Jon:
The Trump administration just finalized regulations that would eviscerate the Endangered Species Act. For years, lobbyist David Bernhardt fought the Endangered Species Act in the name of the fossil fuel industry -- and now that he’s secretary of the Interior, he’s making his dream (and our nightmare) come true.
The Houston Chronicle’s headline tells you what this is really about: “Interior rolls back protections for endangered species, in boon for oil companies.”
As climate hawks, this one is personal for us. Every media outlet in the country is illustrating its story with a picture of a bald eagle -- because the bald eagle is an Endangered Species Act success story. But too many other raptors, from the California condor to the swallow-tailed kite of South Carolina, are threatened. Too many other animals and plants are vanishing. The reason David Bernhardt wants to trample all over their habitat is simple: oil and gas.
The greed of the fossil fuel industry isn’t just endangering condors and polar bears -- it’s threatening humanity.
The action could allow the government to disregard the possible impact of climate change. You know that the polar bear is the poster child for climate change -- and Trump’s action puts at risk too many other animals and plants, from the Joshua tree of the California desert to the iconic Florida panther. And, in a first, economic factors will be allowed to be taken into account when deciding whether new animals should be added to the list of protected species (in plain English, bureaucrats get to decide whether it’s too expensive to save a species). The rule changes are cloaked in dry legal language about the “foreseeable future,” but they’re the stuff of nightmares.
The Endangered Species Act has shut down big polluters in the past. There’s a reason David Bernhardt fought the ESA when he was a lobbyist -- it ate into the bottom line of his fossil fuel employers. Now he’s nominally employed by the people of the United States, but he’s still working for the fossil fuel industry.
You and I both know our people power is stronger than theirs. Let’s fight together, for the animals and for each other.
RESTORE THE ESA
Your fellow climate hawk,
RL Miller
P.S. This is serious stuff, but just for fun, here’s a reminder of what happened the last time Trump met an endangered species:
References:
“U.S. Significantly Weakens Endangered Species Act,” The New York Timeshttps://www.nytimes.com/2019/
“Republicans aren’t just climate deniers. They deny the extinction crisis, too,”The Guardianhttps://www.theguardian.com/
“Interior rolls back protections for endangered species, in boon for oil companies,” Houston Chroniclehttps://www.chron.com/
Đăng nhận xét