Polar Bears Listed As Threatened Under Endgangered Species Act
Submitted by mpfaffko on Thu, 05/15/2008 - 7:04am.
The Polar Bear is now listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service made the announcement yesterday, 14 May 2008, with the disclaimer that the decision should not be “misused” to regulate global warming. Originally set for January, the decision was postponed, probably to allow the approval of oil and gas drilling in the Chukchi Sea which was approved earlier this year. The Chukchi Sea is home to approximately 20 percent of the world’s Polar Bears. Environmental groups praise the decision because the Polar Bear is the first species to be listed because of its link to global warming. However, I believe that Elkhorn and Staghorn Coral were the first species to be listed because of their link to global warming. Two-thirds of the world’s remaining 20,000 Polar Bears are projected to disappear in the next 50 years because of melting sea ice. Polar Bears spend most of their life on sea ice rather than land where they catch seals.
