TOW #5 – Article: "A Shifting Approach to Saving Endangered Species"

The New York Times
"A Shifting Approach to Saving Endangered Species"

October 5, 2015
By Erica Goode

Erica Goode is the environmental editor for The New York Times, where she writes articles on national and international environmental issues.  She established the new environment department in 2009 at the Times.  In response to the Obama administration’s recent exclusion of the greater sage grouse from the endangered species list, Goode wrote this article explaining the scientific and ethical controversies surrounding America’s approach to saving endangered species.  She successfully defines the causes that have effected today’s controversy between groups of people in order to persuade conservationists that there is still hope for a solution, and that the first step towards compromise is to simply talk about the problem at hand and to combine contradicting ideas.  

The author structures her essay with headings, one being, “A Tradition of Distrust” (para. 20) of industry, which Goode argues is the ultimate source of the divisions between conservationists themselves and non-conservationists, who consist of private landowners and industries.  She then cites several supporting examples, including advocators for the spotted owl not trusting the timber industry to follow regulations (para. 30), as well as the inconsistent amounts of funding Congress allocates for each endangered species, since those that serve an industrial purpose receive more money (para. 25).  As a result, some conservationists believe more regulations and supervision should be instigated, while others take the side of having no human interference at all. 

Goode then explains the long-term effects of these divisions by quoting credible scientists and wildlife experts, including the director of the energy, environment, and land use program at Vanderbilt Law School, Professor Ruhl.  He states that “In the future… humans will take up more and more… leaving less for other species.  And society will ultimately have to set priorities and make difficult decisions” (para. 43).  By including his quote, Goode logically argues that making difficult decisions is inevitable.  Instead of tip-toeing around the issue, Goode then quotes the director of the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics at the University of Vermont, Taylor Ricketts, who says, “I don’t see why it’s a problem to talk… the big mistake has been to frame this as a choice” (para. 54), which is how the author calls on her audience, conservationists, non-conservationists, and government officials, to see the issue of endangered species as unavoidable and to welcome and debate controversial ideas in order to compromise on a plausible solution.