*NEWS*POLAR BEARS & EXTINCTION

[Anonymous]

Polar Bears May Be Listed as Threatened
WASHINGTON
(jan 07) – Polar bears are in deep trouble because of global warming
and other factors and deserve federal protection under the Endangered
Species Act, the Bush administration is proposing Wednesday. The Fish
and Wildlife Service officials have concluded that polar bears could be
endangered within 45 years.Pollution and overhunting also threaten
their existence. Greenland and Norway have the most polar bears, but
almost 5,000 live mainly in Alaska and travel to Canada and
Russia.Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne plans to announce later
Wednesday that polar bears should be listed as a “threatened” species
on the government list of imperiled species, a department official
confirmed Wednesday. The “endangered” category is reserved for species
more likely to become extinct.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.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 that are 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.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 international tension between the
United States and other nations.Polar bears, an iconic and
cold-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 that the
polar bear population in the Arctic has dwindled to 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 to 100 years.”The
Interior Department plans to allow up to 90 days of public comment on
its proposal, which was first reported by The Washington Post on its
Web site on Tuesday night.A little over a year ago, three environmental
groups – the Center for Biological Diversity, Natural Resources Defense
Council and Greenpeace – filed suit to force such a proposal from
Interior’s Fish and Wildlife Service, which oversees endangered
species. Fish and Wildlife officials have been reviewing the status of
polar bears more than two years.They were pleased by the decision
Wednesday.”This is a victory for the polar bear, and all wildlife
threatened by global warming,” Kassie Siegel, a lawyer for the Center
for Biological Diversity, said Wednesday. “There is still time to save
polar bears but we must reduce greenhouse gas pollution immediately.”

[Author]

January 3, 2007 at 12:34 PM