bears for oil

Today polar bears were finally  listed as  threatened under the U.S. Endangered Species Act because their sea ice habitat is melting away.

Interior Department Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said that dramatic declines in sea ice over the last 30 years  and projections of continued losses meant that the polar bear is a species likely to be in danger of extinction in the near future. Kempthorne also warned that the decision should not be viewed as a path to address global warming saying it would be "wholly inappropriate" to use the protection of the bear to reduce greenhouse gases, or to broadly address climate change.

The Endangered Species Act "is not the right tool to set U.S. climate policy," said Kempthorne, reflecting a view recently expressed by President Bush. Kempthorne outlined a set of administrative actions and limits to how it planned to protect the bear with its new status so that it would not have wide-ranging adverse impact on economic activities from building power plants to oil and gas exploration. He also explained that arctic ice loss looked set to increase and quicken and that two thirds of the ice bear population would probably disappear by mid century .

Critics accused the US Government of adopting a ' sink or swim ' approach to the fate of the ice bears.  

Environmental  legal pressure group  EarthJustice   said they welcomed  protection for polar bears under the Endangered Species Act, but called on the government to cease  oil and gas activities in polar bear habitat. 

The Arctic is melting and polar bears are feeling the heat," said Earthjustice attorney Clayton Jernigan. "We need a time out on further oil activity in the Polar Bear Seas until we all understand what measures are necessary to protect the polar bears, other wildlife, and people that live in this rapidly transforming ecosystem."

EarthJustice accused the Bush administration of using a loophole called a 4(d) rule that appears calculated to limit protection for the ice bears and their shrinking sea-ice habitat in areas where oil and gas development is planned or proceeding , extending   no greater protection from oil and gas development than they previously had under the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

A listing that should have enabled a reprieve is configured more like an execution warrant. Its a charter for an invasive species not appropriate protection for endangered polar bears.

"By listing the bear as threatened, instead of endangered, and adopting weaker protections for polar bears and their habitat, the administration is attempting to make it easier for oil and gas development to proceed on a fast track in prime polar bear habitat," said Jernigan. "Earthjustice will continue to work hard to protect polar bears and their habitat."

Earthjustice is currently involved in three separate legal actions aimed at protecting polar bears and their remaining habitat in the Polar Bear Seas.

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