Thanks so much for the inclusion here, Jason. Also very appreciative to have been directed to the Heather Cox Richardson piece. “Humans need to become a keystone species, rather than a headstone species writing epitaphs for our fellow travelers.” Well, isn’t that the truth. Thank you for such a thorough and keenly observed read. I look forward to more.
Thanks for this intensely researched reflection on and analysis of the ESA, Jason! Learning the social, political, economic context of so many laws and policies that have accompanied me throughout my life often, as in this case, adjusts the lens on my understanding and brings startling and disturbing clarity.
Thanks too for referring to Heather Cox Richardson - a new writer/thinker for me to start paying attention to. Also want to give a shout out to Jonathan Thompson, author of the species by-the-number HCN article you linked to. He’s a wonderful writer who focuses a lot on the West, the Colorado Plateau, and the San Juan Mountains. His Substack is the Land Desk.
Sackett was a catastrophic ruling and the rider strategy is the very definition of insidious. As you explained the battle is between conservationists and economic forces, with the latter winning small battles continually. Occasionally the good guys win a big battle..the EPA was such a victory, but those face an onslaught of nibbling counter-attacks.
It's really a battle between short term thinkers and long term thinkers, between two contending philosophies of what constitutes the Good.
The root fact is that there are just too damn many of us. Eight billion is too many five billion was too many, three billion was arguably too many. The third world is being retrained to be consumers and have more resource-intensive lifestyles. This will put more strain on the environment despite what palliative pollution measures we take, in my opinion.
The root problem is clear. The implied solution is clear. Rapid negative population decline, the sooner the better.
Else, we will wind up living on a planet where besides us and our client species, little else will be left alive. Depopulate and rewild!
Oh, man, this was a good one, if tough. It's all there, why this Act has not lived up to its potential. Just here to add a lawyer's plug for the endangered species lawyers. The decades of labor by the Center for Biological Diversity is, in all likelihood, the reason that hundreds of species have ever received federal protections. And why the federal agencies ever drafted recovery plans, as required by the law. Other groups do this work too (among their other priorities), but the Center is the linchpin of ESA enforcement in the U.S.
If any readers here ever have charitable giving to consider, they could do much worse than giving to CBD! Their overhead is low, so donations really go toward hiring and training lawyers and biologists to acquire state and federal protections for at-risk species. :)
And thanks for linking to my pygmy rabbit piece. I described the ups and downs of the work to save them from extinction, none of which would have occurred had nonprofit groups like CBD not hounded the state and federal governments to list them as endangered and thus begin to allocate funding for the on-the-ground recovery work by biologists. So, it's a critical first step to all these rewilding stories.
Thank you for writing this keystone article! Thank you for highlighting the latest absence of protection for wetlands. The distractions that divert attention from the Sackett debacle are many but they are just that...intentional distractions.
You’ve written one of the most important articles of our time. I will share often.🌱
Here in Portland we are looking forward to a polar Vortex due to hit tonight
Temperature are predicted to plummet to temperatures we haven't seen in many years. The result is that there is near panic storm shopping including de-icer pellets (non salt based) for sidewalks. A TV station interviewed a single hardware store owner who said his store was selling 3 to 5 TONS of these pellets daily. That's just one store in our metro area. All this chemical is heading to the Willamette River eventually. Surely, tens of thousands of tons by this storm's end. Not to mention by winter's end. QUESTION: has anyone studied the long term impacts this chemical has on the riverine biosystems? Or that of the saltwater water biomes that we are only a hundred miles or so from? It can't be good...
Thanks so much for the inclusion here, Jason. Also very appreciative to have been directed to the Heather Cox Richardson piece. “Humans need to become a keystone species, rather than a headstone species writing epitaphs for our fellow travelers.” Well, isn’t that the truth. Thank you for such a thorough and keenly observed read. I look forward to more.
Thanks for this intensely researched reflection on and analysis of the ESA, Jason! Learning the social, political, economic context of so many laws and policies that have accompanied me throughout my life often, as in this case, adjusts the lens on my understanding and brings startling and disturbing clarity.
Thanks too for referring to Heather Cox Richardson - a new writer/thinker for me to start paying attention to. Also want to give a shout out to Jonathan Thompson, author of the species by-the-number HCN article you linked to. He’s a wonderful writer who focuses a lot on the West, the Colorado Plateau, and the San Juan Mountains. His Substack is the Land Desk.
Enjoy your weekend!
Sackett was a catastrophic ruling and the rider strategy is the very definition of insidious. As you explained the battle is between conservationists and economic forces, with the latter winning small battles continually. Occasionally the good guys win a big battle..the EPA was such a victory, but those face an onslaught of nibbling counter-attacks.
It's really a battle between short term thinkers and long term thinkers, between two contending philosophies of what constitutes the Good.
The root fact is that there are just too damn many of us. Eight billion is too many five billion was too many, three billion was arguably too many. The third world is being retrained to be consumers and have more resource-intensive lifestyles. This will put more strain on the environment despite what palliative pollution measures we take, in my opinion.
The root problem is clear. The implied solution is clear. Rapid negative population decline, the sooner the better.
Else, we will wind up living on a planet where besides us and our client species, little else will be left alive. Depopulate and rewild!
Oh, man, this was a good one, if tough. It's all there, why this Act has not lived up to its potential. Just here to add a lawyer's plug for the endangered species lawyers. The decades of labor by the Center for Biological Diversity is, in all likelihood, the reason that hundreds of species have ever received federal protections. And why the federal agencies ever drafted recovery plans, as required by the law. Other groups do this work too (among their other priorities), but the Center is the linchpin of ESA enforcement in the U.S.
If any readers here ever have charitable giving to consider, they could do much worse than giving to CBD! Their overhead is low, so donations really go toward hiring and training lawyers and biologists to acquire state and federal protections for at-risk species. :)
And thanks for linking to my pygmy rabbit piece. I described the ups and downs of the work to save them from extinction, none of which would have occurred had nonprofit groups like CBD not hounded the state and federal governments to list them as endangered and thus begin to allocate funding for the on-the-ground recovery work by biologists. So, it's a critical first step to all these rewilding stories.
Thank you for writing this keystone article! Thank you for highlighting the latest absence of protection for wetlands. The distractions that divert attention from the Sackett debacle are many but they are just that...intentional distractions.
You’ve written one of the most important articles of our time. I will share often.🌱
Classic FGA (both in this series): informative, sensible, impassioned. Thanks, Jason!
Here in Portland we are looking forward to a polar Vortex due to hit tonight
Temperature are predicted to plummet to temperatures we haven't seen in many years. The result is that there is near panic storm shopping including de-icer pellets (non salt based) for sidewalks. A TV station interviewed a single hardware store owner who said his store was selling 3 to 5 TONS of these pellets daily. That's just one store in our metro area. All this chemical is heading to the Willamette River eventually. Surely, tens of thousands of tons by this storm's end. Not to mention by winter's end. QUESTION: has anyone studied the long term impacts this chemical has on the riverine biosystems? Or that of the saltwater water biomes that we are only a hundred miles or so from? It can't be good...
Something about that last photo really speaks to me. Reminds me of home in a way.