Joe Lieberman: “I believe this Congress erred last year when it allowed passage of a moratorium on new listings of endangered species…”

“I believe this Congress erred last year when it allowed passage of a moratorium on new listings of endangered species, and new designations of critical habitat. This action did nothing to reduce the decline of wild plants and animals in our Nation, and across the world. If anything, the need to prevent their loss has grown, as God's creatures continue to lose a growing war against them. The moratorium did nothing to reduce the complications or costs of protecting them. In all likelihood, it has only made it more difficult as valuable time, and preferable management options, have been lost. The moratorium provided no funds to stimulate new approaches for conservation. It provided no financial incentives for private landowners. It did nothing to streamline listing procedures or tighten the quality of scientific determinations of species' risk. Instead, it built a false hope that somehow these problems would simply go away if we tried to put them away. It is understandable that nature does not heed man's advice. But it is unfortunate that we fail to heed nature's advice when it is so plain. Wild plants and animals are declining at rates thousands of times faster today than ever before in the fossil record. It is no coincidence that man's population, our thirst for natural resources, and our environmental problems, have grown just as fast in the opposite direction.”