6 species that are about to be sacrificed for the oil and gas industry

Changes in the US Endangered Species Act put plants and animals across the country at risk. Republicans in the United States, since Donald Trump is in office, are trying to amend the Endangered Species Act (ESA)

He is about to end up run over, his mother saves him

Changes in the US Endangered Species Act put plants and animals across the country at risk. Republicans, ever since Donald Trump took office, have been trying to amend the Endangered Species Act (ESA).





According to the new ones proposals, protection would be limited to species designated as “threatened” (a lower level of risk of extinction), consider the economic costs before defending a species and placing less emphasis on long-term threats such as climate change.

For its part, the Trump administration has also made itself famous for other solutions to the detriment of the environment. The president has canceled much of the Bears Ears National Monument, a protected area in Utah and has already ordered the 47% reduction of the Grand Staircase-Escalante, two important parks. With a single signature, he proclaimed a downsizing of two national monuments no longer subject to environmental protection but free to be exploited for the extraction of oil and gas.

More than 1.600 species are in danger of extinction but 6 in particular could be even more so due to the amendments to the Endangered Species Act, to favor fossil multinationals:

Index

Polar bear

6 species that are about to be sacrificed for the oil and gas industry

The polar bear - and other threatened Arctic species - face perhaps the greatest risk in Trump's proposed approach. Animals would remain at the mercy of the effects of climate change if their territories were placed in the hands of the oil lobbies.

Sage rooster

A splendid creature, which lives in the USA and Canada. What does it have to do with oil and gas? Most of these birds live in protected areas and public areas waiting to be given to oilmen. (Cover photo)

Grey Wolf

6 species that are about to be sacrificed for the oil and gas industry

Since being reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park in 1995, the wolf has spread throughout the northern United States. But according to the proposed modification of the ESA, the protection would be eliminated and at the same time also the possibility of reintroducing the Mexican gray wolf to the southwest of the country.



Delta smelt

6 species that are about to be sacrificed for the oil and gas industry

A fish that lives in the delta of some American rivers and that in the Iucn red list it is classified as highly at risk because the population has declined by more than 90 percent in the past 10 years (three generations are around 3 years old) and the decline is still ongoing. As the ecosystem of the San Joaquin-Sacramento delta in Northern California has been replaced by farms and levees, the habitats of these animals have vanished. According to the changes in the ESA, the fish will receive less protection.

Silver salmon

6 species that are about to be sacrificed for the oil and gas industry

Foto: Smithsonian Institution


It is a species of marine and freshwater bony fish belonging to the Salmonidae family. Warming waters, habitat destruction and agricultural irrigation have plunged salmon populations in the Northwest, and Trump's new rules could hinder any recovery. In the Klamath River Basin, for example, lawmakers have to negotiate with farmers how much water to send downstream during drought years.

Grizzly bear

6 species that are about to be sacrificed for the oil and gas industry

About 700 bears live in the Yellowstone region, another 1.100 are found near Glacier National Park. But those who live near Washington's North Cascades may have a difficult life. A cut in funding is expected for the protection effort.


READ also:

  • The 10 new species discovered in 2018 (and already at risk of extinction)
  • 115 new species discovered in Mekong: some are already at risk of extinction
  • Usa, green light for coal and the hunt for Alaskan bears and wolves

Francesca Mancuso

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