"Mike M" <MichaelMLGPR@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:a70a7b10-d96c-453b-bd22-afbd3a868bad@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> US lists polar bear as threatened species
> AP
> Posted: 2008-05-15 04:00:14
> WA****NGTON (AP) - Put at risk by global warming, the polar bear is
> getting a life line as the government officially has declared it a
> threatened species in need of increased protection. But another round
> of legal battles surrounding the majestic animal may be just
> beginning.
>
> The Interior Department put the bear under the protective umbrella of
> the Endangered Species Act on Wednesday, concluding what biologists
> have been saying for years: the bear is on the way to extinction
> because of the rapid disappearance of the Arctic sea ice upon which it
> depends.
>
> Scientists predict sea ice melting will continue and even accelerate
> as a result of global warming.
>
> "This in my judgment makes the polar bear a threatened species, one
> likely to become in danger of extinction in the foreseeable future,"
> said Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, punctuating his point with an
> array of slides, charts and maps showing the changing ice flows of the
> Arctic.
>
> But Kempthorne also said that he did not view the increased protection
> of the bear afforded by the Endangered Species Act as a back door to
> regulate greenhouse gases coming from power plants, automobiles and
> industrial sources.
>
> "That would be a wholly inappropriate use of the ESA law," declared
> Kempthorne as he outlined a series of administrative and other actions
> he would take to protect anything like that from happening.
>
> The restrictions, including one that would provide the bear no more
> protection from oil drilling in Arctic waters than it now has under
> another federal law, the Marine Mammal Protection Act, prompted
> environmentalists and some members of Congress to questions whether
> the bear will get any more protection at all.
>
> "They're trying to make this a threatened listing in name only with no
> change in today's impacts and that's not going to fly," said Jamie
> Rappa****t Clark of Defenders of Wildlife and a former director of the
> U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the Clinton administration.
>
> Three environmental groups whose lawsuit forced the Interior
> Department to make a decision on the bear's status, indicated they are
> preparing to go to court again to challenge some of the provisions
> Kempthorne outlined.
>
> These measures amount to the bear not getting all the protections it
> in entitled to under the Endangered Species Act and won't hold up in
> court, said Kassie Siegel of the Center for Biological Diversity.
>
> Andrew Wetzler of the Natural Resources Defense Council said the
> Interior Department's decision allows loopholes in the law "to allow
> the greatest threat to the polar bear - global warming pollution - to
> continue unabated."
>
> Kempthorne acknowledged that the polar bear - 25,000 of them that roam
> the Arctic region from Russia and Alaska to Greenland - "poses a
> unique conservation challenge." It is the first time in the history of
> the Endangered Species Act that the law has been used to protect an
> animal whose nemesis is global warming.
>
> "I want to make clear that this listing will not stop global climate
> change or prevent any sea ice from melting," said Kempthorne. "...The
> ESA is not the right tool to set U.S. climate policy."
>
> Kempthorne sought to assure the business community that the bear's
> protection would not keep someone from building a coal-burning power
> plant or drill for oil in Arctic waters.
>
> The U.S. Chamber of Commerce applauded the decision. "It will protect
> polar bears while also protecting American jobs and businesses," said
> Bill Kovacs, the Chamber's vice president for environmental affairs.
>
> But some business groups weren't as impressed.
>
> The ruling "will unleash a torrent of lawsuits" by environmentalists
> and "give them a powerful new legal sledgehammer" against businesses
> and agricultural operations especially in the West, warned Jim Sims,
> president of the Western Business Roundtable.
>
> Reed Hopper, an attorney for the Pacific Legal Foundation, which
> frequently has challenged the Endangered Species Act in property
> rights disputes, said he plans to challenge the bear listing as well
> in court.
>
> The polar bear "already is the most protected (animal) in the world
> and needs no additional protection," maintained Hopper. He noted the
> number of polar bears have more than doubled since the late 1960s from
> 12,000 to about 25,000 across the Arctic region from Alaska to
> Greenland.
>
> Interior Department scientists in a series of re****ts last September
> that were heavily relied on by Kempthorne in his listing decision,
> concludes that continuing melting of sea ice will lead to a two-thirds
> decline in polar bears by mid-century, meaning the disappearance of at
> least 15,000 bears.
>
> Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. The information contained in the
> AP news re****t may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise
> distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated
> Press. Active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.
> 05/15/08 03:53 EDT
Anybody want to join me on a hunting trip?
Poalr bears, bureaucrats, whatever...
LG
--
If you wonder how it came to be generally acknowledged "fact," accepted by
all men of good will, that Joe McCarthy was a monster, that Alger Hiss was
innocent, that mankind is causing global warming and that we're losing the
war in Iraq, try watching the rewriting of history nightly on MSNBC. - Ann
Coulter
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