United States Guts the Endangered Species Act

I know you haven’t heard from me in a long time, but I had to pop back online to share this bit of news from The Revelator. In the midst of all the current threats to the natural world – including accelerated species extinction rates – the Trump Administration decided that this was the perfect time to gut the Endangered Species Act.

The Endangered Species Act (ESA) is a highly successful piece of legislation. In the 45+ years it’s been around, the Act has saved many threatened species (see The Revelator for a few examples). Some of the species, such as bald eagles and gray wolves, have even rebounded dramatically – although they still have a long way to go.

Unfortunately, the new changes to the ESA might undermine its ability to continue being a lifeline for threatened wildlife.

As The Revelator explains, the ESA seems to have been weakened for the sake of profit, since business interests now appear to supersede those of wildlife in some cases.

Naturally, Democrats and many environmental groups have promised to resist the Trump Administration’s attacks on the ESA.

As always, this post has been a brief summary of a much more detailed story. For more information, please visit the original article on The Revelator.