The National Geographic magazine has been so mainstream for so long -- and so often purused only for the pictures -- that I wonder how many Republican householders would read the following and feel their blood run cold? This, from the January, 2009, issue's story on the Endangered Species Act:
"The Bush Administration has done nearly everything it could to endanger the act itself by decreasing funding and politicizing the scientific evaluations that determine the status of species at risk."
It notes that Bush 41 listed 235 species during his four years in office, but that Bush 43 listed only 64 during eight years.
It goes on: "In its waning months the Bush Administration proposed regulatory changes that would gut the act by allowing federal agencies, not scientists, to decide whether to protect a species."
And: "Perhaps the best measure of the act's value is the very contention it causes, the fact that it gives endangered species a day in court and helps us to see the unintended consequences of our actions. It reminds us tht what look like simple economic decisions -- to build a subdivision or auction new drilling leases or plant more corn for ethanol production -- have to be considered within the greater economy of nature, where many lives are in the balance."
The article is written by Verlyn Klinkenborg, who writes extensively about the world of nature. I like to think of the soccer moms at the conservative-dominated school my son attends being caught off guard by Klinkenborg's summation:
"Again and again, the battle over listing a species -- giving it the protection of the law -- boils down to the choices we make in our ordinary lives. ... what saves species, in the end, is human restraint ... ".
Human restraint that works not only in the interests of the greater sage grouse or -- in my own, development-besieged neighborhood in Fort Worth, Texas -- the three-toed box turtle, but in the interests of humanity, itself.
In conclusion: huzzah for the often-maligned and mocked Geographic -- environmental and cultural advocacy at its stealthiest! Given President Obama's swift action on his first day in office, Klinkenborg's next article could be about the new President restoring or even strengthening the Endangered Species Act, so that it can be taken off of the endangered list.