Well it’s the final straw people. We’re killing our polar bears. Yes you, me, everyone! A federal judge in Oakland has ordered the Interior Department to decide by May 15 if the polar bear should be protected as an endangered species due to global warming causing the ice to melt. Because of our lifestyle polar bears have had to resort to “cannibalism and drowned while trying to swim between large gaps in the ice.” As a result their reproductive rates for females have dropped and survival rates for cubs has declined.
The polar bear makes its living hunting arctic seals when ice covers the polar seas. As the ice has retreated for longer periods every spring and summer, the fasting period for the bears has grown longer, weakening them and disrupting their reproduction.
Does this not make you feel horrible? Because it should make you feel horrible. People often forget that there day to day life is killing lives of those far away. On May 15th the court will decide if polar bears should be considered an endangered species or not.
U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken decided, in a ruling released today, that government failed to meet the deadline of Jan. 9, a legal requirement under the Endangered Species Act. She dismissed the Bush administration’s plea to give it until June 30, saying officials offered “no specific facts that would justify the existing delay, much less further delay.”
Wilken’s decision is a victory for three conservation groups that petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, an agency of the Interior Department, to protect the polar bear as a species threatened with extinction because of receding sea ice.
Regardless of what Interior decides, lawyers for conservation groups said they believe that mounting scientific evidence would make it easy to persuade a judge that an endangered species listing is warranted.
Kassie Siegel, who wrote the initial petition for the Center for Biological Diversity, called the upcoming decision “the first step toward saving the polar bear and the entire Arctic ecosystem from global warming.”
Loading ...For more info on how to help go here!
Photo by mape_sÂÂ
0 responses so far ↓
Subscribe to our RSS Feed and leave a comment to enter the commentator of the week competition and win a $20 Amazon.com gift voucher.
Leave a Comment