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Stories, Articles And Information Pertaining To Endangered Animals,
Animal Rights And Actions Which May Be Taken To Protect And Help Our
Friends Of The Wilderness.
This Months Stories Are
Politicians Try To
Remove Protections For Polar Bears
ANCHORAGE, Alaska. —
Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell says he has the best interest of polar bears
at heart, but he doesn't intend to let the federal government's
expanded protection for bears get in the way of the state's continued
prosperity.
Like his predecessor, Sarah Palin, the governor is suing the
federal government to overturn the listing of the iconic symbol of the
Arctic as a threatened species, a move made last year that he believes
could threaten Alaska's lifeblood: petroleum development.
"Currently some are attempting to improperly use the Endangered
Species Act to shut down resource development," Parnell says. "I'm not
going to let this happen on my watch."
As Alaska North Slope wells dry up, the state is turning to
potential offshore discoveries to refill the trans-Alaska pipeline and
ensure the long-term prospects of a $26 billion proposed natural gas
pipeline. Unneeded protections for polar bears under the Endangered
Species Act could thwart that, Parnell says.
"Alaskans have an excellent track record of both developing our
natural resources and protecting our wildlife," says Parnell, who
replaced Palin when she resigned in late July.
That's a position critics
dispute after the 10.8-million gallon Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989, a
200,000-gallon North Slope pipeline spill in March 2006, and the
state-funded killing of more than 1,000 wolves and hundreds of black
bears since 2003 to increase moose and caribou populations.
Polar bears are regulated by the federal government like whales
and seals. They spend most of their lives on frozen ocean water, where
their main prey, ringed seals, give birth. Warming of Arctic waters has
diminished the sea ice.
The bears were accorded protection after a major study projected
changes in future sea ice will result in the loss of two-thirds of the
world's polar bear population by 2050, including all of America's.
Palin sued, contending the study was not based on the most
accurate data.
Alaska Attorney General Dan Sullivan says that for the first
time, the federal government is protecting a species a growing
population: 20,000 to 25,000 worldwide, up from 8,000 to 10,000 in the
1960s.
Information
Source: From an article written by Dan Joling for THE ASSOCIATED PRESS.
Found in
the November 16, 2009 issue of The Aurora, Illinois ( Beacon - News )
newspaper. Newsflash section.
A Related Artical From September 8th,2007
Polar Bears Could Die Out By 2050
WASHINGTON -
Two-thirds of the world's polar bears will be killed off
by 2050 — and the entire population gone from Alaska — because of
thinning sea ice from global warming in the Arctic, government
scientists forecast Friday.
Only in the
northern
Canadian Arctic islands and the west coast of
Greenland are any of the world's 16,000 polar bears expected to survive
through the end of the century, said the U.S. Geological Survey, which
is the scientific arm of the Interior Department.
USGS
projects that polar bears during the next half-century will
disappear along the north coasts of Alaska and Russia and lose 42
percent of the Arctic range they need to live in during summer in the
Polar Basin when they hunt and breed. A polar bear's life usually lasts
about 30 years.
"Projected
changes in future sea ice conditions, if realized, will
result in loss of approximately two-thirds of the world's current polar
bear population by the mid 21st century," the report says.
Polar
bears depend on sea ice as a platform for hunting seals, which is
their primary food. They rarely catch seals on land or in open water.
Because the general decline of Arctic sea ice appears to be
underestimated, scientists said their forecast of how much polar bear
populations will shrink also may be on the low side.
"There is
a definite link between changes in the sea ice and the
welfare of polar bears," said USGS scientist Steven Amstrup, the lead
author of the new studies. "As the sea ice goes, so goes the polar
bear."
Amstrup
said 84 percent of the scientific variables affecting the polar bear's
fate was tied to changes in sea ice.
As of
this week, the extent of Arctic sea ice had fallen to 4.75
million square miles — or 250,000 square miles below the previous
record low of 5.05 million square miles in September 2005, according to
the National Snow and Ice Data Center.
No
hope for quick change
Scientists do
not
hold out much hope that the buildup of carbon dioxide and other
industrial gases blamed for heating the atmosphere like a greenhouse
can be turned around in time to help the polar bears anytime soon.
Polar
bears have walked the planet for at least 40,000 years.
"In spite
of any mitigation of greenhouse gases,
we are going to see the same amount of energy in the system for at
least 20, 30, 40 years," Mark Myers, the USGS director, said.
Greenland
and Norway have the most polar
bears, while a quarter of them live mainly in Alaska and travel to
Canada and Russia. The agency says their range will shrink to no longer
include Alaska and other southern regions.The
findings of U.S. and Canadian scientists are based on six months of new
studies, during which the health of three polar bear groups and their
dependency on Arctic sea ice were examined using "new and traditional
models," Myers said.
Information
Source: Associated Press (Author Unknown) Sept. 8, 2007
