URGENT ACTION NEEDED – SAVE POLAR BEARS --Tell the Bush Administration to List Polar Bears as Threatened Species under the ESA – MUST ACT BY MONDAY
Monday is the end of the public comment period, please act by Monday, April 9.
Picture shot from the USS Honolulu (Los Angeles-class fast attack submarine) at the Arctic Circle, 280 miles from the North Pole.
You can Help! Please sign this NRDC "Electronic Petition"
More Below the Jump
In February of 2005 the Center for Biological Diversity petitioned the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to use the Endangered Species Act and list polar bears as endangered species. The Bush administration declined to do so, relying in part on a 1997 study that concluded that U.S. populations of polar bears were not endangered. In December 2006 the Center for Biological Diversity, Greenpeace, and the Natural Resources Defense Council filed a lawsuit to compel the listing of polar bears as a threatened species.
As you know, polar bear habitats are threatened by global warming and oil drilling in the Arctic. The population of polar bears has been significantly declining in the last 20 years. In the past few years scientists have documented for the first time multiple deaths of polar bears off Alaska, likely due to drowning. (Linked below is a December 14, 2005 Wall Street Journal article on polar bear deaths by drowning.)
Even the WSJ Recognizes Danger to Polar Bears
In response to the lawsuit, the U.S. Department of the Interior agreed to join the three groups in proposing that polar bears be added to the endangered species list.
We are currently in the "public comment" period – the time during which the public is invited to comment on the change. This comment period ends MONDAY, April 9.
The Natural Resources Defense Council contends that the proposal offered by Dr. Rosa Meehan, Supervisor of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, does not designate any of the land that is essential for the polar bear’s survival as "critical habitat" – a designation that is necessary for helping the bears to recover. The proposal also is watered down – it fails to identify global warming pollution as the cause of rising Arctic temperatures and vanishing sea ice.
WHAT YOU CAN DO: Through Monday, we are in the public comment period. Please use the link below to help the NRDC send 500,000 letters to Dr. Rosa Meehan.
NRDC "Electronic Petition"
If you prefer, you can send your own letter. The address is:
Dr. Rosa Meehan, Supervisor, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Marine Mammals Management Office
1011 East Tudor Road
Anchorage, AK 99503
The full text of the letter that the NRDC sends on your behalf is as follows:
Dear Dr. Meehan,
I strongly support your proposal to list the polar bear as a
threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. The
scientific evidence that polar bears are threatened with
extinction from global warming is overwhelming. Polar bears are
completely dependent on Arctic sea ice to survive, but 80
percent of that ice could be gone in 20 years and all of it by 2040. Polar bears are already suffering the effects: birth rates
are falling, fewer cubs are surviving, and more bears are
drowning.
I am therefore very concerned that your proposal fails to
identify global warming pollution as the cause of rising Arctic
temperatures and vanishing sea ice. Our government's refusal to
curb global warming pollution is a primary cause of the polar
bear's melting habitat and terrible plight. It must be
addressed. And while your proposal discusses the kind of habitat
that is essential for the polar bear's survival, it does not
designate any of it as "critical habitat" that could help the
bear recover.
Please act swiftly to finalize the listing of the polar bear and
designate its critical habitat. We must act immediately if we
are to save this magnificent Arctic creature from extinction.
Sincerely,
Your Name
Address
_
We're about half way to the goal of 500,000 letters. Help us get 250,000 more letters.