Polar bears are in jeopardy and need stronger government
protection because of melting Arctic sea ice related to global
warming, the Bush administration said Wednesday.
Pollution and overhunting also threaten their existence. Greenland
and Norway have the most polar bears, while a quarter of them live
mainly in Alaska and travel to Canada and Russia.
Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne on Wednesday proposed listing
polar bears as a "threatened" species on the government list of
imperiled species. The "endangered" category is reserved for
species more likely to become extinct.
"Polar bears are one of nature's ultimate survivors, able to live
and thrive in one of the world's harshest environments," Kempthorne
said. "But we are concerned the polar bear's habitat may literally
be melting."
A final decision on whether to add the polar bears to the list is a
year away, after the government finishes more studies.
Such a decision would require all federal agencies to ensure that
anything they authorize that might affect polar bears will not
jeopardize their survival or the sea ice where they live. That
could include oil and gas exploration, commercial shipping or even
releases of toxic contaminants or climate-affecting
pollution.
Kempthorne, however, said his department's studies indicate that
coastal and offshore oil and gas exploration, heavily promoted by
the Bush administration, particularly in Alaska, shouldn't be
curtailed.
"It's very clear that the oil and gas activity in that area does
not pose a threat to the polar bears," he said.
Similarly, Alaskan natives and other people who depend on hunting
the bears as part of their subsistence diet probably will not be
affected, Kempthorne said.
Environmentalists hope that invoking the Endangered Species Act
protections eventually might provide impetus for the government to
cut back on its emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping
"greenhouse" gases blamed for warming the atmosphere.
The proposed listing also marks a potentially significant departure
for the administration from its cautious rhetoric about the effects
of global warming. Kempthorne cited the thinning sea ice brought
about by global warming as the main culprit, although he said his
department wasn't required by the endangered species law to study
climate change.
President Bush's steadfast refusal to go along with United
Nations-brokered mandatory controls on carbon dioxide, the chief
global warming gas, has contributed to tensions between the United
States and other nations.
Polar bears, an iconic and cold weather-dependent animal, are
dropping in numbers and weight in the Arctic. In July, the House
approved a U.S.-Russia treaty to help protect polar bears from
overhunting and other threats to their survival.
That vote put into effect a 2000 treaty that sets quotas on polar
bear hunting by native populations in the two countries and
establishes a bilateral commission to analyze how best to sustain
sea ice. It also approved spending $2 million a year through 2010
for the polar bear program.
The Polar Bear Specialist Group of the World Conservation Union,
based in Gland, Switzerland, has estimated the polar bear
population in the Arctic is about 20,000 to 25,000.
The group lists the polar bear among more than 16,000 species
threatened for survival worldwide, and projects a 30 percent
decline in their numbers over the next 45 years. It says sea ice is
expected to decrease 50 percent to 100 percent over the next 50
years to 100 years.
The decision from Interior's Fish and Wildlife Service, which
oversees endangered species, coincides with a court-ordered
deadline. In February 2005, the Center for Biological Diversity,
Natural Resources Defense Council and Greenpeace petitioned
Interior's Fish and Wildlife Service to protect the polar bears.
After Fish and Wildlife officials missed a deadline for deciding
earlier this year, the groups sued and agreed on Wednesday's
deadline.
"This is a victory for the polar bear, and all wildlife threatened
by global warming," said Kassie Siegel, a lawyer for the Center for
Biological Diversity. "There is still time to save polar bears but
we must reduce greenhouse gas pollution immediately."
(source: Yahoo News)