Feature story - January 1, 2007
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has officially listed the polar bear as a 'threatened' species, due to the meltdown of its sea-ice habitat caused by global warming.
Victory! Polar Bear Protected!
This is a huge victory for polar bears, even if it did take a
Greenpeace lawsuit to accomplish it. This action comes in response
to a
lawsuit filed last December under the federal Endangered
Species Act by Greenpeace, Center for Biological Diversity, and
NRDC.
What this means for the polar bear
Listing under the United States Endangered Species Act --
America's safety net for plants and animals on the brink of
extinction -- will provide broad protection to polar bears,
including a requirement that United States federal agencies ensure
that any action carried out, authorized, or funded by the United
States government will not "jeopardize the continued existence" of
polar bears, or adversely modify their critical habitat.
Thin Ice
Polar bears live only in the Arctic and are totally dependent on
the sea ice. A growing body of evidence shows that the Arctic ice
is vanishing much faster than previously expected. The thick
multiyear ice has been shrinking eight to 10 percent per decade,
with some climate models predicting that the Arctic could be
ice-free in summer as early as 2050.
In some polar regions, the sea ice season has shortened as much
as three weeks, and scientists have discovered that the polar ice
caps are melting at an alarming rate - more than a million square
miles - losing an area the size of Colorado in just the last
year.
Read more about the polar bear.
Thanks to all of you who took action to protect the polar bear.
It couldn't have happened without you!