ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Two environmental groups on Tuesday filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn new federal regulations that grants permission to oil companies working in the Chukchi Sea to disturb the polar bears and walrus that live there.
- Bob Cordiak
Following a three-year legal battle to protect the polar bear from extinction due to global warming, three environmental groups won protection for the species with the announcement today that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is listing the polar bear as a federally “threatened” species.
We've all seen the pictures of polar bears clinging to tiny ice chunks in the Arctic Ocean. Most people, scientists and laypersons alike, can connect the dots between melting ice caps and global warming. The U.S. Department of Interior finally made the connection when it classified the polar bear as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. It's the first time any species has been explicitly protected as a result of climate change habitat destruction.
Polar bears are a threatened species, Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne announced last week -- but that doesn't mean we can't drill in their habitat! The "threatened" designation means the bear could become endangered if adequate conservation steps aren't taken; it puts polar bears on the endangered-species list but in effect allows the Interior Department to pick and choose which protections to impose.
Secretary Kempthorne announces that he is accepting the recommendation of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) Director Dale Hall to list the polar bear as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The listing is based on the best available science, which shows that loss of sea ice threatens and will likely continue to threaten polar bear habitat.
Step aside, polar bears: Narwhals could be the new icon of global warming vulnerability.
Polar bear could be one of the first species to fall victim to global warming. This is a blog about polar bear facts and global warming issues.
The same Washington Post newspaper that so courageously uncovered the Watergate assault on American values now investigates the way Vice-President Cheney secretly manipulates the enactment of environmental policies to make sure his supporters wring the last drop of water, coal, power and cash from the natural world Americans depend on. He reroutes rivers, fills in valleys, drills where the polar bear should roam - a little asthma or cancer never seems to have hurt anyone he ever met....
Global warming is doing more than just changing the climate of our world, it is also taking a harmful toll on our wildlife. Many species of animals and plants may face extinction if the threat of global warming does not lessen.
World Wildlife Fund (WWF) calls for an immediate listing of polar bears under the Endangered Species Act and a delay of an Alaska offshore oil and gas lease sale that threatens Arctic wildlife and habitats.
How to Boil a Frog's FrogBlog gives you 11 funny suggestions on how to avoid any blame for the fall of civilization (with pictures!)
Well-written and interesting post about how global warming is terrible consequences for the polar bear. This post offers valuable ways to help their plight.
It's been a rough week for consumers, and wildlife, alike...
Chairman Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) questions members of the Bush administration regarding the delay of a decision to list polar bears under theEndangered Species Act until after a controversial lease sale for oil drilling off of Alaska. The hearing also features experts on wildlife protection and oil drilling.
A female polar bear cub that has become Germany's latest animal attraction has been named Flocke, or "flake" as in snow flake, officials in the southern city of Nuremberg Friday.
