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While the local daily paper wails in the wilderness that endangered species are the cause of every economic malady and the lack of a new high school (Enterprise Record editorial 2/4/01), the planet is facing the greatest wave of species extinction worldwide since the disappearance of the dinosaurs. This loss is destroying the genetic diversity of our planet.

Scientists estimate that we are currently losing 100 species a day. One quarter of the world's species could be lost within the next 50 years. Humans stand to gain immeasurably from laws that enhance biodiversity such as the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The World Health Organization estimates that 80% of the world's health problems are treated with plant-based medicines, yet only 5% of the known plants in the world have ever been investigated for pharmaceutical properties (e.g. the rosey periwinkle is a tropical flower used for leukemia; yew tree bark for ovarian and breast cancer). Food security also depends on genetic diversity. Monocultures are extremely vulnerable to pests and climatic changes (e.g. the 1946 potato famine in Ireland, Soviet wheat damage in 1972, citrus canker in Brazilian orange trees).

In 1962, Rachel Carson wrote in her seminal book Silent Spring, "We stand now where two roads diverge. But unlike the roads in Robert Frost's familiar poem, they are not equally fair. The road we have long been traveling is deceptively easy, a smooth superhighway on which we progress with great speed, but at its end lays disaster. The other fork of the road—the one 'less traveled by'—offers our last, our only chance to reach a destination that assures the preservation of the earth."

Eleven years after Carson's statement, the United States Congress passed the ESA with almost unanimous approval and it was signed into law by Republican President Nixon. He stated at the time, "Nothing is more priceless and more worthy of preservation than the rich array of animal life with which our country has been blessed." The ESA authorized the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service to list threatened and endangered species and undertake myriad efforts to protect and hopefully restore the species that have been listed. The law made endangered species protection one of the highest priorities of the federal government.

An independent scientific poll conducted by the Journal of Society and Natural Resources (12:469-479) in 1999 demonstrated extensive support of the ESA with 84% of Americans opting to maintain or strengthen the ESA. The poll also revealed that eastern senators and representatives are generally much more supportive of the ESA than western politicians, but it is clear that the majority of the public in the west overwhelmingly supports the ESA.

Not only has the U.S. government and a vast majority of Americans prioritized animal and plant species, but religious organizations have also recognized the importance of all of creation. Patriarch Bartholomew, leader of the Orthodox Christian Churches stated in 1997, "To commit a crime against the natural world is a sin... For humans to cause species to become extinct and to destroy the biological diversity of God's creation, for humans to degrade the integrity of the Earth by causing changes in its climate, stripping the Earth of its natural forests, or destroying its wetlands...for humans to contaminate the Earth's waters, its land, its air, and its life with poisonous substances—these are sins."

A May 6, 1999 Congressional Research Service Issue Brief by M. Lynne Corn, Endangered Species: Continuing Controversy, elaborates on the level of support for the ESA by the general population and religious groups.

Debate, pro and con, on ESA splits largely along demographic lines. While most demographic groups support species conservation, that support is stronger among urban and suburban populations and less so in rural areas; and strong among those in the east and along the coasts and less so in central and mountain states. Sport hunters and anglers seem divided on the issue. It is also noteworthy that, while the debate often centers on jobs and biology, people on both sides claim ethical support for their positions, and some religious groups now participate in the debate. In addition, some industries (e.g., logging and land development) generally see ESA as a serious problem, while others (e.g., some commercial fishing and many recreation interests) see it as generally supporting their interests.

The ESA has been a bulwark against species loss for 27 years. If you think that it isn't working and should be scrapped, you're not thinking about the bald eagles, otters, cut-throat trout, and gray whales. All those species, and hundreds more, have benefited from the 1973 law. There are 971 domestic species currently listed as endangered and 273 as threatened, but only ten have recovered. The ESA needs to be strengthened for species and ecosystem protection while creating additional incentives for property owners to participate in conservation efforts. In addition, a study needs to be initiated to analyze federal laws and programs that are detrimental to listed species or that discourage conservation by private landowners.

The Enterprise Record's shallow attempt to use species and natural habitats as the obstacle to all social ills (jobs, housing, schools) is a continuing disservice to the community and the school children who are waiting for the new high school. Species and habitat are not holding up the high school, but lack of education inside the Chico Unified School District Board (CUSDB) coupled with corruption and greed by a minority of local developers. The wetland and special status species values in Chico have been well known for almost a decade, but the CUSDB has married itself to a highly constrained property when there are four other viable alternatives that are also found in southeast Chico.

Edward O. Wilson, a distinguished Harvard University biologist, acknowledges our limited understanding, "We have only a poor grasp of the ecosystem services by which other organisms cleanse the water, turn the soil into fertile living cover, and manufacture the very air we breathe." Unless we act now, we stand to lose life-saving medicines, productive agriculture, abundant fisheries and genetic secrets of diverse life forms. Let's not leave biodiversity to the history books.

This column originally appeared in the February 2001 Chico Examiner.

Earth Is the Ark