Radioactive Waste Disposal at Sea: Public Ideas ... - IMO

76 Chapter 5
“but an international one. Unless the nations concerned combine to put an
end to ocean abuse, the abuse will write finis to us all.” 11 A Senate hearing
highlighting the international character of ocean dumping was held in the
fall of 1971. The goal of this hearing—officially named International
Conference on Ocean Pollution—was to focus national and international
public and political attention on ocean dumping and to demonstrate the
need for international cooperation. The idea to convene this international
conference was put forward in December of 1970 by a congressman who
questioned the usefulness of the course of action suggested by the Council
on Environmental Quality. He and other congressmen doubted the value of
the Stockholm conference and routine diplomatic channels with respect to
reaching an international agreement on ocean dumping. Accordingly, in a
letter to President Nixon, one of the co-sponsors to this conference wrote:
“I believe [the ocean dumping problem] is of such momentous importance
as to warrant an international conference at which it could receive maximum
attention. It seems to me that the exclusive attention which such an
international conference could afford would be more productive of positive
results than would be the case if we relied on a general conference such
as the United Nation’s Conference on the Human Environment scheduled
for 1972.” 12 Agreement reached at an international conference would, at
the same time, be an important part of the United States’ preparations for
the Stockholm conference. As one senator put it, “the United States must
be prepared to offer for consideration an international policy governing
ocean disposal of materials.” (Sen. Jennings Randolph, Congressional
Record: Senate, April 1, 1971, p. 9184)
Representatives of the international diplomatic community attended the
International Conference on Ocean Pollution. 13 Scientific aspects of ocean
pollution were covered by Thor Heyerdahl, Jacques Cousteau, and Barry
Commoner, all vocal international environmentalists and respected scientists.
None of the marine scientists from earlier hearings participated. 14 Congress
had been informed that in 1960 Cousteau had led a successful campaign to
prevent the French Atomic Energy Commission from dumping radioactive
waste into the Mediterranean. 15 While crossing the Atlantic in a reed boat in
1970, the Norwegian explorer Heyerdahl had collected samples of oil pollution,
which later were displayed at United Nations headquarters in New
York. Reports on oil pollution by Heyerdahl were also included in documents
of GESAMP (the IMO/FAO/UNESCO/WMO/WHO/IAEA/UN/UNEP Joint