We Don't Need No Stinkin' Species!

Trump's war on Planet Earth continues:

Trump’s Department of the Interior is seeking to “revise” key, 40-year-old regulations which currently protect more than 300 threatened plant and animal species listed under the 1973 Endangered Species Act, according to a draft document that quietly leaked last week.

The document, a memo from the Interior to the White House, outlines a proposed rule that would virtually eliminate all automatic protections for species listed as “threatened” in the future by the Fish and Wildlife Service, a branch of the Interior. According to the proposal, protections won’t end for current threatened species, but rather only future ones.

Now that the EPA has determined that climate change doesn't exist, and is ready to start opening up public lands (read "our lands") to oil, gas, and lumber interests, I guess the next step is to get rid of all those useless animals:

The change could be disastrous for species like the North American wolverine, the gopher tortoise, and the Sierra Nevada red fox, which are proposed for listing, or are being considered for, threatened status in the future. Making things more dire is that extinction rates are only going to worsen as the climate changes. Across the globe, scientists estimate extinction rates today are already between 1,000 and 10,000 times higher than they would be without humans on the planet and predict one in six species could face extinction with our current climate trajectory.

The proposed rule would still allow the FWS to grant protections on a case-by-case basis, if they so choose. But, Greenwald interprets the room for exceptions to mean that the proposal is just another example of the Trump administration’s quest to please corporate interests. “It’s going to turn every listing into a negotiation with industry,” he says.

(Emphasis added.)

I suppose poisoning the air and water wasn't enough. The article notes that at present, it takes an average of twelve years to protect species under the Endangered Species Act, and at least 47 species have become extinct while waiting to join the list. Any bets on whether the NRA gets asked for its input on potential listings?

It's my fond wish that Mar-a-Lago gets hit by a massive storm surge in the coming hurricane season -- preferably while Trump is in residence. I'd take gopher tortoises over Trump any day.