One might have thought Theodore Roosevelt, the conservation president, and his successors in the White House, who each set aside magnificent, environmentally-sensitive swaths of land as part of America’s public trust, would have settled any question about not exploiting such areas for private profit.
But as we see in the alarming documentary Public Trust, oil, gas, mining, and timber interests just never, never stop trying to get permission from the federal government to spoil and destroy archaeological riches, animal refuges, grasslands, waters, just about anything you can think of for profit. The film explores various legal fights extending over decades to protect what was already protected by law, but which comes under renewed attack by the likes of Donald Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency and Department of the Interior.
With fossil fuel industries and mining interests constantly knocking on the door, we see how it takes real vigilance to continue preserving Bears Ears National Monument in Utah, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, and the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Monument in Minnesota.
Among the tragedies in all of this, we learn, is how little the input of Native Americans, for whom public lands in the U.S. includes many sacred sites, matters to our pro-development government. Incredibly, the Grand Canyon itself is in danger from exploitation if we don’t stop these steamrolling efforts to take away what has been bestowed to us. Strongly recommended. Aud: E, I, J, H, C, P