The Bush administration will carefully consider the 200,000 non-form-letter comments it received on its recent plan to muck with the Endangered Species Act. And by “carefully consider,” we mean 15 reviewers will chug through ’em in just four eight-hour days. That means each reviewer, each minute, must peruse seven comments, some of which are tens of pages long. Let’s hear it for thoroughness! And speaking of endangered species, Earth is gearing up to lose so many species that scientists must pick which ones are most important to save. Nearly 50 percent of plant and animal species could go kaput within current earthlings’ lifetimes, says new research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study, which focused on flowering plants, concluded that genetically unique species are most important to save: It’s better to build you up, buttercup, than to keep Miss Daisy from being driven away.
