NYT/AP: Critics take aim at proposed listing of polar bear as threatened species

[DeepModem Mom]

Critics Take Aim at Polar Bear Listing
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: March 2, 2007

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- A marked decline in sea ice off Alaska's coast is not enough to take the drastic step of listing polar bears -- a species dependent on ice -- as threatened, critics said Thursday at the first of three public hearings on the proposal.

Restrictions that could kick in with a listing under the Endangered Species Act due to global warming would be too burdensome, given the unknowns about the future of polar bears, such as the extent of the loss of Arctic sea ice in the next 100 years and whether the animals would face extinction, according to opponents.

''The listing likely will force anyone in America whose business requires the emission of greenhouse gases to go through an additional layer of consultation with the Fish and Wildlife Service, creating delays and expenses,'' said Marilyn Crockett, deputy director of the Alaska Oil and Gas Association, a trade group.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is taking testimony through April 9 on the proposal to list polar bears as threatened, or likely to become endangered in the foreseeable future. The more drastic listing under the law is ''endangered,'' in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range.

Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne in December proposed listing polar bears as threatened. His decision to begin the process was forced by a petition filed by the Center for Biological Diversity of Joshua Tree, Calif., which said polar bears could become extinct by the end of the century because their sea ice habitat is melting away due to global warming....

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Polar-Bears.html

[lovuian]

1. I like it

They need to know what they do has ramifications

[GainesT1958]

2. Don't think they're threatened?

Let all those CEOs try and swim forty miles or so to the next ice flow, without stopping, in 38-degree water, and see if THEY don't feel a little bit "threatened"!:eyes:

B-)