The Endangered Species Act is Needed Now More Than Ever

DECEMBER 22, 2023
BY GEORGE OCHENSKI

Humans tend to see the world with mankind as the most important species on the planet.

That concept has been reinforced through any number of ancient myths, particularly one that claims humans “have dominion over” all creation. But of course the actual “web of life” has many, many more strands than the rather newcomers of the human race. The great wisdom of the Endangered Species Act, now 50 years old, is to consider and maintain all the strands.

We have, and continue to, extirpate plants and animals for a huge variety of reasons. In the past, those reasons mostly concentrated on fulfilling the basic necessities of life as perceived at the time.

We hunted and fished for meat and hides, killed dangerous predators from fear and self-preservation, destroyed entire ecosystems to replace them with the plants and animals we desired.

Now, however, the destruction caused by the human race has gone far beyond the practices of the past. Now, we don’t extirpate entire species for our immediate needs, we extirpate them with the vast amounts of pollution we produce to fulfill desires that go far beyond our basic needs.

More:
https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/12/22/the-endangered-species-act-is-needed-now-more-than-ever/