Fortify the act. (the Endangered Species Act)

National Parks, May, 1993 by Bean, Michael J.

IN THE PAST TWO decades, the United States has played two sharply contrasting roles in the world's quest to maintain biodiversity. We stand alone among leading powers in not signing the biodiversity treaty at the 1992 Earth Summit--keeping the good company of Iraq, Albania, Kiribati, Tajikistan, and a handful of others, while Canada, France, Great Britain, Germany, Japan, and most of the rest of the world are signatories. And yet, we adopted the Endangered Species Act of 1973, which is generally regarded throughout the globe as the most farreaching, progressive, and enlightened law to protect biological diversity.

Which view of the United States is correct? Are we a leader, whose actions are a model for the rest of the world, or have we abdicated any pretense...