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Polar Bear Status Focuses Climate Debate
February 04, 2008 11:00 AM
by
findingDulcinea Staff
The Alaskan polar bear population is stable, but there is evidence that their hunting grounds are shrinking. Activists want the bears listed as “threatened.”
30-Second Summary
The conflict is “really about the politics of global warming,” and has little to do with polar bears themselves, writes The Wall Street Journal.
The politicizing of the issue is, argues the Journal, is especially misconceived since reducing emissions won’t stop the poles from thawing.
Conversely, Salon blames the delay on the Bush administration’s interest in the lease for the Chukchi seas off Northwestern Alaskan coast for oil and gas exploration.
Kassie Siegal of the Center for Biological Diversity says, “This administration is racing to hand out as many entitlements for fossil-fuel development as they can.”
A columnist from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports that scientists were pressured to draw conclusions quickly so the government could go forward with the lease. The paper claims that biologists who advised against developing the area were ignored.
Scientists have predicted that by 2050, two-thirds of the polar bear population will be gone, having lost their habitat through global warming. Kassie Siegal from the Center for Biological Diversity, called this a “watershed moment in the climate crisis.”
Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is opposed to including polar bears on the endangered species list. She wrote in a recent New York Times op-ed that “Alaska is home to a healthy population of polar bears. We intend to keep it that way.”
The U.S Fish and Wildlife Service failed to decide the issue by the Jan. 7 deadline that had been set. It is expected to announce its ruling in the next few weeks.
The politicizing of the issue is, argues the Journal, is especially misconceived since reducing emissions won’t stop the poles from thawing.
Conversely, Salon blames the delay on the Bush administration’s interest in the lease for the Chukchi seas off Northwestern Alaskan coast for oil and gas exploration.
Kassie Siegal of the Center for Biological Diversity says, “This administration is racing to hand out as many entitlements for fossil-fuel development as they can.”
A columnist from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports that scientists were pressured to draw conclusions quickly so the government could go forward with the lease. The paper claims that biologists who advised against developing the area were ignored.
Scientists have predicted that by 2050, two-thirds of the polar bear population will be gone, having lost their habitat through global warming. Kassie Siegal from the Center for Biological Diversity, called this a “watershed moment in the climate crisis.”
Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is opposed to including polar bears on the endangered species list. She wrote in a recent New York Times op-ed that “Alaska is home to a healthy population of polar bears. We intend to keep it that way.”
The U.S Fish and Wildlife Service failed to decide the issue by the Jan. 7 deadline that had been set. It is expected to announce its ruling in the next few weeks.
Headline Link: ‘The Polar Bear Express’
The polar bear population is on the rise, and some feel the petition to get them on the endangered species list is part of an effort to influence environmental policy. According to The Wall Street Journal, “The more honest activists basically concede that a listing is a P.R. ploy.” If polar bears are listed as threatened, more people will be aware of global warming issues, and the lease of land in Alaska’s Chukchi Sea might be stopped.
Source: The Wall Street Journal
Background Links: Polar bear population
Last September, National Geographic reported that by 2050, two thirds of the current polar bear population will be gone. Melting polar ice caps will cause many polar bears to starve to death. According to Kassie Siegal from the Center for Biological Diversity, the findings “represent a watershed moment in the climate crisis.”
Source: National Geographic
A lease sale on the Chukchi Sea off the coast of Northwestern Alaska has also been delayed a month. The Mineral Management Service intended to lease the 29.7 million acres so that oil and gas resources could be investigated, but if polar bears make the list of threatened species, the value of this territory will be greatly diminished.
Source: Reuters
Related Links: ‘Le Journal’ footage
“Le Journal,” a French news program, carries a video clip that purports to show the effects of melting ice caps on polar bears. The video is of an emaciated female polar that has swum hundreds of miles to find a place to rest.
Source: YouTube
Opinions & Analysis: Assessing the danger
Seattle Post-Intelligencer columnist Jim Connelly writes that the Mineral Management Service knows that leasing the land in the Chukchi Sea will be dangerous to polar bears, but wants to go through with the sale anyway.
Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Salon is highly critical of the Bush administration’s record with regard to the endangered species list. Salon argues that it is refusing to put polar bears on the list so it can go forward with plans to lease land for fossil fuel development.
Source: Salon.com
Alaska’s Governor Sarah Palin wrote an op-ed for the New York Times defending her opposition to the inclusion of polar bears on the endangered species list. She argues that Alaska is proactive in its defense of the polar bear population, which has been stable for 20 years. She writes, “We know our efforts will take more than protecting what we have—we must also learn what we don’t know.”
Source: The New York Times
The Center for Biological Diversity, the organization that initially petitioned the listing in 2005, expressed outrage at both the delayed decision and at an administration that has not put a species on the endangered list in over 600 days. “Stalling has cost us dearly, putting the polar bear at risk of extinction and jeopardizing the future welfare of billions of people around the world,” said Kert Davies, research director for Greenpeace USA.
Source: Center for Biological Diversity
Reference Link: The Alaska Fish and Wildlife Service
The Alaska Fish and Wildlife Service published the proposal for listing the bears as threatened in January 2007. The three main foreseeable impediments to polar bear survival are climate change, hunting and human development, according to the FWS. The service states that the bears will be listed as “threatened,” not “endangered.”
Source: Alaska Fish and Wildlife Service
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