"Climate change" ruling affects wildlife
May 08, 2009
Today Interior Secretary Salazar declined to reverse the second of the two Bush-era rule changes to the Endangered Species Act. The "polar bear" rule spells trouble not only for polar bears but for wildlife in Washington from mountain caribou to pikas to lynx to salmon.
Climate change promises lower stream flows and warmer waters harming already endangered runs of Northwest salmon. Photo by Trygve Steen
In one of its last actions in office, the Bush administration changed for the worse two key sections of the Endangered Species Act, America's safety net for plants and animals facing extinction.
Administrators with the Obama administration had until May 10 to undo these rule changes. In late April, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, who between them oversee the major agencies that manage endangered species on land and sea, overturned one of the rules, reinstating scientific consultation to the Act. Consultation has helped protected endangered plants and animals for decades.
Today, however, Secretary Salazar declined to reverse the second of the two rule changes.The Bush ruling he let stand forbids actions that contribute to climate change and global warming from being considered for the harm they do to endangered wildlife and critical habitat. The Bush "polar bear" rule change spells trouble not only for polar bears but for wildlife in Washington from mountain caribou to pikas to lynx to salmon.
