I am not sure how much I approve of this latest trend in politics. Online petitioning is not - to my mind - ever going to make a jot or tittle of difference in a world where money matters more than morals, and power matters more than people. U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar has already shown his true colours on a number of occasions where the environment is concerned, and I doubt whether clicking an online petition is going to have any effect whatsoever, apart from help condition an entire generation into believing that direct action is no longer relevant.
However, the organisation behind this petition (The Center for Biological Diversity) are good people, and the cause is a just one:
Today, approximately 120 Florida panthers are left in the world. These majestic animals are threatened on all sides by rapid habitat destruction from human encroachment and development.
Some panthers still roam throughout Florida, but breeding panthers are only found in southwestern Florida on 5 percent of their original range, which used to extend throughout the whole Southeast. They face imminent extinction without our help.
Our government is required by the Endangered Species Act to protect imperiled species on the brink of extinction. But the Florida panther was listed in 1967, and this vanishing animal’s home still hasn’t been protected -- more than 32 years later!
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