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Environmentalists warn Trump 'weakening' endangered species protections

Polar bearImage copyright Getty Images

The US federal government has announced an overhaul of the way it enforces the Endangered Species Act, a law credited with prevented countless extinctions.



Critics say the new rules will speed extinction for vulnerable wildlife.



What's in the new regulation?







'A wrecking ball'


Noah Greenwald, the Center for Biological Diversity's endangered species director, said in a statement: "These changes crash a bulldozer through the Endangered Species Act's lifesaving protections for America's most vulnerable wildlife."

"For animals like wolverines and monarch butterflies, this could be the beginning of the end," Mr Greenwald added

Drew Caputo, from the group Earthjustice, threatened to sue, saying: "This effort to gut protections for endangered and threatened species has the same two features of most Trump administration actions: it's a gift to industry, and it's illegal."

Several critics noted a UN report from May, which warned that more than one million plants and animals are facing global extinction due to human development and climate change.

Democrat Senator Tom Udall, who represents the state of New Mexico, said the new regulation will "take a wrecking ball to one of our oldest and most effective environmental laws".

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