Attacks against the Endangered Species Act


                                                   Attacks against the Endangered Species Act 

Nicole Price

      In 1973, the 'Endangered Species Act' (ESA) was established in the hopes of protecting ecosystems and the imperiled species that reside. Once in office, our 45th president, Trump, and his administration made many proposals toward weakening the ESA. These proposals included that of ending the practice of giving threatened species the same protection as the endangered as well as incorporating measures that would allow people to consider the economic impacts of an enforced ESA law to name a few. Basically, this would mean that these animals would lose all protection if deemed necessary based off of their level of conservation. These levels range from least concerned to extinct. Based on Trump's laws, animals in the vulnerable and nearly threatened levels could be ignored and left to defend for themselves until they are deemed critical. This would be very detrimental because without our interference these animals could go extinct a lot quicker than we thought. Money and resources shouldn't be a worry, but ecosystem failure should.

    But that's not even the most interesting part. The ESA has been under attack ever since it was first established. Many people believe that it is a waste of our money and resources, but I feel that it's just because we are not truly educated on the effects of extinction and it shows. Logging, fossil fuel extractions, water management, construction, and more industries have all taken a go at the ESA. Just within the past few decades, 2016-18, to be precise, more than 150 attempts at weakening the ESA were made. 24 of these attempts were made by congressmen/Trump administrative alone from July19th to the 22nd in 2018. One prime example of a move against the ESA would be their advance toward removing the Grey Wolfs protected status in Wyoming. If this were to happen we should just say goodbye to the grey wolf. It's a terrible thought but without the help of our government protecting these species, there's not much else we can do when the rest of the world is conspiring against them.

26, Renee Cho |March, et al. “Why Endangered Species Matter.” State of the Planet, Columbia University , 3 Apr. 2019, blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2019/03/26/endangered-species-matter/.


Comments

  1. Jessica S.February 19, 2021 at 8:36 PM

    It blows my mind that our President would try and weaken our ESA, instead of making it better. Without people checking on and taking care of the ones that are slowly becoming extinct, they will disappear before we know it. All the animals have a different impact on our ecosystem and without them it is like a chain reaction of bad events. I do agree that without the help of the government we really can not do anything on our own, we need the funding from them for the ESA. It is interesting that he would rather weaken it instead of helping people save them, especially when so many individuals are for saving the animals.

    Jessica S

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousFebruary 21, 2021 at 1:29 PM

    Yes, we can't assume that laws are forever. Things we care about have to be constantly watched out for.
    bob

    ReplyDelete
  3. Briann BeyerFebruary 21, 2021 at 10:45 PM

    I agree with your whole statement with the laws and I hope the laws aren't forever. Really amazes us to read things like this. Good job!

    ReplyDelete

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