Hmm... Well I've another 2 cents for you, now we have 4 cents.
I got this funny feeling that our $ 0.04 isn't going to pay for
much lobbying though. It's rather simple, protecting endangered
species is expensive and there is no profit in it. I beleive
the way most laws are set up, they help to promote the lost of
threatened species and not the other way around. After all
when they are gone there won't be a reason for them annoying
people (those with a conscience) to protect the environment
from destructive uses.
Like this give and take law. There is X amount of protected
acreage in a state like say... New Jersey. This would be Protected
WetLands. Now as we all know, certain species can only live in
particular environments, like bogs. They will not survive in
another type of wetland, like a swamp or a drainage ditch on some
farmer's land that he dug himself but still became a protected wet-
land somehow. Now there's a developement project going that needs
to use some of this protected wetland and so with some sort of
approval, they can buy/use the land. Somewhere else in the state
now needs to be 'made' back into wetland to maintain the X amount
of PWL. Of course, this 'new' WL will be up north were a whole of
businesses aren't in business anymore. The new PWL isn't the
same type of PWL that has been destroyed. The fragile species
that were there before it was used are gone... So now what you
get is in 2 locations the species which needed protection are gone
but you still have the same amount of Protected Wetland. Ain't it
sweet? There are all kinds of these loopholes in Environmental
Protection Laws that big business can use but for the regular
guy, like that farmer who dug a drainage ditch and now can't use
a large part of his land because drainage ditches are so very
threatened and delicate things, get burned.
Dave Evans