The Endangered Species Act SOS Flag
The Endangered Species Act SOS Flag is a community arts quilt project that was started during the first Trump administration when attempts were being made to weaken the Endangered Species Act. The idea for a flag came from Kierán Suckling the executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity. Artists from all over the world came together and contributed. There are 50 stars for 50 states and 50 species on a tattered embattled flag. Every species has a story. Policy and politics change. The Endangered Species Act, while not perfect, was once a necessary line of defense in our work to save species from extinction. We are now in Trump’s second term, watching key regulatory changes further weaken the Endangered Species Act. These include :
– Redefining the term “harm” which eliminates the prohibition against changing or destroying critical habitat.
-Narrowing the definition of “take” by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to mean only “direct intentional targeting” of a protected species, which will allow accidental or incidental deaths including ship strikes and deaths due to habitat destruction by industrial projects to be exempt from prosecution.
-Rolling back automatic “blanket” protections for newly listed threatened species which will require a lengthy species by species determination process.
-Proposed rules to allow economic and national security to be a factor in the designation of critical habitats and listings.
-Creating the “God Squad” to consider exemptions for oil and gas development in the Gulf of Mexico.
-Slowing new listings as compared to all previous administrations.
Now more than ever we need to protect the Endangered Species Act and all life on earth. The quote on the stripes is from Black Elk “One should pay attention to even the smallest crawling creature for these too may have a valuable lesson to teach us.”
The flag is 14’8″W x 9’2″ H
