Messed up.

Private ownership of the oceans? WWIII?

The Exxon Valdez catastrophe – a mere peccadillo?

http://www.worldpress.org/Americas/3571.cfm#down

Ignorance can be cured - stupid is forever.

How wicked of BP
To give us what we demand
Cheap(ish) oil from 'neath the sea
And from the desert sand

So whose to blame for this catastrophe?
I looked in the mirror, and it was me.

If you drive a petrol guzzling car you share the blame

If you squeal at rising petrol prices you share the blame.

If you don't make the provision of effective public transport a first order issue in choosing who to vote for you share the blame.

If you agitate for ever more toll-free roads to be built you share the blame.

If you want more airports instead of a high speed rail link between Australian cities you share the blame.

So stop being so damned self-righteous and change your habits and your voting preferences.

Look in the mirror.

So now we should privatize the seas because of an oil spill. There's an Australian farmer currently in the high court fighting for the loss of his farming property rights which was caused by Native Vegetation laws. If people are having to fight for 'just' property rights on land, I think this article is getting a little ahead of itself. Obviously there's an agenda in mind, to suggest we should privatize the seas, perhaps by those who think they should own the seas themselves. I would hazard a guess that it's the same lobby groups that helped bring about the Native Vegetation laws to steal other peoples' property rights.
Obama wants to push his cap and trade agenda because of the oil spill. How many other ludicrous agendas can you get out of an oil spill? How about cleaning up the oil as quickly and efficiently as possible? It seems that was not a high priority back in early May with the US Government refusing the offer of Dutch ships to the collect the oil. The offer has now been accepted six weeks later.
http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/6072778-us-finally-permits-dutch-skimmers-to-help-bp-oil-spill

This article is weel written but overly simplistic. Private ownership over the seas would not only allow for greater control over the use of the oceans but it would also stifle most current sea-borne trade.

Would a shipping company ship items if they knew that they had to pay a fee for crossing every private sector? Probably, like every good company they would just shove this onto the consumer. Would the consumer, bussiness's themselves pay this fee to ship thier goods? Probably, again they just shift the cost onto someone else. Would that companies consumers, us, pay the increased cost - or purhaps a better question is could we pay the increased cost? Now that is the question.

Further, if a private concern owned a section of the ocean and an oil copany had to pay for the right to drill, plus any insurances required, would the oil company not pass on that cost to its consumers? Further placing the pressure on us the end consumer. Everything that moves goods needs fuel supplied by the oil companies, our personal transport requires fuel, the cost of which would go up if this was the case.

And what would happen to insurance premiums on ships, companies, enterprises, etc if BP had had to take out an policy and make a claim? Insurers need to get the money from somewhere themselves.

I don't think the author has quite thought through all of the issues involved with private ownership of the oceans.

This essay is IMHO verging on the insane. I note with interest the author's apparently reasonably central role in the processes which led to the Global Financial Recession.