How We’ll Respect and Protect Biodiversity

We are crowding out our fellow Earthly inhabitants. Scientists estimate species are being extinguished at ten to hundreds of times the historical background rate. Recently 23 species were dropped off the endangered species list.  Good news? Hardly. They were dropped because they are now EXTINCT!  Even insect numbers are down significantly.

As we humans multiply and our cities grow, we replace natural habitat with roadways, residential subdivisions and landfills. We turn forests into farms and trees into timber for our buildings, and we destroy habitat to mine for our metals and solar needs.

Today, humans and our livestock comprise 96% of the mammalian biomass on the planet. One hundred years ago we were 30%. Other life on Earth has just as much right to thrive as we do. Also, WE need healthy ecosystems in order to survive and thrive. The National Project to End Overshoot under my administration will start the U.S. on a path of contracting human population. A smaller human population will consume fewer resources.  A contracting population will reverse habitat destruction to leave space for species.  We will leave a place for nature.

Protection and restoration of habitat and other species populations will be a priority under my administration.

We’ll support the “Half-Earth” project first promoted by famed Harvard ecologist, E.O. Wilson and taken up by Deep Ecologist Dave Forman and his Rewilding Project. The intermediate goal is 30 by 30 - thirty percent land reserved for species by 2030. Our national project to end ecological overshoot should allow us to beat these milestones.

Agriculture, Interior, Forest Service and BLM will all manage for nature and our long-term welfare. Revenue generation will be a lower priority. Fossil fuel projects will be rapidly phased out.

We have a Bill of (human) Rights. I believe we must respect rights of nature. Our administration will consult with representatives of New Zealand and Ecuador, which have rights of nature now, and develop a Bill of Rights for Nature for the U.S.