Well, you would think the Bush administration would have enough to deal with at this point in time, what with the economic meltdown and all, but alas, no. They are at it again. Sure, land and resource use is complicated and not all applications of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) have led to productive outcomes, but, come on! If this administration has been about anything, it’s been about wholesale deregulation in many areas, continuing the work started in the Regan administration. Gee, see how well that works? Human nature is what defines history, both the good and the bad, and that really hasn’t changed. The market did not regulate itself, and neither will people and industry necessarily be ‘voluntary’ good stewards of the environment. It just doesn’t work like that when money and assets are involved, because everyone wants their piece. So, in the era of limited pieces, when will we have to be serious about how those resources are best used? Our current state of capitalism is based (and crashing on) a highly leveraged, paper monetary system that is greatly divorced from our existing, natural world. Some thought the party would last forever, but it didn’t. How long will it take people to realize that our natural resources aren’t limited either? Below I include an article from the Center for Biological Diversity on the Bush administration’s attempt to essentially dismantle the Endangered Species Act, and after that is a link to a petition directed to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, urging him to abandon the awful changes to the ESA.

Endangered Species Act

Petition