“This administration’s greed and contempt for imperiled wildlife know no bounds.”
— Noah Greenwald, Center for Biological Diversity
||| FROM INSIDE CLIMATE NEWS |||
The Trump administration proposed a new rule Wednesday that would rescind widespread habitat protections for species protected under the Endangered Species Act, a landmark law enacted in 1973 to conserve the country’s imperiled animals and plants.
That would open the door for developments across the country to be approved even if they significantly disrupt critical habitat for species listed under the Endangered Species Act. The proposed rule, posted in the U.S. Federal Register by the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service, would “rescind the regulatory definition of ‘harm,’” which is defined as any significant habitat modification or degradation that actually kills or injures wildlife.
Environmental groups lambasted the proposal.
“There’s just no way to protect animals and plants from extinction without protecting the places they live, yet the Trump administration is opening the floodgates to immeasurable habitat destruction,” said Noah Greenwald, co-director of endangered species at the Center for Biological Diversity. “This administration’s greed and contempt for imperiled wildlife know no bounds, but most Americans know that we destroy the natural world at our own peril. Nobody voted to drive spotted owls, Florida panthers or grizzly bears to extinction.”
If approved, he said, the rule would mean endangered species would only be protected from actions that intentionally lead to the harm of a species. “It’s just foundational to how we’ve protected endangered species for the last 40-plus years, and they’re just completely upending that,” Greenwald said.
Just the day before Wednesday’s proposed rule, the Trump administration put out a rescission notice to roll back a rule that put conservation on equal footing with extractive uses on the nation’s public lands. The two decisions, along with scores of others in recent months since President Trump took office, threaten species and the habitats they depend on across the country, experts and environmentalists say.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service did not respond to a request for comment.
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This action undermines fifty years of law protecting our environment and wildlife. The concept of “Take,” meaning any harm to a listed species, is foundational to the Endangered Species Act. Destruction of habitat is the greatest threat to wildlife species worldwide.
In terms of slowing the 6th Great Extinction here in America the ESA forces negotiation, replacement measures and alteration of development schemes. But in the foolish overall anti-environmental pro-industrial development of this administration it is just one cut in many hundreds of ecological wounds. Not only will long term cleanups of industrial sites be defunded and or truncated but new large extraction and processing of public resources will be fast-tracked and some public lands sold or traded out. Critical habitat for threatened and endangered will likely be degraded across the boards. But just as with the federal water permits and process for the ill-fated Pebble Mine in Alaska Trumps “outdoorsy” sons may tip a few decisions toward the rational..
But the elephant in the room, climate change and cascading impacts, is being kicked to the curb by this deranged administration thus promising a grim near-future and dystopian chaos for the entire planet due to a reborn and revitalized fossil fuel extravaganza in America. This is the ultimate expression of insanity. I now feel sure that any hope of serious decarbonation and meaningful emergency braking is impossible. Many in this generation of world leaders, power brokers, big election donors and industrialists will be reviled as the “Unforgiven” in the annals of the interminable future of humankind.
We aging conservationists grieve while cherishing our own lifetimes full of hopeful social change and countless opportunities for immersion in nature. Many of us are among the most fortunate of the estimated 117 billion humans who have breathed in this atmosphere in the face of uncertainties. Enjoy the wonders of Spring!
We will destroy everything in our mad scramble to extract the last of the last before we are done: https://www.doi.gov/pressreleases/department-interior-implements-emergency-permitting-procedures-strengthen-domestic
The path to “energy dominance” and “critical minerals” was laid long before Trump 2.0; we are seeing the culmination of a multi-adminstration effort to make it easier to extract, extract, and extract some more. Perhaps not the culmination; the laws could be eradicated entirely instead of reduced to essentially nothing, I suppose.