The Trump Administration's War on Wildlife

The Trump administration is working to erode protections for America's wildlife. As reiterated in a new U.N. report we are destroying biodiversity at an unprecedented rate. The future of life on this planet is looking bleak as the world's most powerful nation continues to completely disregard the natural world.

This administration puts economic impacts ahead of species protections. They have consistently sought to remove protections that hinder the fossil fuel industry and last July the administration proposed ending protections for threatened species. They also sought to make it easier to remove species from the endangered list. 

The facts are hard to refute which is why the Department of the Interior is at war with science alongside Trump.  The department has an important role to play protecting wildlife as they manage public lands, national parks and wildlife refuges. they are also responsible for conservation efforts including those for endangered species.

Oil industry lobbyist David Bernhardt is the new secretary of the department and in a Washington Post op-ed he wrote the Endangered Species Act places "unnecessary regulatory burden" on companies.

Bernhardt has amassed a rap-sheet of environmental crimes in the short time he has been at the helm of the agency. In February a government scientist was dismissed when she would not remove references to climate change in a report she had written. In March Bernhardt blocked a scientific report by scientists at the Fish and Wildlife Service that found popular pesticides "jeopardize the continued existence" of more than 1,200 endangered animals and plants. He then relaxed the rules for pesticides.

In May Bernhardt proposed weakening protections for the highly endangered American burying beetle. He also exempted the oil and gas industry from having to consider its impact on the beetle's habitat in Oklahoma. They argued that the beetle will be rendered extinct by climate change so there is no point in trying to save it. They do not mention the fact that this administration has consistently eliminated efforts to combat the climate crisis, nor do they disclose all the ways they have supported increased fossil fuel production.

Bernhardt wants to revise the entire Endangered Species Act to make it harder to put a species on the list and make it easier to remove a species from the list. He is also seeking to weaken habitat protections for species at risk. 

The Trump administration's deregulatory orgy has eradicated more then 40 protections and in the wake of the most recent U.N. report, their assaults on wildlife are unconscionable.

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