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from the endangered-species-are-humanity's-coal-mine-canaries dept.
U.S. Significantly Weakens Endangered Species Act
The Trump administration on Monday announced that it would change the way the Endangered Species Act is applied, significantly weakening the nation's bedrock conservation law and making it harder to protect wildlife from the multiple threats posed by climate change.
The new rules would make it easier to remove a species from the endangered list and weaken protections for threatened species, the classification one step below endangered. And, for the first time, regulators would be allowed to conduct economic assessments — for instance, estimating lost revenue from a prohibition on logging in a critical habitat — when deciding whether a species warrants protection.
Critically, the changes would also make it more difficult for regulators to factor in the effects of climate change on wildlife when making those decisions because those threats tend to be decades away, not immediate.
Over all, the revised rules appear very likely to clear the way for new mining, oil and gas drilling, and development in areas where protected species live.
Also at NPR.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday August 13 2019, @10:17AM (2 children)
Leave it to Cheeto Jesus to take a notion that has some merit and push it so that it's worse than what you currently have. I absolutely agree that economic factors should be on the table but how they're weighted needs to be spelled out ahead of time. I mean, you don't want the state of California getting evacuated because some endangered sand flea needs a bigger habitat.
Not factoring in climate change predictions is the only categorically good bit of it. When your predictions on that are as shitty as they have been, you've got no business using those predictions as gospel on vaguely related issues that are near and dear to you.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 13 2019, @03:50PM (1 child)
What else do you expect from a troll? Now turn that reflecting gaze inward.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday August 14 2019, @03:27AM
That's not what a troll is, dumbass.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.