A Collapse of Governance

The U.N. has once again failed to act to protect such endangered species as Atlantic bluefin tuna.

I always thought that a species was endangered if the organism’s population plummeted to a fraction of historic levels.  In California, the scourge of DDT and PCBs led to the listing of the California Brown Pelican on the federal endangered species list.  With listing comes additional protection. Recently, the Brown Pelican recovered enough to be taken off the list.

But last week a United Nations body came up with a new definition of endangered species that simply boggles the mind.

Flying Easy?

The Brown Pelican falls off the endangered list but toxic dangers still loom in the sea

The federal Department of Interior has just delisted the Brown Pelican from the endangered species list.  I agree with the move, which occurred about eight months after the State Department of Fish and Game delisted the California Brown Pelican.  It is just tragic that it took over 35 years since the DDT and PCB ban to finally achieve this milestone. The legacy of our society’s addiction to easy-to-use pesticides and herbicides is brilliantly documented in Rachel Carson’s classic 1962 book “Silent Spring.” The impacts of DDT and PCBs on eggshell thinning in predatory birds nearly led to the extinction of the Brown Pelican, Peregrine Falcon and Bald Eagle.  All of the species have recovered substantially in the decades following the chemical bans, but the organochlorines still pose a substantial ecological and health risk. These toxins easily biomagnify up the food web and have very slow degradation rates in the marine environment.