Tournament: Woodward | Round: 1 | Opponent: NA | Judge: NA

Environmental protection is defined as:

Black’s Law no date ~"What is ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION?" The Law Dictionary Featuring Black’s Law Dictionary Free Online Legal Dictionary 2nd Ed.~ AT
What is ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION? Environmental guardianship based on policies and procedures. Objectives are (1) the conserving of natural resources, (2) the preserving of the existing natural environment and, (3) where possible, repairing damage and reversing trends.

The aff must defend a set of policies and neg has to defend a competing set of policies – this is key to aff strategy since otherwise the neg sidesteps the comparison the aff is bound to, which nullifies 6 minutes of the 1AC and exacerbates the time skew. That also means you use comparative worlds since truth testing isn’t textual. 

Political philosophy must be practical and have consent among the ruled.

Rhonheimer 05 ~MARTIN RHONHEIMER 5 ~Prof Of Philosophy at The Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome. "THE POLITICAL ETHOS OF CONSTITUTIONAL DEMOCRACY AND THE PLACE OF NATURAL LAW IN PUBLIC REASON: RAWLS’S "POLITICAL LIBERALISM" REVISITED" The American Journal of Jurisprudence vol. 50 (2005), pp. 1-70~
It is a fundamental feature of political philosophy to be part of practical philosophy.
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ruled, but who potentially at the same time are also the rulers.

And, the only way policymakers can justify their decisions to the citizenry is to follow a utilitarian calculus.

Woller 97 ~Woller, Gary BYU Prof., "An Overview by Gary Woller", A Forum on the Role of Environmental Ethics, June 1997, pg. 10~
Moreover, virtually all public policies entail some redistribution of economic or political resources,
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perhaps at times a necessary, basis for public policy in a democracy.

AND, Consequences are the only morally relevant determination since they’re the only form of value we can experience.

Harris 10 ~Sam, 2010. CEO Project Reason; PHD UCLA Neuroscience; BA Stanford Philosophy.  The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values."~
Here is my (consequentialist) starting point: all questions of value (right
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, therefore, consequences and conscious states remain the foundation of all values.
There are two implications

1. All knowledge comes from experience so evaluating of consequences is necessary to acquire knowledge. Knowledge is a pre-requisite to taking an action so understand where knowledge stems from comes prior to answering the resolution
   2. We must look to Util because it is the only theory that determines action based on the consequences.

The standard is maximizing expected well-being. Prefer for one additional reason.

This also solves the problem of calculation because governments have different predictive tools, and my framework obligates them to use them.

This also solves the problem of subjectivity because their origin obligates governments to first and foremost protect citizens’ basic needs, which are universal.  Prefer for one additional reason,

People accept utilitarianism as an appropriate way to judge the actions of decision-makers. This commits governments to take actions with beneficial outcomes.

Gino et al 2008 ~Francesca Gino Kenan-Flagler Business School, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Don Moore Tepper Business School, Carnegie Mellon University, Max H. Bozman Harvard Business School, Harvard University "No harm, no foul: The outcome bias in ethical judgments" http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/08-080.pdf~~ AT
The present studies provide strong evidence of the existence of outcome effects in ethically-
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to allow a decision’s outcome to determine their assessment of the decision’s quality.

SP A. Plan Text: Developing countries should ban primary mercury mining by 2020 and enact national action plans to phase-out the use of mercury in artisanal and small scale gold mining, as required by the Minamata Convention on Mercury.

Selin explains in October 2013 ~Henrik Selin, Pardee Faculty Fellow and Associate Professor of International Relations at Boston University. "The Minamata Convention and the Future of Mercury Abatement" THe Frederick S. Pardee cenTer For THe STudy oF THe Longer-range FuTure. Issues in Brief, 28. October 2013.~

Mercury is a pollutant of global, regional, and local concern. Humans have
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benefitted from using them to help target decision-making and expand controls.

SP B. Solvency: The convention bans primary mercury mining, meaning that after 2020 no new mercury can enter the environment.

Sharma on January 22nd ~Yojana Sharma, Asia Director at University World NewsWriter and Editor at SciDev."treaty to ban mercury emissions" 1/22/2013. http://www.scidev.net/global/news/nations-agree-first-global-treaty-to-ban-mercury-emissions-.html~~**
A legally binding global treaty to curb mercury in the environment, agreed after a
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eliminate mercury, under a proposed mercury ’trust fund’, it was agreed.

And, models show that the aff will significantly reduce mercury emissions.

Lubick on September 27th ~Naomi Lubick, Columbia University, New York; Earth and Environmental Science Journalism and Associate editor, Environmental Science 26 Technology;  David Malakoff, Deputy News Editor for Science Magazine. "With Pact’s Completion, the Real Work Begins" Science 27 September 2013:  Vol. 341 no. 6153 pp. 1443-1445~
An elegant crematorium sits in a wooded cemetery here on the edge of the city
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help reduce global mercury emissions by 15 to 35 in coming decades

SP C. Advantages

Contention 1 is Biodiversity

Mercury pollution is on the rise. Mercury levels in the Oceans have doubled in the last century as the result of human activities. Most of the pollution comes from transitioning countries.

Associated Press on January 10th ~JOHN HEILPRIN  "Global Mercury Pollution In Oceans Top Layer Doubled In Last Century, Says U.N. Environment Agency" Associated Press. 1/10/2013. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/10/global-mercury-pollution-emissions-oceans_n_2445717.html~~**
Mercury pollution in the top layer of the world’s oceans has doubled in the past
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human health and the environment" but new technologies can reduce the risks.

Once released into the environment mercury accumulates in ecosystems and causes species extinctions.

Leggett 2011 ~Martin Leggett, University of Manchester, Freelance Writer and Editor at Scribblin Green, Geodata Administrator at Petrologic. "Mercury burden hangs heavy round the neck of the albatross." Earth Times. 4/18/2011. http://www.earthtimes.org/pollution/mercury-burden-hangs-heavy-neck-albatross/735/~~23sthash.fzuwMpgc.dpuf~~**
One of the icons of the endless oceanic horizons of the Pacific - the soaring
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example, from excessive fish consumption, the problem can be considerable.’’
Weighhing

This is not your typical extinction scenario – mercury levels similar to the status quo’s have caused the largest mass extinction in the earth’s history

Bishop 2012 ~Adrian Bishop Editor at OPP Connec, and Eco House.  "Mercury caused mass extinctions, say scientists" Earth Times. January 6 2012. http://www.earthtimes.org/pollution/mercury-caused-mass-extinctions-scientists/1744/~~**
Mass extinctions during catastrophic climate change were caused by huge mercury levels, Canadian scientists
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Weighing

And, a loss of biodiversity causes human extinction.

Diner 94 ~Major David Diner, JAG Corps, United States Army, Winter 1994, Military Law Review, 143 Mil. L. Rev. 161, p. 170-173~
Why Do We Care? — No species has ever dominated its fellow species as
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aircraft’s wings, mankind ~humankind~ may be edging closer to the abyss

And, any risk of consequentialism being true means extinction is bad for the purposes of decision-making. Bostrom 01

Nick Bostrom, 2001 Professor of Philosophy, Oxford University ~Journal of Evolution and Technology, Vol. 9, March 2002. First version: 2001 March, JStor PH
There will be some types of putative existential risks for which the main uncertainty is
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X is bad in at least the subjective sense relevant to decision making.
We say do X because of Y. Normativity relies on explaining how action affects circumstance- extinction precludes evaluations so it comes first.

Contention 2 is Poverty

Mercury pollution leads to a reduction in average IQ, and other health effects that devastate economies.

GAHP 13 ~"The Poisoned Poor: Toxic Chemicals Exposures in Low- and Middle-Income Countries." Global Alliance on Health and Pollution. September 2013.~
Economic costs can also be measured in productivity lost due to decreased IQ, among
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The most obvious ways are by expanding access to natural resources and land.¶ 

And, because developing countries are responsible for far more mercury pollution than the U.S. the damage is likely much higher in those counties. The global impact of IQ loss is crippling.

Sundseth 2009 ~Kyrre Sundseth, Jozef M. Pacyna, Elisabeth G. Pacyna, John Munthe, Mohammed Belhaj. QUALS: Faculty NILU – Norwegian Institute for Air Research, Center for Ecology and Economics, PO Box 100, NO-2027 Kjeller, Norway b Faculty of Chemistry, Gdansk University of Technology, Gdansk, Poland C IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute, PO Box 5302, 400 14 Gothenburg, Sweden. Economic benefits from decreased mercury emissions: Projections for 2020. Journal of Cleaner Production. 2009~
For the evaluation of environmental damage, very little information is available on the impacts
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and MFTR scenarios are US2424 and 2429 billion, respectively.

Weighing

Mercury pollution creates an endless cycle of poverty.

Blacksmith Institute 2010 ~"Pollution, Poverty and the I.Q. Connection" Blacksmith Institute, Pollution blog. February 3, 2010. http://www.blacksmithinstitute.org/blog/?p=164~~**
Does pollution plague a country because it is poor? Or does pollution make a
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pollution does more than just cripple and kill.  It traps and engulfs.
Weighing

Poverty kills millions and outweighs nuclear war

Abu-Jamal 98 ~Mumia Abu-Jamal, prominent social activist and author, quotes James Gilligan, American psychiatrist and author, director of mental health for the Massachusetts prison system, President of the International Association for Forensic Psychotherapy. ("A Quiet and Deadly Violence," Al-Ahram Online Sept 19 1998, http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/1998/400/in5.htm Accessed 7/10/13 AT)~
We live, equally immersed, and to a deeper degree, in a nation
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the weak and poor every year of every decade, throughout the world.
Weighing