus to become resistant to other HIV drugs.The research team tested their activity against laboratory strains of HIV. The proteins proved astonishingly potent, capable of blocking HIV at concentrations of a billionth of a gram by preventing the first step in HIV transmission, in which the virus must enter a type of immune cell known as the T-cell."We found that cnidarians bind to the virus and prevent it from fusing with the T-cell membrane. d. HIV is the world"s leading infectious killer- without a way to stop infections, millions will continue to die: World Health Organization: 35.3 million people worldwide are currently living with HIV/AIDS HIV is the world"s leading infectious killer and 36 million people have died since the first cases were reported in 1981, an estimated 3.34 million children worldwide are living with HIV and Over 700 children become newly infected with HIV each day. Solvency b. Artificial reefs become enhanced versions of any other natural reef ecosystem in the world: Provenzani, member of the Global Underwater Explorers association artificial reefs act as a natural rocky bottom, providing living space for a new reef community. What was once "artificial" now becomes a progressively intensifying natural reef ecosystem. c. Mineral accretion coral reefs are extremely tough and are impervious to factors such as sea rise, making them the only option to solve Global Coral Alliance, Warming has caused significant reef mortality. oceans will continue to warm, and therefore rise, until world leaders recognize the long-term consequences of turning a blind eye to the problem. Governments have tried to address the problem by building sea walls out of concrete, steel, coral rubble or sand bags. But these materials soon rust, corrode, collapse and need to be rebuilt. In contrast only reefs made by mineral accretion can provide permanent, cost-effective protection capable of keeping pace with rising global sea levels. Mineral accretion coral reef growth rates, are about 3 to 5 times faster than normal coral reefs.