Endangered Species Act at Risk

Among the many reprehensible things the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein did during his reign of terror was to commit acts of profound environmental damage in response to resistance by people he viewed as enemies. When armed forces drove Hussein's soldiers out of Kuwait, he ordered the oil wells set ablaze. Witnesses called the scene a "living hell."

Years before, at home in Iraq, Saddam Hussein drained thousands of square miles of marshland to punish a group of approximately half a million people known as Marsh Arabs who lived in Southern Iraq but who staged an uprising against Saddam in the early 1990's. Iraq's southern marshes had been lush and fertile for millennia, an important habitat for fish, birds and plants in the so-called Fertile Crescent where four rivers converge. Hussein apparently thought nothing of destroying this habitat for vengeful purposes. Environmental vengeance is especially indicative of a sick mind because it is wanton, broad-based and holds no respect for future generations.

But lest we think that environmental warfare is limited to lands where vengeful dictators rule, it may also be going on right here in America.

In the closing days of his tenure as president, George W. Bush and his administration have been rushing forward with plans to undermine the Endangered Species Act. One of the key motivations may be to deliver a present to political conservatives and the corporate bosses who have supported Bush and who also happen to hate environmental regulation.

You would think that given the tragic effect of de-regulation on the world's financial markets in recent weeks, Bush and Co. might gain some sense and decide not to de-regulate anything else. The current move to gut the Endangered Species Act feels more like payback to political enemies who have long badgered the Bush administration over issues of conservation and protection of species. Bush has publicly stated he believes people are more important than animals. The Endangered Species Act does not sit well with politicians like George W. Bush for this reason, but also for the fact that it creates a degree of legal leverage for environmentalists in defense of natural resources. This alone might be reason enough for hard Right conservatives to gut our environmental laws.

Political conservatives blame the Endangered Species Act for hampering development and making it more difficult for landowners to use land the way they see fit, without consideration or consequence. On the surface these arguments seem noble on behalf of private enterprise. Not all landowners behave criminally toward their property, of course. There are millions of citizens, corporations and private landowners who use national resources with fair consideration to the health of the environment. These citizens are not typical targets for litigation relative to the Endangered Species Act. That is not to say anyone is immune to its potential effects. Unsuspecting landowners have gotten caught in its cross hairs. But there is a reason. United States law as written is tipped so far on behalf of development and extraction concerns that protection of natural resources, even basic natural areas, can be quite difficult. To say nothing of rare and fragile ecosystems. The Endangered Species Act acts as a layer of protection against potential end game development.

Have there been abuses of the law? Yes there have. Do they compare to the long-term abuse of our environment through inconsiderate land use and abuse? Not by a long shot. The Endangered Species Act is typically a last line of defense against destruction of resources not protected by any other law.

A comparison of our natural resources to America's financial institutions is not out of line here. We're now seeing the importance of financial regulation as protection for our monetary assets. The same paradigm applies to America's natural assets. We need controls on development and land use to monitor and protect the core value of our natural resources and wildlife.

Exploitation by American industries has done much harm to the environment. Costs of pollution and environmental degradation to human health alone are nearly incalculable, probably in the trillions of dollars if you factor in costs of environmental disease and illness. The impact of industrial waste, pollutants and chemicals is typically not factored into the true costs of doing business. That case was strongly stated by author Paul Hawken in his book "The Ecology of Commerce."

Now George W. Bush and his cronies seem determined to gut the Endangered Species Act, opening the gates of wilderness to Bush buddies chomping at the bit to drill, mine, mow, dig, excavate, extract and/or devastate without concern as to whether their activities could wipe species off the face of the earth.

Tina Kreisher, a Bush Administration Interior Department spokesperson, had this to say about the Bush goal of relaxing environmental regulations. "We started this; we want to finish this."

An Associated Press story on the Bush move to gut environmental law relayed thin hope that if passed the new laws could be reversed when Barack Obama takes office. "If the rules go into effect before Obama takes office, they will be difficult to overturn since it would require the new administration to restart the rule-making process. Congress, however--could reverse the rules through the Congressional Review Act--a law that allows review of new federal regulations."

The timing of this Bush & Co. makes it seem as if killing the Endangered Species Act was a goal all along. Or, it could be that George W. Bush is behaving exactly like his old (now dead) nemesis Saddam Hussein by leaving "scorched earth" in his departing wake. The administration's actions certainly smack of angry retribution before being sent off into political exile.

The parallels in behavior between George W. Bush and Saddam Hussein do not end, after all, with environmental vengeance.

Saddam Hussein used the jail at Abu Ghraib to torture prisoners. George W. Bush took over the prison and allowed the Army to do the same thing.

Saddam Hussein killed thousands of Iraqis to achieve an uneasy peace. George W. Bush followed suit in a war that continues after 6 years.

As we've noted: Saddam Hussein vengefully destroyed some of the most valued and rare environmental habitats in the world to punish people he did not like. Now George W. Bush is doing the same thing to environmentalists by planning to gut the Endangered Species Act.

When it comes to imitating Saddam Hussein there are certainly many parallels for George W. Bush on some very big issues; condoning torture, creating war collateral and engaging in environmental warfare.

Now, like Saddam Hussein before him, George W. Bush is about to become a political Endangered Species himself. We'll see how he likes it.

We'll also see if the new administration sees fit to give George W. Bush protection in a political landscape laid to waste by his selfish ambitions.