[Scpg] Could this be curtains for Flipper?

[Paul Racko]

PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER EDITORIAL

-Posted on Wed, May. 21, 2003

Editorial | Fin-ished?
Could this be curtains for Flipper?

What does it take for a species to earn a little respect in Washington?

Forget spotted owls, banana slugs and snail darters for a second. 
They've had their controversies.

Let's talk dolphins. They're cute, smart and funny. Children love 
them. One even got his own TV show. And lately, after clearing mines 
from the port of Umm Qasr so humanitarian aid could be delivered to 
Iraq, dolphins became war heroes.

Yet, today the House of Representatives may gut a key protection of 
dolphins in the wild - and many other safeguards for animals that 
live on the land and in the sea. The "National Security Readiness 
Act" is an environmental rollback so extreme it would make Newt 
Gingrich blush.

Under the guise of military readiness, the Department of Defense has 
sought broad exemptions from key environmental laws, including the 
Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act. The 
Pentagon argues the laws inhibit training and testing.

However, a June 2002 report from the General Accounting Office could 
not find a single case in which environmental protections had harmed 
military readiness. The GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, 
concluded that existing exemptions were sufficient.

The war in Iraq left no doubt about the country's military prowess. 
Protecting critical habitat for the threatened desert tortoise at 
Edwards Air Force Base didn't hamper precision targeting, which is 
practiced there. Environmental safeguards and military training do 
coexist.

More is afoot here. The underlying ideological aim of this proposal, 
now incorporated into the defense authorization bill, became apparent 
when the House expanded it far beyond even the sweeping changes the 
Pentagon had requested.

The House Resources Committee granted "national security" exemptions 
not just to the military but to all federal agencies, including 
national parks and other lands set aside expressly for preservation.

In the case of marine mammals, the proposal altered rules not just 
for the animals' contact with the military, but with all human users 
- cruise ships, oil and gas drillers, the shipping industry.

The goal here isn't to beef up military readiness. It's a backdoor 
bid - exploiting the current popularity of the Armed Forces - to 
dismantle fundamental environmental laws.

This camouflaged swipe at the environment merits a quick death as 
these rules proceed on Capitol Hill.
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© 2003 Philadelphia Inquirer and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.philly.com

**********************************

"I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: 'O Lord,
make my enemies ridiculous.'  And God granted it."
--Voltaire

Mark J. Palmer
Assistant Director
International Marine Mammal Project
Director
Wildlife Alive
Earth Island Institute
300 Broadway, Suite 28
San Francisco, CA 94133

(415) 788-3666 x139
(415) 788-7324 (fax)

<mpalmer at cal.net>

www.earthisland.org