http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/1013-12.htm
Published on Monday,
October 13, 2003 by the Associated Press
Primate Expert Jane Goodall Assails Bush
on Environment
by Lisa Feff
QUOTE:
"There are certain people in decision-making places who are
clearly
doing the wrong thing. If we care about justice and we care about
stewardship of the planet, we have to speak out."
Jane Goodall
SAN FRANCISCO -- Primatologist
Jane Goodall criticized President Bush's
environmental policies Sunday, charging the White House with leading
an "onslaught" against the Endangered Species Act that
could lead
to more African animals being killed or captured for profit.
Goodall, famed worldwide
for her life's work studying and protecting
chimpanzees in Tanzania, said her beloved apes and other species
face a threat from the Bush Administration that could undo decades
of conservation efforts. "When I start talking about the
long list
of reversals of legislation that the Bush administration has
introduced over the last three years, it's terrifying," Goodall
said during an appearance at San Francisco's Episcopal Grace Cathedral.
She cited an effort
by the White House to amend the 1973 Endangered
Species Act so U.S. companies can import a certain number of endangered
animals if they compensate the animals' native countries with
money
for conservation programs. Currently, such animals can't be imported
into the United States.
Goodall said she believes
circus owners and other businesses
that use animals for entertainment or research are responsible
for the proposed change.
"Obviously, they
have lobbied someone in the administration
to introduce this terrible bill," Goodall said. "We
mustn't
let it happen."
Goodall is known internationally
as an outspoken advocate
for environmental causes. United Nations Secretary General
Kofi Annan named Goodall a U.N. Messenger of Peace last year,
and she was made a dame of the British Empire -- the female
equivalent of a knight -- by Queen Elizabeth this year.
Goodall also accused
Bush of promoting a global climate
of fear since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to justify
building more nuclear weapons. "The president of the United
States has sent a message around the world -- be afraid,"
Goodall said, contrasting Bush's leadership with Winston
Churchill's reassuring style when World War II terrorized
her native England.
Asked whether her blunt
remarks put her at risk of being
labeled partisan, Goodall said she merely calls situations
as she sees them, without regard to politics.
"There are certain
people in decision-making places who are
clearly doing the wrong thing," she said. "If we care
about
justice and we care about stewardship of the planet, we have
to speak out."
Copyright 2003 The
Associated Press
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