Really big loss for the US, particularly now, since wetlands are massive carbon sinks.
“While I am disappointed by the Supreme Court’s decision in the Sackett case, EPA and Army have an obligation to apply this decision alongside our state co-regulators, Tribes, and partners,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in a statement.
You have a fucking obligation to protect the environment. Fuck Michael Regan, Fuck the Supreme Court. I’m so fucking tired.
Fuck the Sacketts while you are at it. They are the ones that fucked this all up for us too.
Worst set of politicians ever
If you read the article you’ll find that, in this case it’s the SCOTUS, not the politicians or agencies who are responsible.
https://www.npr.org/2023/05/25/1178150234/supreme-court-epa-clean-water-act
Nevertheless, it’s terrible news and hopefully something can be done on a federal level to protect the wetlands, since they are hugely significant ecological systems and relatively important carbon sinks.
It’s still politicians that allowed this set of justices to be confirmed, with their crazy ‘originalist’ ideas that happen to always favour the wealthy.
Yes, but in that case we’re talking about multiple congressional sessions ago, not right now. The American voters and non-voters are also to blame for putting Trump and the Republicans in power at a time when multiple SCOTUS seats would be decided.
Yeah the article said Congress has to pass laws about it.
There have been much worse. This is probably the worst supreme court though.
Terrible decision. Wetlands are globally important ecosystems
It’s like pressing the VCR 3x fast forward button to extinction.
We need to get more people interested in space. It’s absolutely horrifying when platitudes like “we only have one planet, so save it and hug a tree, hehe” quickly become “we cannot find any earth like worlds within at least 400 lightyears of us, where the unit of measure is the distance crossed by light in one year. Any ELWs we do find may be utterly devoid of life, and will take 10 centuries to seed with oxygen producing bacteria and another 10 for life to take hold as we know it.”
We are utterly alone. We do not have the technology to travel for 700+ years, and another 1000+ before the world is ready. We don’t have the technology of archive and store copies of living and dead species. We need many centuries of R&D before we invent (near) light speed travel and the other technologies to support generation ships that can survive for millenia out in the black between stars.
I sent this article to GPT-4 and asked what the change actually means:
If a wetland has a clear and continuous surface water connection to a larger water body (like a river or lake), it remains protected. But if it’s isolated or its connection to larger waters is not continuously visible (like a swamp that might feed into a river only during certain seasons or conditions), it loses its federal protection.
