Everyone who gives a damn about the planet is denouncing Trump’s latest attack on the Endangered Species Act. But little is being said about this law’s actual impact on the fate of endangered species. In theory, the collapse of global biodiversity was supposed to be prevented by the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and the Convention on International Trade of Endangered (CITES). But in reality this has amounted to trying to stop a raging wildfire with a squirt gun.
Today, some biologists estimate the rate of extinction at 100,000 species a year and climbing! At this rate, preserving biodiversity has gone from an altruistic enterprise to a matter of human survival. Vital species and the ecosystems they call home are under assault by the relentless incursion of human civilization.