The House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming recently heard testimony concerning the polar bear's status as a threatened species. The Bush administration has been delaying the listing of the polar bear under the Environmental Protection Act because, of course, it would likely designate habitat that his oil buddies would rather destroy for profit. While climate changes continue to shrink the available habitat for the polar bear, the EPA and the Department of the Interior have been reviewing data for nearly a year and a half. The review period has expired with no report forthcoming, but the comment period seems to remain open as long as the science overwhelms big oil propaganda.
The Committee's Chairman, Edward Markey, has introduced legislation to protect the polar bear while the EPA and the DOI languish over an easy decision. You can sign a letter to the Secretary of the Department of Interior, Dirk Kempthorne, at the World Wildlife Fund.
Crossposted from SmokeyMonkey.org.
Introduction
More than just the polar bear is at stake here. By protecting the polar bear as a threatened species its critical habitat would be protected. That habitat is the north polar region, where the ice cap has retreated and thinned at a rate of 10% per year since the 1970's. This retreating of the polar bear's critical habitat is a result of human-induced global warming. Thus, protecting the polar bear might allow us to leverage habitat protection against oil and gas interests at the pole and along the fragile Alaskan coastlines.
I have written about the race for north polar oil in Drilling for Oil in Santa's Yard.
Polar Ice
Polar bears live on pack ice in the Arctic Sea for the most part. Therefore, if this ice is retreating or thinning, the polar bear's habitat is, itself, endangered or threatened. It is very clear from any number of studies that this is, in fact, the case. Indeed, several government agencies, including NASA and the US Geological Survey, have issued such reports to the Secretary of the Interior.
[USGS] The newly-released USGS information, presented to the Service in the form of nine administrative reports to be open for public comment, will now be considered within the context of the Service’s one-year review. The Service will analyze it and other information provided by scientists, government agencies and the public in order to arrive at an informed and scientifically justifiable decision. That decision is due in January.
This decision has yet to be rendered, yet a decision to move forward on an oil and gas drilling lease in the Chukchi Sea off the coast of Alaska has been forced into the picture. Now, instead of debating the true range of territory the polar bear will need to survive and recover from climate change, an oil lease may effect the overall outcome of any EPA listing of critical habitat. I would suggest that the delay in listing the polar bear as threatened will result in oil and gas exploration in its critical habitat.
[Center for Biological Diversity] On January 9, 2008, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service missed the legal deadline to issue a final listing decision for the polar bear—a listing deadline prompted by a petition and lawsuit filed by the Center for Biological Diversity, Natural Resources Defense Council ("NRDC"), and Greenpeace. At the same time, the Minerals Management Service has scheduled oil and gas lease sales for 46,000 square miles of polar bear habitat in the Chukchi Sea for February 6. Holding the lease sale prior to the listing of the polar bear would mean the leases would be sold prior to review under Endangered Species Act that will be required once the polar bear is listed, and has outraged conservationists and lawmakers alike.
Chukchi Sea
Final notice of sale was given on Chukchi Sea Lease 193 on January 2nd, just 7 days before the report on polar bears was to be released. The Chukchi Sea is essentially the water between northwestern Alaska and northeastern Siberia. Lease 193 would effect the entire northwestern coast of Alaska.
The threat of environmental destruction due to oil spills along the north coast of Alaska is well documented. The proposed lease sale would expand that area of dire threat into pristine waters that have remained largely frozen for decades. I have fought against drilling in ANWR, and I will fight against drilling in the Chukchi Sea.
Summary
Of course, there are dozens of species that rely on the pack ice ecosystem in the Arctic Ocean. Seals, sea lions, and many other marine mammals feed and breed on the ice sheets that have until recent decades been more or less permanent. The polar bear, however, is iconic as well as being the keystone species of the region. Allowing this majestic animal to become engandered due to the greed of oil interests is unacceptable.
There is limited time. The lease is due to be sold on February 6th. Oppose Chukchi Sea Lease 193. Write the Secretary of the Interior and insist the polar bear's listing as threatened be delayed no longer. And tell your representative to investigate the Bush adminstration's lackeys in every federal agency, particularly those involved with government leasing of the nation's treasures.
Update: Thanks for the Rescue! I hope we can generate some interest in this issue over the next couple of weeks.
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