tagged w/ ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS
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The reptiles, especially softshell turtles, are prized in China as food and as a source for traditional medicines. U.S. experts fear the trade could lead to extinctions.
The turtle tank at Nam Hoa Fish Market is empty, but not to worry: The manager of this bustling Chinatown store says he has plenty in back.
As Asian economies boomed, more and more people began buying turtle, once a delicacy beyond their budgets. Driven in particular by Chinese demand, Asian consumption has all but wiped out wild turtle populations not just in China, but in Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and elsewhere in the region.
Now conservationists fear that the U.S. turtle population could be eaten into extinction.The reptiles, especially softshell turtles, are prized in China as food and as a... more
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· Report says Bush administration official bullied scientists
· Committee critical of handling of endangered species act
· Politics played a role in 20 endangered species decisions
Politics corroded Bush administration decisions on protecting endangered species in regions nationwide, federal investigators have concluded in a sweeping new report.
Former interior department official Julie MacDonald frequently bullied career scientists to reduce species protections, the interior department investigators found.
"The results of this investigation paint a picture of something akin to a secret society residing within the interior department that was colluding to undermine the protection of endangered wildlife and covering for one another's misdeeds," Congressman Nick Rahall, a Democrat from West Virginia, said late Monday afternoon.
Rahall chairs the House natural resources committee, which has been highly critical of the Bush administration's handling of the Endangered Species Act. Particularly in western states, the environmental law will be one of the biggest issues confronting President-elect Barack Obama's interior secretary.
The Bush administration took office promising to relieve farmers, loggers and developers of some of the regulatory burdens imposed by the Endangered Species Act. MacDonald, a civil engineer who was appointed to serve as deputy assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks, played an especially active role.
"MacDonald caused an incredible waste of time and money," one Fish and Wildlife Service official told investigators.
The 141-page investigation released Monday elaborates on inquiries conducted earlier by the interior department's office of inspector general. The earlier probes into MacDonald's work spurred the interior department to reconsider some of its decisions concerning species.
The new investigation offers additional details and interviews, fleshing out how politics potentially played a role on 20 different endangered species decisions. The decisions in question ranged from the northern spotted owl to the northern Mexican garter snake.
"One fish and wildlife service employee told us that MacDonald's influence was so prevalent that 'it became a verb for us - getting MacDonalded,' " the investigators reported.
MacDonald could not be located for comment late Monday. She has largely stayed out of public view since leaving the interior department in May 2007.· Report says Bush administration official bullied scientists
·... more
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Positive conservation from the Malayan government. Can they actually do it?
Malaysia aims to double its wild tiger population
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysia has launched an ambitious plan to double its wild tiger population within 12 years by protecting jungle corridors where poachers prey on the endangered big cats, activists said Monday.
The National Tiger Action Plan aims to have 1,000 Malayan tigers roaming in the wild by 2020, said Sara Sukor, a spokeswoman for Malaysia's chapter of the World Wildlife Fund, one of several conservation groups that helped the government create the plan.
Authorities estimate Malaysia's wild tiger population has fallen from 3,000 to 500 in the last half-century, largely due to illegal hunting and the human encroachment and destruction of the tigers' natural jungle habitat. Tiger meat is exported, served at exotic restaurants and used in traditional Chinese medicine — all illegal acts under Malaysian law.
Malayan tigers have been protected by wildlife laws since the early 1970s, but the National Tiger Action Plan is the government's first concerted effort to reverse the population decline instead of merely slowing it, according to the plan that was launched this month.
Government officials and conservationists will restore and manage key jungle corridors that connect tiger habitats, providing the animals with a wider territory and mitigating the impact of infrastructure such as roads, railways and oil pipelines.
Under the plan, the government has also vowed to better enforce its wildlife laws, remove tigers from areas where they might come into conflict with humans and boost scientific research in tiger protection, said the WWF's Sukor.
"We are optimistic the plan will succeed with cooperation among all the agencies involved," Sukor said. "We want to show that we are serious about wildlife protection."
Conservationists have long urged the government to step up wildlife protection, particularly by increasing penalties against poachers and smugglers of endangered species. Such offenses are typically punished by small fines without prison sentences.
Malaysia's tropical forests are home to a wide range of threatened animals, including orangutans, Borneo sun bears, Sumatran rhinoceroses and pygmy elephants.Positive conservation from the Malayan government. Can they actually do it?... more
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PLEASE SIGN! 'CLEMENCY-FOR-RATCHET'
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/2/clemency-for-ratchet?page=1
10/22/08 UPDATE: More than 30,000 people have signed the petition!
WASHINGTON (AP)
More than 10,000 people have signed an online petition urging the Army to let an Iraqi puppy come home with a Minnesota soldier, who fears that "Ratchet" could be killed if left behind.
"I just want my puppy home," Sgt. Gwen Beberg of Minneapolis wrote to her mother in an e-mail Sunday from Iraq, soon after she was separated from the dog following a transfer. "I miss my dog horribly." Beberg, 28, is scheduled to return to the U.S. next month.
Ratchet's defenders are ratcheting up their efforts to save him. On Monday, the program coordinator for Operation Baghdad Pups, which is run by Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals International, left for a trip to the Middle East to try to get the puppy to the U.S. And last week, Beberg's congressman, Democrat Keith Ellison, wrote to the Army urging it to review the case.
Beberg and another soldier rescued the puppy from a burning pile of trash back in May. Defense Department rules prohibit soldiers in the U.S. Central Command, which includes Iraq, from adopting pets, but has made exceptions. Operation Baghdad Pups says it has gotten 50 dogs and six cats transferred to the U.S. in the last eight months.
"I'm coping reasonably well because I refuse to believe that Ratchet has been hurt," Beberg wrote in the e-mail to her mother, Patricia Beberg. "If I find out that he was killed though -- well, we just won't entertain that possibility."
"They knew about the regulation," Patricia Beberg said, "but excuse me, you're not going to throw the puppy back in the burning pile." She said Monday that her daughter sent another e-mail saying that she confirmed that the dog was still alive and doing OK. Apparently, someone had stashed him in a meat freezer.
Operation Baghdad Pups' program coordinator, Terry Crisp, left for a flight to Dubai on Monday and is scheduled to arrive in Baghdad on Wednesday. Crisp said it wasn't clear who put the puppy in the freezer, whether it was done to hide him or to freeze him to death, or whether the freezer was operational. Ratchet has since been taken out of the freezer.
Crisp said that the adopted dogs left behind face a painful death on Iraqi streets.
"Iraqis view dogs and cats as rats -- as nuisances, carriers of disease," she said. U.S. soldiers have rescued many of them from abuse, such as Iraqi men in a circle kicking a puppy or a boy pulling a puppy down the street with a rope tied around its neck.
Crisp said the plan for this week's trip is to take six dogs out of the country -- the maximum number allowed in the cargo hold -- keeping one slot open for Ratchet. If they can't get Ratchet on the plane, another dog on the waiting list will take his place.
She said her organization is working with Congress, the military and mental health workers to scrap the rule banning soldiers from adopting animals.
"These men and women have been helped by the cats and dogs -- both there and when they come home," Crisp said. Adopting a pet in the U.S. wouldn't be the same, she said.
"They have to go through that experience with them -- that's what the connection is," Crisp said.
PLEASE SIGN! 'CLEMENCY-FOR-RATCHET'... more
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Dozens of brown bears searching for food have forced two villages in a mountainous region of southern Russia to impose a curfew, after the bears left the forests and began terrorising villagers and killing cattle. Now the inhabitants of Yailyu and Bele would no longer be able to leave their villages without an armed guard during the day and must stay in their homes at night. The bears have left the forest because of a lack of berries and nuts this year.
Dozens of brown bears searching for food have forced two villages in a mountainous... more
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The question of how to eat an environmentally-conscious meal has a number of answers. For example, in Australia, researchers have suggested that kangaroo meat would be an ethical replacement for beef.The question of how to eat an environmentally-conscious meal has a number of answers.... more
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mcamca
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The program began under her predecessor, Gov. Frank Murkowski, and continues with her support. Private citizens are permitted to shoot wolves from the air or conduct land-and-shoot hunting of wolves in five rural areas of the state. More than 700 wolves have been killed since the program began almost five years ago, state officials say.
Last year, Palin's office announced the state would offer cash to kill wolves. Incentives included offering volunteer pilots and aerial gunner teams $150 for turning in the forelegs of freshly killed wolves.
The state said the legs could help biologists determine a wolf's age, while the money helped hunters and aerial teams pay for gas and expenses. A Superior Court judge later blocked the payments after conservation groups argued the money amounted to an illegal bounty.
Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund, which has endorsed Democrat Barack Obama for president, is a nonprofit 501(c)4 corporation that can operate outside the strict limits governing political action committees. It can raise money in unlimited amounts from individual donors and can run ads that refer to political candidates as long as they don't specifically advocate their election or defeat.
The ad has received widespread notice on the Internet and has been an effective fundraising tool for Defenders of Wildlife. The group says it raised $600,000 in the six hours after it was released in mid-September and says it now has raised $1 million.
The group is aiming the ad at suburban women and moderate independent voters.
The ad follows closely on the heels of a McCain commercial that depicted Obama researchers and investigators combing through Palin's background as a pack of wolves.
Hunter or hunted, it all depends on the ad.
On the Net:
Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund: http://www.defendersactionfund.org/
The program began under her predecessor, Gov. Frank Murkowski, and continues with her... more
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On-the-spot report from Kumudini Hettiarachchi in Uda Walawe, Pix by M.A.Pushpa Kumara
Absolute stillness, the stillness of the jungle, accentuated only by the call of birds from the lotus-studded wewa. Suddenly a humming and whining begin, shattering the stillness. A bulldozer is at work………up and down, leaving a large swathe of land cleared of everything.
What is left is only a trail of destruction – giant trees such as weera and myla on their sides, the scrub jungle no more and the tall grasses cleared. Some of the trees and shrubs have been set ablaze, with patches of areas still smouldering.
This is the fate, since Monday, of part of the Dahaiyagala sanctuary and animal corridor, covering about 2,685 ha, on the northern border of the Uda Walawe National Park, in clear violation of the large green boards of the Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWLC). See pic of board.
For, this is where the elephants including four majestic tuskers (one being ‘Walawe Raja’) the sloth bear, the leopard and the sambhur roam. ‘Walawe Raja’, the tallest of the tuskers in the area graces the posters of the DWLC and has also been portrayed in a BBC documentary titled, ‘The Last Tusker’.
“People have been brazenly clearing the sanctuary in violation of the law,” lamented a wildlife official, pointing out that the culprits want to put up a barrier, blocking the animal corridor on the boundary of the Uda Walawe National Park.
The Dahaiyagala corridor links the National Park with Bogahapattiya described by conservationists as the “last remaining savannah (talawa) and intermediate zone forest to remain intact in the southern part of Sri Lanka”.
For, this is where the elephants including four majestic tuskers (one being ‘Walawe Raja’) the sloth bear, the leopard and the sambhur roam. ‘Walawe Raja’, the tallest of the tuskers in the area graces the posters of the DWLC and has also been portrayed in a BBC documentary titled, ‘The Last Tusker’. “People have been brazenly clearing the sanctuary in violation of the law,” lamented a wildlife official, pointing out that the culprits want to put up a barrier, blocking the animal corridor on the boundary of the Uda Walawe National Park.
The Dahaiyagala corridor links the National Park with Bogahapattiya described by conservationists as the “last remaining savannah (talawa) and intermediate zone forest to remain intact in the southern part of Sri Lanka”.
The blocking of the Dahaiyagala opening into the National Park (see map) will prevent the elephants, the sloth bear, the leopard and the sambhur whose home range is Bogahapattiya, from accessing the National Park. Dahaiyagala also has many wewas including Pokunutenne which has water throughout the year, which the animals use. The smaller ones which are seasonal dry up during the drought
The other tanks which do not run dry are Uda Walawe and Mau-ara which are within the National Park itself.
The stories doing the rounds in Uda Walawe are that a few politicians in the area, along with some officials, have unlawfully taken the lead in efforts to shut the animal access point through Dahaiyagala into the National Park.
for the rest of this story, please follow link: http://www.sundaytimes.lk/080928/Plus/sundaytimesplus_00.html
On-the-spot report from Kumudini Hettiarachchi in Uda Walawe, Pix by M.A.Pushpa Kumara... more
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The House of Representatives passed legislation on Tuesday lifting a longstanding congressional moratorium on offshore drilling.
The extensive energy package introduced by Democrats would give states the option to allow drilling between 50 and 100 miles off their shores. Areas more than 100 miles from the coast would be completely open to oil exploration and drilling.
In addition to drilling, the bill requires the government to sell 70 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. It also provides tax credits for renewable energy and energy efficiency that would be funded by repealing some tax breaks for the oil industry.
http://climateprogress.org/2008/09/16/breaking-news-house-energy-bill-passes-236-189/#comment-26937
The House of Representatives passed legislation on Tuesday lifting a longstanding... more
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Polar bears and other rare species are in danger of dying out, scientists fear, as latest figures show the Artic sea ice is at record lows.
Scientists from the World Wildlife Fund, who are recording the ice cover over the North Pole, said less ice is predicted in the Arctic this year than in any other.
Experts say this not only means a loss of habitat to species like polar bears and loss of livelihood for indigenous peoples but could speed up global warming as water absorbs heat rather than reflecting the sun's rays back into space.
Dr Martin Sommerkorn, senior climate change advisor at WWF International's Arctic Programme, said: "We are expecting confirmation of 2008 being either the lowest or the second-lowest year in terms of summer ice coverage.
READ FULL ARTICLE:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/09/14/eapolar114.xml
Polar bears and other rare species are in danger of dying out, scientists fear, as... more
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Four endangered manatees have washed up dead within a few miles of the downtown Savannah riverfront in the past week, leading wildlife officials to speculate they may have been killed by a single large ship.
Clay George, a wildlife biologist with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, said Tuesday three of the manatee carcasses pulled from the Savannah River suffered deep propeller wounds. One had been sliced in half.
Examination of the fourth manatee Tuesday, the day after it was found beneath the Talmadge Bridge that spans the river from Savannah into South Carolina, revealed no lacerations. But the carcass had several broken bones that could have been caused by a ship, George said.
The manatees were discovered upstream from the bustling Port of Savannah, which cargo ships reach by navigating about 20 miles of the Savannah River from the Atlantic Ocean. Judging by the size of the cuts, the manatees appear to have been hit by a vessel the size of a tugboat or larger, George said.
"Container ships or some other large vessel would be an obvious place to start," George said. "We're not trying to blame anyone. Most likely it was an accident. I'd be very surprised if anyone on the vessel even knew what happened."
Though most frequently found in Florida, manatees migrate north to Georgia's shoreline waters and rivers each year from April to October.
A 2007 report by the U.S. Geological Survey identified boat collisions as the top long-term threat to manatees, which weigh up to 2,000 pounds and can be 10 feet long. In Florida, watercraft strikes killed 73 manatees in 2007 and have caused 60 deaths through July 31 this year, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
It's unusual for multiple manatees to turn up dead in the same place at roughly the same time, said Charles Underwood, a spokesman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Jacksonville, Fla. But it can happen, he said, when manatees are trying to mate and may be distracted from approaching vessels.
Underwood said the agency has no recorded case in which a single boat or ship was proven to have killed multiple manatees at once.
Visitors strolling the downtown riverfront, a tourist hotspot packed with bars and souvenir shops, spotted the first two manatee carcasses in the river Friday. A boater spotted another later that day near Elba Island a few miles downriver.
George said the manatees could have been part of a mating herd, in which up to a dozen males pursue a single female. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service photographed five manatees together in the river last week, he said.
Georgia Ports Authority spokesman Robert Morris said traffic to and from the port wasn't any heavier than normal last week with ships arriving and departing ahead of the storm. He called the manatee deaths "a tragic event."
"We want to work closely with the DNR to learn more about what caused the deaths of these four manatees and determine ways to alert river traffic in the future when manatees are sighted," Morris said.
Pleasure boats and Coast Guard cutters also frequent the Savannah River, and there's no precise evidence to indicate any particular type of large vessel.
PLEASE NOTE! Propeller Guard Can Help Reduce Manatee Injuries!
Boat Propeller Guards DO NOT elliminate injuries/death. However, they can help reduce manatee & other sea life (as well as humans) when used in conjunction with other precautions. Boat Propeller Guards are only effective when speedzone laws are obeyed.
http://myfwc.com/manatee/prop/
http://myfwc.com/manatee/prop/propguide.htm
Manatee FAQ Links:
http://www.savethemanatee.org/faqprotection.htm
http://www.floridaconservation.org/psm/prop/prop.htm
http://www.myfwc.com/manatee/
http://www.endangeredspecieshandbook.org/aquatic_noise.phpFour endangered manatees have washed up dead within a few miles of the downtown... more
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Endangered Mountain Gorillas Featured on Morris Animal Foundation Web Exclusive, MAF Responded to Dian Fossey's Request for Veterinary Care--
DENVER, Sept 15, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Morris Animal Foundation (MAF) has posted a Web exclusive, http://www.morrisanimalfoundation.org/gorilla/index.html, featuring an up close and personal visit with the magnificent, though highly endangered, mountain gorillas of Rwanda. In the exclusive video, MAF visits the site of the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project (MGVP), an innovative gorilla health initiative first established in 1985 when Dian Fossey asked MAF for help in response to a crisis situation for these gorillas. Their very survival was at stake. MAF accepted the daunting challenge and established veterinary care and health resources in the Rwanda jungles. Thousands of loyal MAF donors and friends also stepped up to answer the call for help. The MGVP is a testament to the kindness, generosity and commitment of people to saving a species.
MAF Chief Operating Officer John Taylor takes viewers to the MGVP headquarters and into the mountains where these gorillas live, explains how the project came about and allows the audience to enjoy these inspiring creatures at very close range. In fact, in one segment Taylor explains how one of the gorillas harmlessly reached out and grabbed one of the human members of the group.
In recent years the program was transitioned from MAF to MGVP, Inc., but MAF remains the primary funding source. Today, ecotourism plays a crucial role in the gorillas' survival and protection, inasmuch as they represent an important economic asset to the nation's economy. Information on how to visit the gorillas is provided as well as some good tips on making the trip.
About Morris Animal Foundation:
Morris Animal Foundation, established in 1948, is dedicated to funding animal health research that protects, treats and cures companion animals and wildlife. MAF has been at the forefront of funding breakthrough research studies benefiting animals in some 100 countries, spanning all seven continents. MAF has its headquarters in Denver. The Foundation has funded more than 1,500 humane animal health studies. Charity Navigator ranks MAF as a four-star charity, the highest rating.
For more information, call 800.243.2345, or visit http://www.MorrisAnimalFoundation.org.
SOURCE Morris Animal Foundation
http://www.morrisanimalfoundation.org
Endangered Mountain Gorillas Featured on Morris Animal Foundation Web Exclusive, MAF... more
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Unethical and Dishonest Practices in India:
Company Must Follow Recommendations of Company Funded Study:
Shut Down Kala Dera Bottling Plant
Please go to this webpage for detailed information (fact sheets, University reports, international studies, legal actions etc.):
http://www.indiaresource.org/campaigns/coke/2008/kaladeraunethical.html
The way Coca-Cola is 'running business' in India is shameful. Coca-Cola has not made any effort to stop harming the people & their environment.
Unethical and Dishonest Practices in India:
Company Must Follow Recommendations of... more
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CHICAGO — The American Petroleum Institute and four other business groups filed suit last week against Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director H. Dale Hall, joining Alaska Gov. SARAH PALIN'S administration in trying to reverse the listing of the polar bear as a threatened species.
On Aug. 4, Alaska sued to oppose the polar bear’s listing, arguing that the animal’s populations as a whole are stable and that melting sea ice does not pose an imminent threat to their survival.
The suit says polar bears have survived past warming periods. The federal government has 60 days from the filing date to respond.
One of the plaintiffs in Thursday’s lawsuit, the National Association of Manufacturers, lauded the choice of PALIN as the Republican vice presidential nominee for reasons including her ADVOCACY of Alaskan oil and gas exploration, which many fear could be affected by the bear’s protected status.
The manufacturers association and the petroleum institute were joined in the lawsuit by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Mining Association, and the American Iron and Steel Institute.
They object to what they call the "Alaska gap" in relation to the special rule the federal government issued in May in conjunction with the polar bear’s protected status.
The rule, meant to prevent the polar bear’s status from being used as a tool for imposing greenhouse gas limits, exempts projects in all states except Alaska from undergoing review in relation to emissions.
Manufacturers association Vice President Keith McCoy said the group sees the rule as unfairly subjecting Alaskan industry to greenhouse gas controls and opening a back door for regulation nationwide.
"This could significantly curtail oil and gas exploration," especially on Alaska’s North Slope, he said. "It’s discrimination against the state of Alaska. During a time when gas prices are high and we need to look at all options, to issue something that shuts off a viable resource" is ill-advised, he said.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the D.C. Circuit, notes that greenhouse gas emissions worldwide contribute to global warming and says that projects in Alaska should not be subject to special SCRUTINY because of the polar bear’s STATUS.
Kassie Siegel, climate program director for the Center for Biological Diversity, which originally petitioned to list the polar bear as an endangered species in 2005, decried the assertion in the Alaska suit that science does not prove that polar bear populations are declining. The center is also suing the federal government, seeking to change the polar bear’s status from "threatened" to "endangered."
At least four current federal lawsuits challenge aspects of the listing.
CHICAGO — The American Petroleum Institute and four other business groups filed... more
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Help Us Obtain Greater Enforcement
Of Boat Speed Zones
The Issue:
Cuts in state and federal funding have resulted in fewer on-water law enforcement officers in critical areas of Florida. The Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge, created to safeguard manatees, is one such area. In July, a mother manatee was horribly injured in the bay by a speeding boat and subsequently died. Very recently, another manatee was also horribly injured by a speeding boat and died. Unfortunately, this scenario will continue to be repeated many times in areas heavily used by both boats and manatees unless law enforcement efforts are increased dramatically.
Although we don’t believe in gratuitously displaying manatee photos depicting disfiguring injuries, we have decided - after much soul-searching - to post some online photos of the poor manatee mother because a picture is worth a thousand words.
Warning: These photos are very graphic.
Click here to view photos: http://www.savethemanatee.org/cr_photos.htm
Our immediate goal is to get more officers on the water during times of peak use, even if it means Save the Manatee Club pays for them. We are also increasing boater awareness with a new poster featuring the message, “Navigate With Care, Manatees Are There.” And we will advocate to eliminate dangerous high speed areas.
What You Can Do:
Take action now by sending the following letter to Dirk Kempthorne, Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior, and to Florida’s Governor Charlie Crist, asking them to immediately increase their on-water law enforcement presence throughout manatee habitat. And please send this alert to your friends and family and ask them to take action, too.
Take Action! Sign this petition PLEASE!
http://www.savethemanatee.org/actionalert.cfm?id=12
Help Us Obtain Greater Enforcement
Of Boat Speed Zones
The Issue:
Cuts in... more
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The Bush administration is proposing new rules that would weaken species protections and eliminate independent scientific review of development projects that could threaten species habit.
The changes ("tweaks") that the President Bush and the Bush Administration are proposing would weaken Section 7 of the landmark Endangered Species Act.
For more than three decades, this key provision of the ESA has safeguarded imperiled species from the impacts of potentially harmful federal projects.
Key to the success of this provision has been the requirement for interagency consultation between "action agencies" that build dams or highways, issue oil and gas leases or timber cutting contracts, etc., and the "conservation agencies" that have the primary responsibility for protecting endangered species (the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service).
The conservation agencies have always had the opportunity and responsibility to take a second look at the projects proposed by the action agencies. As a result of taking that independent look, the conservation agencies have often been able to suggest project modifications that avoid harmful impacts to rare species.
The proposed regulatory changes would eliminate the requirement for an independent review by the conservation agencies. The result will almost certainly mean that both harmful impacts on rare wildlife, and opportunities to avoid those impacts, will be overlooked.
Conservation is not the mission of federal action agencies like the Army Corps of Engineers, the Federal Highway Administration, and others. To make sure that their projects (and the projects of many other federal agencies as well) do not cause needless harm to rare species, the existing requirement for independent review by federal conservation agencies should not be abandoned.
Please follow the link for the petition to President Bush. If these regulatory changes are made, it will be as if the Endangered Species Act does not exist... not to mention the horrific impact on the environment.
PLEASE TAKE ACTION!
http://action.edf.org/campaign/esa_action
I will be posting more news release on this issue.The Bush administration is proposing new rules that would weaken species protections... more
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Parts of the Endangered Species Act may soon be extinct. The Bush administration wants federal agencies to decide for themselves whether highways, dams, mines and other construction projects might harm endangered animals and plants.
New regulations, which don't require the approval of Congress, would reduce the mandatory, independent reviews government scientists have been performing for 35 years, according to a draft first obtained by The Associated Press.
Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said late Monday the changes were needed to ensure that the Endangered Species Act would not be used as a "back door" to regulate the gases blamed for global warming. In May, the polar bear became the first species declared as threatened because of climate change. Warming temperatures are expected to melt the sea ice the bear depends on for survival.
The draft rules would bar federal agencies from assessing the emissions from projects that contribute to global warming and its effect on species and habitats.
"We need to focus our efforts where they will do the most good," Kempthorne said in a news conference organized quickly after AP reported details of the proposal. "It is important to use our time and resources to protect the most vulnerable species. It is not possible to draw a link between greenhouse gas emissions and distant observations of impacts on species
The Bush administration and Congress have attempted with mixed success to change the law.
In 2003, the administration imposed similar rules that would have allowed agencies to approve new pesticides and projects to reduce wildfire risks without asking the opinion of government scientists about whether threatened or endangered species and habitats might be affected. The pesticide rule was later overturned in court. The Interior Department, along with the Forest Service, is currently being sued over the rule governing wildfire prevention.
But internal reviews by the National Marine Fisheries Service and Fish and Wildlife Service concluded that about half the unilateral evaluations by the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management that determined wildfire prevention projects were unlikely to harm protected species were not legally or scientifically valid.
"This is the fox guarding the hen house. The interests of agencies will outweigh species protection interests," said Eric Glitzenstein, the attorney representing environmental groups in the lawsuit over the wildfire prevention regulations. "What they are talking about doing is eviscerating the Endangered Species Act."
Fish and Wildlife Service: http://www.fws.gov/endangered
National Marine Fisheries Service: http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/laws/esa/
National Wildlife Federation: http://www.nwf.org/newsWASHINGTON (AP) — Parts of the Endangered Species Act may soon be extinct. The... more
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