Resolved: The USFG should increase construction of mineral accretion coral reefs in the US

The flow of the debate will be as follows: Inherencies with the plan Analytics DA – Cost DA – Fails to protect states DA – Blocks ships Analytics The affirmative fails to provide an agent of action, merely claiming that they will substantially increase investment in the use of mineral accretion. In addition, they fail to say who will enforce the execution of this project and the source of this funding. Without these three critical parts, the plan cannot move forward as there is no assignment to any department in the United States Federal Government to begin work on this plan. DA – Cost The median cost for building artificial breakwaters is USD $19,791 per meter, compared to $1,290 per meter for coral reef restoration projects. U.S. Department of the Interior 5/13/2014 http://www.usgs.gov... The affirmative is using faulty calculations according to their own evidence. The con will break down the actual cost of construction according to the Affirmative’s evidence. The first step is the conversion of the miles that the plan calls for to meters. This results in a calculation of 49,515 miles being equal to 79,686,668 meters. After that the con multiplied the converted number by the cost per meter to achieve a final number of 1,577,078,846,338 or One Trillion –five hundred and seventy seven Billion – seventy eight million – eight hundred and forty six thousand – three hundred and thirty eight dollars. This is exponentially higher than the affirmatives claim of a mere 225 million dollars. http://www.usfederalbudget.us... 2014 The usfederalbudget.us site provides a relatively simple breakdown of the US budget which is 17,704.4 billion dollars or 17.704 trillion dollars. The actual cost of this plan is roughly 9 percent of the entire federal budget. The Con requires that the Affirmative fulfill their burden of proof in showing that the government can take this absolutely staggering blow. The Affirmative is charged with providing the source of this money as this cannot be ignored. Furthermore, let’s compare this cost to the Average cost per hurricane provided by the Affirmative. It would take slightly over 175 hurricanes that do 9 billion dollars in damage a piece to justify the cost of this enormous project. Atlantic Hurricane Season 2014 Kristen Rodman – May 18, 2014 With roughly 10 named tropical storms, five hurricanes and two major hurricanes predicted for the Atlantic Basin this season, AccuWeather.com's long-range forecasting team anticipates two storms, either tropical storms or hurricanes, to make landfall in the United States. http://www.accuweather.com... http://www.nhc.noaa.gov... With the 2014 year being so inactive and NOAA showing that there has been 60 hurricanes per 100 years, it will be over 200 years before this plan generates a net-profit. The Affirmative must justify this long term investment in the face of technological advances out dating their plan. DA – Fails to protect states http://www.aoml.noaa.gov... Mississippi, Alabama, Oregon, Washington, New York, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Delaware, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Hawaii. What do all of these states have in common? They’ve been hit by hurricanes and yet are not protected by the Affirmative plan. As the Affirmative failed to clarify the exclusion of these places, it must be assumed that they have been unintentionally left out and therefore will suffer the consequences of this ill written plan. DA – Blocks ships A U.S. Navy container ship remained stuck on a coral reef near Okinawa for a second day Friday. January 23, 2015 – Frances Burns http://www.upi.com... Coral reefs block ship movement. Ships trying to cross them, as proven by my evidence, get grounded and are even damaged. http://www.ers.usda.gov... Agricultural exports in 2013 amounted to 320 billion dollars and supported over one million jobs. http://www.waterencyclopedia.com... This proves that Ocean trade is important historically, presently and in to the future. This plan would destroy US trade which, in 2000, shipped 736 billion dollars in that single year. Compared to the cost of the plan and the long term investment required to get anything out if it, it’s apparent that the economically destructive artificial coral reefs blocking shipping cannot be justified. In summary, the face value cost of the plan is staggering. That’s not even including billions of dollars in lost trade as ships cannot make it to other countries, being pinned in by the new reefs. Lastly, the plan fails to protect all states that are actually hit by hurricanes, bringing in to question as to states with major population centers such as New York are not covered. This plan requires elaboration and revision in order to give it a chance of consideration.