Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Obomba Lagging Behind Bush in Wildlife Protection

With President Barack Obama lagging way behind Bush on protecting species, lastweek The New York Times highlighted the Center for Biological Diversity'ssignificant efforts to correct that failure. The Obama administration hasprotected only two new U.S. species under the Endangered Species Act in itsfirst 10 months, compared with 11 in Bush's first year. The currentadministration has also stripped northern Rockies gray wolves of protections,opened up oil drilling in polar bear habitat, followed Bush on not allowing thepolar bear's Endangered Species Act status to actually protect it from globalwarming, and endorsed Bush's anti-jaguar policies.Accordingly, the Center's activity since the Bush years has far from waned: Asthe Times notes, we've sued the federal government more than 20 times over thepast 11 months to rectify illegal and delayed endangered species actions. Westopped the killing of Great Lakes gray wolves and are in court to defend thepolar bear on multiple fronts. In 2010, the Center will go to court to overturnthe worst of the Obama decisions we haven't yet addressed and change theadministration's wildlife-conservation perspective at the same time.Read the New York Times article for yourself;http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/center/articles/2009/new-york-times-11-2\4-2009.html