With Trump’s Late-Term ‘War on Wildlife,’ 135 NGOs Implore Biden for E.O. to Slow the ‘Extinction Crisis’
(EnviroNews Headline News Desk) — Washington D.C. — On December 21, 2020, 135 organizations called on President-elect Joe Biden to issue an executive order to end the “extinction crisis” when he gets into office, according to a press release. In light of the Trump Administration’s pro-industry agenda, which includes two illegally appointed and serving heads of Interior Department agencies and an end-of-term “war on wildlife,” the NGOs have pulled together to present Biden with a plan that will overturn some of the damage Trump has done.
While Biden doesn’t have any current power to rein in further degradation of the Endangered Species Act (ESA/the Act) and other environmental protections, conservationists feel the President-elect could begin the arduous process of reclaiming the ESA without having to go through Congress, in what they hope will be an effort to return the overwhelmingly popular piece of bedrock legislation to something resembling its original form – this, after several late-term rule changes have all but neutered the Act.
“The time for half measures has passed. President Biden must take bold, immediate action to end extinction because the survival of not just wildlife but humanity is now at stake,” said Tierra Curry, a Senior Scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity.
The sizeable coalition says that an executive order would bypass the need to consult with Congress and show Biden’s ability to take bold and aggressive action in light of what is likely to be an obstructionist Senate, pending the outcome of the Georgia run-offs. The proposed executive order, ready for Biden to issue, would declare the extinction crisis a national emergency and give him the opportunity to act without Congressional approval under the National Emergencies Act. It would create national monuments protecting 30 percent of U.S. lands and waters by 2030 and 50 percent by 2050, and it would call for all agencies to add climate change to their considerations for species protections under the ESA – a stark contrast to the current administration, which removed all mentions of climate change from the White House website shortly after Trump took office.
“The trifecta of the extinction crisis, climate emergency and pandemic illustrate that Biden has no choice but to safeguard the natural world as a matter of highest priority,” Curry continued. “The long-term wellbeing of our country depends on how intrepid Biden is willing to be in the next four years.”
The proposed executive order is just a part of the plan these organizations have outlined for Biden. The groups will present them to the President-elect and his transition team while Democrats prepare to take back the White House.
Even after being rejected by 86 million voters at the polls and in the last days of his presidency, Trump has continued what EnviroNews has deemed an all-out “war on wildlife” that started at the beginning of his term, but which has ramped up significantly in the past few months. Trump’s administration has acknowledged the need for monarch butterflies to be listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) but will not go through the process because there are 161 higher priority species it is looking at. Two rules were finalized on Dec. 15 and 17, 2020 respectively. One redefines “habitat” to exclude any place where the animals currently do not live while the other gives industry and polluters the opportunity to bring economics into the listing process for imperiled animals and plants — something Congress specifically forbade in 1982. Wolves have been delisted. Wolverines have been denied listing, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services (USFWS) defied a court order to create new plans for the conservation of the sage grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) by submitting documents that used the same wording and faulty claims that were rejected in 2019. The sage grouse is the subject of an expansive EnviroNews documentary and the center of the costliest endangered species battle in history. The aforementioned rule changes are but a fraction of the rollbacks rendered at the end of Trump’s term.
A complete list of the 135 groups is as follows:
Center for Biological Diversity
350 Massachusetts for a Better Future
350Mass.
All-Creatures.org
Allamakee County Protectors
American Horse Protection Society
Animal Legal Defense Fund
Animal Protection League of New Jersey
Animal Welfare Institute
Animal Wellness Action
Animal Wellness Foundation
Animals Are Sentient Beings, Inc.
Animas Valley Institute
Appalachian Trail Conservancy
Athens County’s Future Action Network (acfan.org) -SE Ohio
Audubon Society of Central Arkansas
Battle Creek Alliance/Defiance Canyon Raptor Rescue
Berkshire Environmental Action Team (BEAT)Beyond Pesticides
Bird Conservation Network
Black Warrior Riverkeeper
Blue Mountains Biodiversity Project
Boulder Rights of Nature, Inc.
Bucks Environmental Action
Cahaba River Society
California Wildlife Foundation
Center for a Humane Economy Christian Council of Delmarva
Ciudadanos Del Karso
Clean Energy Action -Colorado
Climate Health Now
Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life
Coastal Plains Institute
Colorado Riverkeeper
Committee to Abolish Sport Hunting
Concerned on Burrows Road
Conservation Council For Hawaii
Delaware-Otsego Audubon Society
Don’t Waste Arizona
Earth Action, Inc.
Earth Path Sanctuary
Earthkeeper Health Resources Eastern Coyote/Coywolf Research
Eco-Eating
Endangered Small Animal Conservation Fund
Endangered Species Coalition
Environmental Protection Information Center
Fairbanks Climate Action Coalition
Friends of the Inyo
Friends of WI Wolf and Wildlife
Fuerza Mundial Global, Continuum
Gaviota Coast Conservancy
Gila Resources Information Project
Golden Egg Permaculture
Grays Harbor Audubon Society
Great Lakes Wildlife Alliance
Great Old Broads for Wilderness
Green Country Sierra Club Group
Green River Action Network
GreenFaith
Healthy Gulf
Hoosier Environmental Council
Howling for Wolves
In Defense of Animals
In the Shadow of the Wolf
Information Network for Responsible Mining
Inland Ocean Coalition
International Marine Mammal Project of Earth Island Institute
Iowa Environmental Council
Jewish Climate Action Network -MA
John Muir Project of Earth Island Institute
Justice for Wolves
Kentucky Heartwood
Klamath Forest Alliance
League of Humane Voters® of New York
Living Rivers
Long Beach Alliance for Clean Energy
Los Padres ForestWatch
Malama Makua
Maryland Ornithological Society
Massachusetts Forest Watch
Missouri Coalition for the Environment
Native Plant Conservation Campaign
NH Audubon
North Country NYPAN
Northeast Oregon Ecosystems
Northern Jaguar Project
Northwest Center for Alternatives to Pesticides
Northwest Environmental Advocates
Oasis Earth
Ocean Conservation Research
Oceanic Preservation Society
Oregon Natural Desert Association
Our Santa Fe River
Physicians for Social Responsibility, AZ
Portland Raging Grannies
POWAZ
Preserve Monroe
Project Eleven Hundred
Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility
Public Lands Project
Raptors Are The Solution
Resource Renewal Institute
RESTORE: The North Woods
Rocky Mountain Wild
San Bernardino Valley Audubon Society
San Diego Coastkeeper
Santa Barbara Standing Rock Coalition
Save The Colorado
SAVE THE FROGS!
Save the Manatee Club
Sequoia ForestKeeper®
ShoreRivers Inc.
South Asian Fund for Education, Scholarship and Training (SAFEST)
South Florida Wildlands Association
Spokane Riverkeeper
Stop the Algonquin Pipeline Expansion
Sullivan Alliance for Sustainable Development
Sunrise Movement, Fairview High School
Sustainable Arizona
The Lands Council
Trap Free Montana
Trap Free Montana Public Lands
Turner Endangered Species Fund
Turtle Island Restoration Network
Unexpected Wildlife Refuge
Upper Green River Alliance
Volusia Climate Action
Vote-Climate
Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility
WESPAC Foundation, Inc.
Western Watersheds Project
Wild Fish Conservancy
Wild Nature Institute
Wildcoast
WildEarth Guardians
Wolf Conservation Center
Women’s March Santa Barbara
Zero Hour
FILM AND ARTICLE CREDITS
- Shad Engkilterra - Journalist, Author
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