It’s been amply demonstrated that Donald Trump’s proposed wall along the Mexican border is a disaster waiting to happen. It send a terrible message to our southern neighbors and could damage relations with Mexico for years to come. Moreover, it would be a logistical and engineering nightmare. It would be a potential political disaster as well, since it could put a number of American homes on the Mexican side of the border. And on, and on, and on.
Well, a number of environmental experts have raised another concern. They believe that Trump’s proposed wall could do tremendous damage to the environment.
One of those experts is wildlife biologist Jeff Corwin. He told NBC News that many animals rely on traveling across the border for a number of reasons–seasonal migration, nesting and reproduction, and ensuring a genetically diverse population. For those reasons, he believed that a wall would be nothing short of “catastrophic.”
Corwin outlined his concerns earlier in the week to MSNBC’s Alex Witt. Watch here.
Corwin said that the wall would sever “nature’s bridge” between the Americas–a bridge that has existed for millions of years. Many North American species actually crossed this bridge from South America. He also noted that at least 100 migratory bird species would be severely impacted. Corwin also said that it could impact some 90 endangered species, such as the Mexican gray wolf, the jaguar, and the white-tailed deer. He believes a number of them could be “pushed to extinction” if this wall is built.
To his mind, the fact Trump seems to be going full steam ahead with this wall leads him to a stark conclusion.
“It doesn’t seem that this administration cares about science.”
Corwin isn’t the only one sounding the alarm. Jesse Lasky, a biologist at Penn State, is one of the few people to study the effects of current and existing barriers on wildlife living along the border. He argues that Trump’s wall would “stop any movement of anything that couldn’t fly over the wall”–thus putting “hundreds of species” at risk.
Animals aren’t the only ones at risk. Alejandro Fiero Cabo, a professor of environmental science at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, believes that the wall could harm a number of critical plant populations along both sides of the Rio Grande. The National Wildlife Federation considers the Rio Grande Valley “one of the most important habitats in the country”–mainly because so many species come across the border. However, the last comprehensive study of how border security impacts the environment was conducted in 2001.
Last week, the Center for Biological Diversity joined forces with Congressman Raul Grijalva of Arizona to file the first federal lawsuit against the wall. Grijalva’s district includes most of Arizona’s share of the border. The suit aims to force the Department of Homeland Security to conduct an environmental impact study of the proposed wall.
However, a section of the REAL ID Act–best known for setting federal standards for state-issued IDs–allows DHS to simply waive most environmental assessments in the name of national security. According to Defenders of Wildlife, DHS has invoked this power at least 35 times since REAL ID was enacted in 2005. Defenders of Wildlife senior vice president Michael Dreher believes this provision is unconstitutional, and hopes that any waivers related to that wall will be challenged in court.
It’s been amply established that Trump considers a lot of things to be simply things in his way. From the looks of it, he seems to consider the environment to be just something in the way of his precious wall.
(featured image courtesy Department of Homeland Security Flickr feed, part of public domain)
