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More than four months after a legally mandated January 9th deadline, the Bush Administration made a decision on April 17th: unfortunately, what they decided was that they needed to delay even longer. According to a Department of the Interior statement released at the time, 10 more weeks were needed to consider the polar bear listing, meaning there would be no final decision until June 30th, 2008.
In her ruling for the parties who had brought the suit against the Bush Administration – the Center for Biological Diversity, Greenpeace, and the Natural Resources Defense Council – Judge Wilken, based in Oakland, CA, unequivocally stated that in missing the January deadline, the Bush administration was already in violation of the law. She ordered the administration to make a final listing decision by May 15th.
"Today's decision is a huge victory for the polar bear," said Kassie Siegel, climate program director at the Center for Biological Diversity. "By May 15th the polar bear should receive the protections it deserves under the Endangered Species Act, which is the first step toward saving the polar bear and the entire Arctic ecosystem from global warming."
"We have won in the court of public opinion and of law," said Melanie Duchin, Greenpeace global warming campaigner in Alaska. "We hope that this decision marks the end of the Bush administration's delays and denial so that immediate action may be taken to protect polar bears from extinction."
Polar bears live only in the Arctic and are in real danger of becoming the first mammal to go extinct as a direct result of global warming. Last year, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) predicted that the world's polar bear population was likely to diminish by as much as two-thirds by 2050; included in that two-thirds is every single polar bear whose habitat is found within the United States. Alarmingly, scientists predict that the Arctic could be ice-free in the summers as early as 2012, but in many cases the ice has been melting even quicker than expected. Listing the polar bear under the ESA would require that the Arctic is protected along with the bears who call it home.
Even while the polar bear listing decision was delayed time and again, the Bush Administration was moving forward with plans to lease some 29 million acres of the Chukchi Sea, prime Arctic polar bear habitat off the coast of Alaska, to oil companies. In light of the administration’s proposal to allow oil prospecting in the Chukchi Sea, Judge Wilken waived the thirty-day waiting period that usually follows an ESA listing, saying the administration had failed “to show that the thirty-day waiting period will
not pose a threat to the polar bear."
"The federal court has thrown this incredible animal a lifeline," said Andrew Wetzler, director of the Natural Resources Defense Council's Endangered Species Project. "The Endangered Species Act requires the decision to be based solely on science, and the science is absolutely unambiguous that the polar bear deserves protection."
The Bush Administration may choose to ignore this deadline, just as they have so many others. Still, the honorable Judge Wilken’s decision is a welcome victory in the fight to save the Arctic polar bear.
In her ruling for the parties who had brought the suit against the Bush Administration – the Center for Biological Diversity, Greenpeace, and the Natural Resources Defense Council – Judge Wilken, based in Oakland, CA, unequivocally stated that in missing the January deadline, the Bush administration was already in violation of the law. She ordered the administration to make a final listing decision by May 15th.
"Today's decision is a huge victory for the polar bear," said Kassie Siegel, climate program director at the Center for Biological Diversity. "By May 15th the polar bear should receive the protections it deserves under the Endangered Species Act, which is the first step toward saving the polar bear and the entire Arctic ecosystem from global warming."
"We have won in the court of public opinion and of law," said Melanie Duchin, Greenpeace global warming campaigner in Alaska. "We hope that this decision marks the end of the Bush administration's delays and denial so that immediate action may be taken to protect polar bears from extinction."
Polar bears live only in the Arctic and are in real danger of becoming the first mammal to go extinct as a direct result of global warming. Last year, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) predicted that the world's polar bear population was likely to diminish by as much as two-thirds by 2050; included in that two-thirds is every single polar bear whose habitat is found within the United States. Alarmingly, scientists predict that the Arctic could be ice-free in the summers as early as 2012, but in many cases the ice has been melting even quicker than expected. Listing the polar bear under the ESA would require that the Arctic is protected along with the bears who call it home.
Even while the polar bear listing decision was delayed time and again, the Bush Administration was moving forward with plans to lease some 29 million acres of the Chukchi Sea, prime Arctic polar bear habitat off the coast of Alaska, to oil companies. In light of the administration’s proposal to allow oil prospecting in the Chukchi Sea, Judge Wilken waived the thirty-day waiting period that usually follows an ESA listing, saying the administration had failed “to show that the thirty-day waiting period will
not pose a threat to the polar bear."
"The federal court has thrown this incredible animal a lifeline," said Andrew Wetzler, director of the Natural Resources Defense Council's Endangered Species Project. "The Endangered Species Act requires the decision to be based solely on science, and the science is absolutely unambiguous that the polar bear deserves protection."
The Bush Administration may choose to ignore this deadline, just as they have so many others. Still, the honorable Judge Wilken’s decision is a welcome victory in the fight to save the Arctic polar bear.
