{"id":140448,"date":"2019-08-19T12:00:31","date_gmt":"2019-08-19T11:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=140448"},"modified":"2019-08-26T11:19:53","modified_gmt":"2019-08-26T10:19:53","slug":"as-scientists-warn-of-biodiversity-crisis-trump-administration-guts-endangered-species-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2019\/08\/as-scientists-warn-of-biodiversity-crisis-trump-administration-guts-endangered-species-act\/","title":{"rendered":"As Scientists Warn of Biodiversity Crisis, Trump Administration Guts Endangered Species Act"},"content":{"rendered":"

The bedrock conservation law saves 99 percent of the plants and animals it protects\u2014and we need it now more than ever.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Green sea turtle – Koa Matsuoka\/Flickr<\/p><\/div>\n

12 Aug 2019 – <\/em>The Trump administration finalized its drastic rollback<\/a> of the Endangered Species Act<\/a> (ESA), just months after the United Nations released a dire report<\/a> warning that one million species could go extinct if business continues as usual. \u201cWe\u2019re facing an extinction crisis, and the administration is placing industry needs above the needs of our natural heritage,\u201d says Rebecca Riley<\/a>, legal director for NRDC\u2019s Nature Program.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Two American bald eagles are perched on a nesting stand at the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge.
Ricky Carioti\/The Washington Post via Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n

The changes to the law, released by the U.S. Department of the Interior and the U.S. Department of Commerce, would change the rules for protecting imperiled species and insert economic factors into decisions regarding whether a species should be listed. \u201cScience must guide our decisions, not dollar signs,\u201d says Riley. \u201cWe shouldn\u2019t use economic factors to decide whether a species should be saved.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Woodland caribou – Andre Coetzer\/Shutterstock<\/p><\/div>\n

The regulations also make it harder to protect plants and animals that are listed as threatened (the status preceding endangered). Under the existing ESA, threatened species are granted equal treatment so as to stem population loss before it becomes irreversible.<\/p>\n

The recent bombshell U.N. report<\/a>\u2014which concluded that the pace of species loss is currently hundreds of times higher than at any other point in the past 10 million years\u2014warned that critical wildlife habitat, like our forests, oceans, and wetlands, are changing in response to the climate crisis. And yet the Trump administration\u2019s latest rollback exempts climate change from key parts of the ESA. \u201cThe impacts of this action are bad enough on their own\u2014but the decision also signals continued willful ignorance from the administration about the looming impacts climate change will have on the American landscape,\u201d Riley says. \u201cMany parts of the Endangered Species Act could be helpful in taking a more forward-looking perspective on climate impacts to wildlife, but that seems like an impossibility from this president.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Trump finalizes disastrous rollbacks to the Endangered Species Act that will have profound effects on our nation\u2019s rarest animals and plants. Disgusting and disturbing. We\u2019re fighting back.<\/p>\n

Read: https:\/\/t.co\/K7a4keVWZH<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/xUQiuI7Mtd<\/a><\/p>\n

— Center for Biological Diversity (@CenterForBioDiv) August 12, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n