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Wildlife activists hoped the decision would require the government
to protect the bears' habitat, including curbing greenhouse
gas emissions and oil drilling in the Arctic.
But Wednesday's ruling, which came after months of delays,
included provisions to prevent such measures, claiming that
sea ice is melting because of global influences and that specific
facilities or power plants could not be linked as the cause
of the ice decline.
"Listing the polar bear as threatened can reduce avoidable
losses of polar bears. But it should not open the door to
use of the [Endangered Species Act] to regulate greenhouse
gas emissions from automobiles, power plants, and other sources,"
said Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne.
A threatened population?
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As record amounts of Arctic sea ice melt, polar bears
are being stranded on land. |
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There are an estimated
20,000 polar bears living in the Arctic, which is a healthy
population. But the polar bear's dependence on sea ice for survival
makes it vulnerable.
The summer of 2007 saw record melting of sea ice in the Arctic,
according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center, shrinking
more than 1 million acres. The annual sea ice in the Arctic
is also melting earlier in the spring and forming later in
the year.
Polar bears hunt seals, their main source of food, by waiting
near holes in ice for seals to come up for air.
When bears get stranded on land, they can't hunt and must
live off of body fat, the Washington Post reported.
In 2007, the U.S. Geological Survey released a study concluding
that two-thirds of the world's polar bears could be gone by
2050 because of the loss of ice.
"Our results have demonstrated that as the sea ice goes,
so goes the polar bear," Steven Amstrup, a wildlife research
biologist in Anchorage, Alaska, who led the study told the
National Geographic.
The Endangered Species Act
The Endangered Species
Act, passed in 1973, prevents the federal government from taking
actions that harm protected species. The polar bear is the first
animal officially threatened by global warming.
A species is considered endangered if it is in danger of
extinction. A species is considered threatened if it is likely
to become an endangered species within the foreseeable future.
Endangered species are provided more protection under the
law than threatened species.
Wildlife activist groups were hoping for an endangered listing
for the polar bear.
Potential effects
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Conservationists will likely try to use the ruling to
limit development of power plants that pollute. |
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Despite provisions exempting
power plants and automobiles, conservationists will likely continue
to argue that the listing should curb oil and gas development
in the Arctic, and limit plans for new coal power plants
"If there are major federal actions that increase greenhouse
gases, they would have to consider that they are negatively
impacting species," Kert Davies, research director for
Greenpeace USA told Salon.com, prior to the announcement.
Just this year, the Department of Interior sold $2.6 billion
worth of off shore oil leases for areas of the Chukchi Sea
northwest of Alaska.
The only two polar bear populations in the United States
are in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas.
Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer of California, the chairwoman
of the Environment and Public Works Committee, accused the
department of delaying the polar bear decision to allow the
sale of the leases.
Interior Secretary Kempthorne denied the accusation, blaming
delays on the complicated nature of the decision.
The government now faces a lawsuit from a California law firm.
"This listing of the polar bear really isn't about the
polar bear," lawyer Reed Hopper told the Sacramento Bee.
"This is a political ploy on the part of activist groups
to try to hijack global warming policy from the hands of Congress
and to put it into the hands of the courts."
Eskimo concerns
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Some Inuit people guide polar bear hunts or hunt the animals
themselves for food and clothing. |
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Some Eskimos, who are
now largely known as the indigenous Inuit peoples, in Alaska
and Canada argued against listing the polar bear, saying it
could endanger their culture and livelihoods.
"It would have a really big effect on us Inuit, because
we go by dog team to traditionally hunt polar bears,"
Jamie Kablutsiak, who guides U.S. trophy hunters, told USA
Today. Inuit guides charge hunters up to $30,000 for the privilege
of shooting a polar bear.
However, the Alaska Nanuuq Commission, which represents the
Inuit, supports the listing as long as it allows subsistence
hunting (for food and clothing) to continue.
"It's in the best interest of the (Inuit) people out
there to maintain the (bear) populations," Executive
Director Charlie Johnson told USA Today.
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