Ryan Zinke at USDA headquarters in Washington, DC on Jan. 18, 2018. Lance Cheung / USDA / Flickr
Interior Sec. Ryan Zinke is the winner of the Center for Biological Diversity's 2017 Rubber Dodo award. The statue is awarded each year to the person or group who has most aggressively sought to destroy America's natural heritage or drive endangered species extinct.
"Ryan Zinke seems to wake up every day wondering how he can tear apart America's public lands, ramp up oil and gas development and put endangered species on a fast track to extinction," said Kierán Suckling, the Center for Biological Diversity's executive director.
<p>Zinke and President <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/trump-watch/">Trump</a> announced massive cuts to <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/bears-ears">Bears Ears</a> and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in Utah. Days later his Interior Department opened bids for the largest oil lease-sale ever offered in Alaska's National Petroleum Reserve—potentially turning over more than 10 million acres of prime wilderness and <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wildlife">wildlife</a> habitat to oil development.</p><p>Zinke's Interior Department also proposed vastly ramping up <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/offshore-oil-drilling">offshore drilling</a> in the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/arctic">Arctic</a>, the Gulf of Mexico and along the West Coast and East Coast. If the plan is enacted, it could lead to more than 5,000 oil spills and contribute 49.5 gigatons of carbon dioxide pollution, the equivalent of the emissions from 10.6 billion cars driven for a year.</p><p>He overturned President Obama's moratorium on federal <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/coal">coal</a> leasing and wants to open three marine <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/national-monuments">monuments</a> to industrial commercial fishing: Northeast Canyons and Seamounts in the Atlantic; Pacific Remote Islands; and Rose Atoll in the South Pacific.</p><p>Zinke's U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service this fall tried to roll back an Obama-era ban on trophy <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/elephants">elephant</a> imports from Zimbabwe; he has denied protections to species like the Pacific walrus.</p><p>"Zinke's an extension of Trump's greed, callousness and corporate cronyism," Suckling said. "It's hard to imagine anyone else who has done more this year to drive our environment straight into the ditch, along with the future of America's wildlife and public lands."</p><p>Zinke won the Rubber Dodo award after an online contest where tens of thousands of people were asked to choose between him, EPA Administrator <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/scott-pruitt">Scott Pruitt</a>, Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah) and Sonny Perdue, head of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.</p><p>Previous Rubber Dodo award winners include Rep. Rob Bishop (2016), <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/monsanto">Monsanto</a> (2015), the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services (2014), the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/koch-brothers">Koch brothers</a> (2013), <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-denier">climate denier</a> Senator James Inhofe (2012), the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (2011), former <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/bp">BP</a> CEO Tony Hayward (2010), massive land speculator Michael Winer (2009), Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (2008) and Interior Sec. Dirk Kempthorne (2007).</p><p><strong>Background on the Dodo</strong><span></span></p><p>In 1598 Dutch sailors landing on the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius discovered a flightless, three-foot-tall, extraordinarily friendly bird. Its original scientific name was <em>Didus ineptus</em>. (Contemporary scientists use the less defamatory <em>Raphus cucullatus.</em>) To the rest of the world, it's the dodo—possibly the most famous extinct species on Earth after the dinosaurs. It evolved over millions of years with no natural predators and eventually lost the ability to fly, becoming a land-based consumer of fruits, nuts and berries. Having never known predators, it showed no fear of humans or the menagerie of <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/animals/">animals</a> accompanying them to Mauritius.</p><p>Its trusting nature led to its rapid extinction. By 1681 the dodo had vanished, hunted and outcompeted by humans, dogs, cats, rats, macaques and pigs. Humans logged its forest cover while pigs uprooted and ate much of the understory vegetation.</p><p>The origin of the name <em>dodo</em> is unclear. It likely came from the Dutch word <em>dodoor</em>, meaning "sluggard," the Portuguese word <em>doudo</em>, meaning "fool" or "crazy," or the Dutch word <em>dodaars</em> meaning "plump-arse" (that nation's name for the little grebe).</p><p>The dodo's reputation as a foolish, ungainly bird derives in part from its friendly naiveté and the very plump captives that were taken on tour across Europe. The animal's reputation was cemented with the 1865 publication of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.</p><p>Based on skeleton reconstructions and the discovery of early drawings, scientists now believe that the dodo was a much sleeker animal than commonly portrayed. The rotund European exhibitions were likely produced by overfeeding captive birds.</p>
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<small placeholder="add photo credit..." class="image-media media-photo-credit">Center for Biological Diversity</small></p>
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Today the Center for Biological Diversity gave Utah Congressman Rob Bishop its annual Rubber Dodo award. The statue is awarded each year to the person or group who has most aggressively sought to destroy America's natural heritage or drive endangered species extinct. Bishop, a Republican, is chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources.
"Rob Bishop has fanatically pursued an extremist agenda to give away America's public lands and kill off its endangered species," said Kierán Suckling, the Center for Biological Diversity executive director. "He is so far outside the mainstream that even Donald Trump has rebuked him for his positions."
House Quietly Shifts Federal Policy Making It Easier to Sell Off Public Land https://t.co/1TxW6kk7QA @greenpeaceusa @foe_us— EcoWatch (@EcoWatch)1483585222.0
In the last few weeks alone, Bishop has called for repealing America's strongest and most successful conservation law, the Endangered Species Act, pushed through a congressional rule requiring that bills seeking to give away federal public lands be treated as revenue neutral, regardless of their costs to federal and state governments, and advocated rescinding the recently created Bears Ears National Monument.
"Rob Bishop must go to sleep every night dreaming of ways to steal public lands away from the American people," said Suckling. "These forests, deserts, rivers and streams are home to thousands of species of wildlife and are a source of inspiration and wonder to millions. But Bishop's doing everything he can to turn them over to polluters, developers and oil companies."
OMG! Land Grab Congressman Now Wants #Trump to Abolish National Monuments https://t.co/ZdmAJo7HsN @CenterForBioDiv @sierraclub @Wilderness— EcoWatch (@EcoWatch)1480262373.0
Bishop won the Rubber Dodo award after an online contest where tens of thousands of people were asked to choose between him and William Clay, deputy administrator of USDA's Wildlife Services; former Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn; and former Exxon CEO Lee Raymond.
Previous Rubber Dodo award winners include Monsanto (2015), the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services (2014), the Koch brothers (2013), climate denier Sen. James Inhofe (2012), the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (2011), former BP CEO Tony Hayward (2010), massive land speculator Michael Winer (2009), Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (2008) and Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne (2007).