Leach was the only Iowa Congressman to oppose the
weakening of Endangered Species Act.
Nussle,Latham and King voted to weaken it.
Boswell did not vote because of recent Surgery.
--- Gregory Bungo <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Date: Thu, 29 Sep 2005 19:44:25 -0500
> From: Gregory Bungo <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: A Source of the Pressure Against the ESA
> To:
> [log in to unmask]
>
> Dear Sierrans,
>
> Today, the House of Representatives voted to cripple
> the
> Endangered Species Act, 229 votes to 193. Please
> see:
>
>
http://clerk.house.gov/cgi-bin/vote.asp?year=2005&rollnumber=506
>
> It's now up to the Senate to stop a tragedy from
> taking place.
> How did we get to this point? There are many
> reasons for an
> event like this in our complex world, but one stands
> out above
> most: there are too many people in the United
> States, and our
> population continues to grow by about 3 million
> people per year.
>
> As our population grows, the demand for housing also
> grows.
> Many people want to own their own houses, and those
> houses
> must occupy space. Even people who are satisfied
> with
> apartment living occupy space. People also need
> places
> to shop, places to work, and schools for their
> children.
>
> Any law that stands in the way of this kind of
> growth will
> encounter stern opposition. Many people will say
> that they
> support the protection of biodiversity, but what
> they may not
> say aloud is that it also had better not interfere
> with their
> ability to own a home or to earn a living. The real
> estate
> and construction industries know this, and they put
> great
> pressure on the Congress to allow continued growth.
> There's
> a lot of money at stake, after all! The Endangered
> Species
> Act can put land off limits from development for the
> sake of
> protecting biodiversity, and many people in our
> increasingly
> crowded nation don't like that. The average
> American is
> happy to give verbal support to endangered species,
> but that
> support often stops at the inconvenience of habitat
> protection.
>
> In recent years, the Sierra Club has been very
> reluctant to
> support vigorous action to stabilize the growth of
> the United
> States population of Homo sapiens, and now we're
> reaping the
> consequences. Those Sierrans who opposed recent
> measures
> to put the brakes on U.S. population growth should
> think
> long and hard about what happened today. Every year
> it
> will become 3 million people more difficult to
> protect
> endangered species. It doesn't matter whether the
> population
> growth is caused by births or by immigration. Both
> types
> of growth are equally dangerous to biodiversity and
> habitat.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Greg Bungo
> Sierra Club Life member
> member, River Prairie Group, Illinois Chapter
>
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> see:
> http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/terms.asp
>
__________________________________
Yahoo! Mail - PC Magazine Editors' Choice 2005
http://mail.yahoo.com
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