For sale by the GOP: Our public land — and our shared history

American public lands Again in the intersection Republicans in the Senate are also working on their own copy Donald Trump‘s “A single beautiful invoice work“Who recently approved the council and envelops the president’s policy agenda. After forcing the legislators to drop a ruling from Home Law draft Which sought to sell from half a million acres, the Republican Senators now intend to authorize behavior Of the 2 million and 3 million acres of land across 11 Western states belonging to the Office of Land Management and American Forest Service.
This is the latest effort by a group of Western legislators and pressure groups to sell public lands for the states and commercial interests, and increase their rental for mining, digging and registration. Ruling I found a hero In the former Minister of Interior (and the former ruler of North Dakota) Doug Burgum, and Leak From the agency, it revealed the intention to exploit public lands as comfortable and disposable assets. Experts and advocacy groups warn that the land is close Yosmit and Tahoe In California, Sabino Canyon and Mount Lemon In Arizona and great parcels from Arabaho, San Juan and Rio Grandi National In Colorado it can be threatened Under the very limited exemptions of the current draft law of land areas and environmental anxiety lands.
How to manage societies that manage their lands have severe consequences for everything from social and economic inequality to health and environmental quality.
Americans must resist the sales of the ablort public lands and act to preserve the lands that we have left. It is easy to overlook the centrality of the lands for the way in which societies operate, even after a large part of their residents moved to the cities. How societies run their lands Permanent consequences For everything, from social and economic inequality to health and environmental quality. The public lands in America remain an unparalleled location for entertainment for all, a tank of biological diversity and natural resources that have identified our past and are decisive to our common future.
The privatization of lands often move along with the marginalization of some people-such as indigenous Americans in the United States, South Africa in the apartheid and peasants who were removed from the common lands in the United Kingdom and Italy during the box movements-for a few few. It has also strengthened the deterioration of the environment and the intense environment. It was not possible to uproot the promoter across the major plains and dust vessels without the movement of the huge settlers caused by the Law of the Law for the year 1862. These rings show that the reformulation of those who own the land can radically transform power dynamics and societies paths.
Public lands are a unique feature in the American West. While there is a small group of public lands in the eastern states, more than half of all lands in the west, which includes hundreds of millions of acres of land, are owned by the federal government. In some states, federal lands are the overwhelming majority of all lands. It covers about 85 percent of Nevada and about 70 percent of Utah.
This wide share in the West is the remains of its level. When the United States acquired these lands by purchasing Louisiana, the Oregon Treaty and a Mexican American War, there were no states in these areas to manage vast areas of land. The federal government encouraged the indigenous population by force from large areas of land and handed it over to the settlers. When they fell into the forests and the main species threatened and the exploitation of natural resources on a scale vow, they grow Movement movement He grew up to preserve the landscape and ecosystems that remained. Because of this date, the federal government holds hundreds of millions of land acre.
Since then, there has been a permanent confrontation between the federal government and some western states and interests about who should manage public lands. This confrontation broke out through events such as the Sagebrush rebellion in the 1970s and eighties of the last century, and armed confrontations in 2014 and 2016 between militants and the federal government on the Land Management Office.
The current effort to sell public lands through legislation reflects this long signed resentment. Utah was a special voice in its efforts to correct lands from the federal government and turn it into state -owned lands that it could then use. The state filed a lawsuit against the government last year to control tens of millions of acres. The Supreme Court recently to reject This challenge.
Legislators Like Uta, Republican Party Senator Mike Lee You are now continuing to sell or transfer public lands, on the pretext that it will help to address housing lack, enhance economic growth and align land using local interests while filling out of the exhausted federal government treasures. But only about 0.1 % of federal lands are in urban or neighboring areas appropriate For housing. And the knowledge of the lawmakers Much more The lands of disposal, including popular entertainment areas, lands adjacent to the national parks and the areas of conservation and the conservation of indigenous America.
Given the enormous value of the lands and their tendency to estimate the value, the sale of public lands for individuals and wealthy companies may enhance an additional increase in inequality. Certainly, it will destroy these areas of general use, which leads to deducting the common areas of entertainment and reaching the nature and benefits that come with them. If the sensitive lands are ecosystems aimed at development or resource extraction, this may lead to environmental damage with the acceleration of climate change and the loss of biological diversity, with repercussions of society as a whole.
The extent of public lands in America is unique as it is essential to our common history. The waiver of that land will be on private interests or disbursing them wrong, which will glow its consequences for generations.
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