BushCo Misses Second, Self-Imposed Deadline For Polar Bear Protection

[hatrack]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has missed its own postponed deadline to decide if polar bears need protection from climate change, and critics link the delay to an oil lease sale in a vast swath of the bear's icy habitat.

"When it comes to the survival of the polar bear, the Bush administration is putting the 'dead' back into 'deadline,'" said Rep. Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat who heads a House of Representatives panel on climate change. "Now that the Bush administration has taken care of its clear first priority -- taking care of their friends in the oil industry -- perhaps they can finally give the polar bear, and the global warming that is causing the bear's demise, the attention it is due," Markey said in a statement.

Polar bears use sea ice as a platform for hunting seals, their main prey, and without enough ice, they are forced onto land, where they are inefficient hunters. Warmer arctic waters mean longer distances between chunks of sea ice, and video of drowning polar bears has fueled debate over their future.

The U.S. Geological Survey, in a study conducted to aid the government's decision, reported last year that all polar bears in Alaska -- about 16,000 currently -- could disappear if warming trends continue. The Interior Department's Fish and Wildlife Service was required by statute to decide by Jan. 9 whether the polar bear should be listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, but three days before that, the agency's chief told reporters the deadline would be pushed back 30 days. The second deadline passed on Feb. 8 with no decision.

EDIT

http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-31932720080213

EDIT

http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-31932720080213

[LisaM]

1. Because self-regulation works SO WELL

just like the big corporations and pollution....






:sarcasm:

[phantom power]

2. We shouldn't be so harsh. I'm sure it Requires Further Study.

It always does.

[Blue_In_AK]

3. We have more problems up here than just polar bears...

Our local news ran a piece last night about the pending encroachment of all sorts of pests like fleas, ticks, etc. that are going to cause trouble for our caribou, moose and other wildlife. Not to mention the methane and CO2 released from the melting permafrost.

http://www.ktuu.com/global/story.asp?s=7869877

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- The plight of polar bears and melting sea ice consistently grab headlines when it comes to impacts of climate change.

But one scientist who presented research this week at the Alaska Forum on the Environment, threats posed by climate change are much more dangerous to entire ecosystems than to just one species.

Doctor Eric Hoberg of the Department of Agriculture says that change will be brought on by the arrival of parasites like ticks, fleas and worms -- pests that could spread through Alaska's wildlife population.

"We think that parasites, pathogens, these disease-causing organisms have the potential to have a very dramatic affect on things like caribou, sheep, wild sheep, moose, musk oxen," he said.

<snip>

"So as temperatures increase, the developmental rates are faster and faster so that the generation time, the time between infection of the final host is shortened," he said.

It all could happen so quickly, scientists here believe, that Alaska's moose, caribou and other animals that could become infected will not have time to develop immunities.

"The general feeling in the broader community is that this is outside of the capacity for populations to be resilient or those species to be able to adapt effectively," Hoberg said.