A scandal is brewing once again because the government puts capitalist greed ahead of environmental conservation. This time, the subject is the Endangered Species Act.
This 34-year-old law protects some 1,326 species of plants and animals that are in danger of extinction. Under Bush,
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There is no shortage of species that are actually in danger—at issue is only whether or not their names will be added to a list mandating their protection.
As a result, there are 279 species, some near extinction—from California’s Yosemite toad to Puerto Rico’s elfin-woods warbler—on a “waiting list” to be declared endangered. In addition, 200 of the “officially” endangered species are nearly extinct, in part because funds to support the species’ recovery have been cut.
“It’s wonderful the bald eagle is recovering—one of the most charismatic and best funded species ever,” said Jamie Rappaport Clark, a former director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, now with Defenders of Wildlife. “But what’s happening with the other species? This administration has starved the endangered species’ budget. It has dismantled and demoralized its staff.”
There is a 30 percent vacancy rate in the program’s staff. Since 2000, the budget for interventions to save species has been cut 15 percent in real dollars. The budget for 2008 calls for additional cuts of 28 percent.
Scandal leads to resignation
In June, Julie A. MacDonald, a deputy assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior who oversaw the endangered-species program, resigned after it was revealed that she had ordered scientists to change their findings, and shared information with lobbyists for agricultural and energy interests.
MacDonald owns a ranch in California with her husband—ranchers were one of the interest groups that have opposed the listing of species because it reduces profits.
According to the inspector general, Fish and Wildlife Service employees complained that Ms. MacDonald had “bullied, insulted, and harassed the professional staff to change documents and alter biological reporting.”
MacDonald “disclosed nonpublic information to private sector sources”—special interest groups that would stand to lose money if certain species were listed, such the California Farm Bureau Federation and the right-wing Pacific Legal Foundation, a law firm that specializes in “property rights advocacy.” This group has brought suit to force the government to decide whether to “delist” 194 California species, claiming the species have recovered.
The problem goes beyond MacDonald.
In 2005, the Union of Concerned Scientists’ surveyed about 450 Fish and Wildlife Service scientists. Two-thirds knew
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Vice President Dick Cheney got involved in one case in 2002. During a drought, Klamath River water was used to irrigate farmers’ fields rather than provide enough water for salmon to swim upstream.
This act killed 70,000 salmon and created hardship for Native peoples and other fishermen on the West Coast. Among the salmon killed were coho, which are listed as “threatened” in the region.
Corruption in government and politics is nothing new. Nor is the fact that untrammeled capitalist development is killing off species and their habitats at an unprecedented rate.
Under capitalism, the state and its agencies exist to protect capitalist interests, not to protect the environment. That a law was passed in the first place to protect endangered species was only due to the struggle of people to save the environment.
But we need more than a law that can be undermined and subverted. We need to overturn the system of capitalism itself, and replace it with socialist planning to meet human needs and protect the planet and all species for future generations.
