U.S. Department of Interior Lists Polar Bear as Endangered

United States lists polar bear as endangered After a controversial and somewhat tortuous road since January, when the Department of Interior missed its first deadline for making a decision on the status of the polar bear, the DOI finally announced today that it will list the bear as endangered due to diminishing sea ice.

The polar bear is the first species protected under the endangered species act as a direct result of global warming.

There was concern over the Bush administration’s foot-dragging on the issue. At one senate hearing last month to address those concerns, administration representatives didn’t even bother to show up. Earlier, at a Senate Committee on Health and Environment hearing, minority senator James Inhofe, an avowed climate change denialist, attempted to confuse the issue by bringing before the committee an “expert” to explain why the administration’s own scientific findings regarding the polar bear and why it should be protected was wrong. Mr. Inhofe’s expert was PhD – in marketing. The whole sordid tale is summarized here.

Finally, a federal judge forced the issue by requiring the Department of Interior to comply with the law and make a decision by May 15^th.

One day ahead of schedule the ruling was made to add the polar bear to the list of endangered species.

Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne has met with Canadian Environmental Minister John Baird and announced the two countries have signed an agreement for “conservation management of polar bear populations”.

While many hail the decision as a positive step, within hours some environmental groups issued press statements voicing doubt as to the Bush administration’s true motives and intent.

Sierra Club president Carl Pope released the following:

After months of delay, the Interior Department has finally recognized that polar bears are on the brink of extinction. But the administration’s decision is riddled with loopholes, caveats, and backhanded language that could actually undermine protections for the polar bear and other species.

We can’t protect polar bears unless we combat global warming and keep oil drills out of their habitat. Yet, the administration is so keen to appease Big Oil they tout the continuation of drilling—in spite of the listing—in the headline of their press release.

Allowing destructive energy development in polar bear habitat is akin to diagnosing someone with lung cancer and then handing them a lit cigarette. There is no environmentally-sound way to drill in polar bear habitat. Drilling would inundate polar bear habitat with pipelines, well pads, boat traffic, ice-breaking vessels, and seismic blasting, not to mention the ever-present threat of oil spills.

The Bush administration’s sham plan also proposes changes that could gut the Endangered Species Act and prevent it from ever being used to actually protect the polar bear or address global warming—which is precisely what is pushing the bear toward extinction.

We don’t need to sacrifice polar bears and other wildlife just so Big Oil can add to their tens of billions in record profits. America already has the technology and the will to embrace a clean energy economy that will end our dangerous dependence on oil, fight global warming, and leave wild, pristine places like the Arctic intact.

We can turn to clean energy today, and leave our grandchildren a world where polar bears don’t just live in zoos.

If we hope to save polar bears, Congress must act now to combat global warming, keep drills out of polar bear habitat, and stop the Bush administration from further undermining the Endangered Species Act and our other fundamental environmental laws”

Sources and Further Reading
Sierra Club
U.S. Department of Interior