Decide on Polar Bears First, Then Oil: Lawmaker
WASHINGTON - The U.S. government must decide first if polar bears are threatened by climate change before it opens part of their icy habitat to oil drilling, the head of a congressional environment panel said on Thursday.
The decision whether to list the big Arctic bear as threatened under the Endangered Species Act was supposed to happen last week but was postponed for up to 30 days.
That means it could come after the government offers 29.4 million acres in the Chukchi Sea off the Alaskan coast in a sale of oil leases on February 6.
“Rushing to allow drilling in polar bear habitat before protecting the bear would be the epitome of this administration’s backward energy policy, a policy of drill first and ask questions later,” Rep. Ed Markey said at a hearing of the House (of Representatives) Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, which he chairs.
Testifying on the matter were two key Bush administration officials: Dale Hall, director of the Fish and Wildlife Service that has been investigating the polar bear’s status, and Randall Luthi, director of the Minerals Management Service, which announced the oil lease sale last week.
World polar bear populations are currently stable, but U.S. scientists predict that two-thirds of them could be gone by 2050 if predictions about melting sea ice hold true. Polar bears live and hunt on sea ice; when it melts they either drown or are forced onto land, where they are inefficient hunters.
This is the first time global warming has been a factor in arguing for threatened status for any species in the United States and that makes the decision more complex.
Instead of the limited measures required to rescue a species threatened by a drained swamp or denuded forest, polar bears depend on sea ice. That ice is melting at an accelerated rate, at least partly because of human-generated global warming, scientists have reported.
“DO SOMETHING ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE”
Hall has previously acknowledged there is no substantial scientific uncertainty, as defined under the Endangered Species Act, about the polar bear case. He said the volume of material from scientists and public hearings caused the delay in making the decision on whether to list the bear as threatened.
Under congressional questioning, Hall noted that 20 percent of polar bear habitat has disappeared since the 1970s and said human-caused global warming must be addressed now.
“We need to do something about climate change, starting yesterday,” Hall said. “And it needs to be a serious effort to control greenhouse gases, which is probably the only thing we can control. If the Earth is tilting … we can’t control that but we need to look at things we can control.”
The Bush administration is alone among major industrialized countries in rejecting the carbon-curbing Kyoto protocol. Washington also opposes mandatory limits on climate-warming greenhouse emissions.
Luthi, whose agency announced the Chukchi Sea oil lease sale, said there were an estimated 15 billion barrels of oil in the area and that these were needed as world demand for petroleum is rising.
Luthi said the risk to the bears from oil drilling would be negligible and that if the oil sales went through before a decision was reached on the polar bears, there would be “an additional layer of consultation” with conservation officials as oil and gas companies worked in the area.
He acknowledged his agency’s environmental impact assessment said there was a 33 to 50 percent chance of a 1,000-barrel spill in this area, but also said no wildlife had been endangered by this kind of exploratory drilling.
Steven Amstrup, a scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey, told the panel that if polar bears came in contact with spilled oil, they would probably die.
“Polar bears do not do well when they get into oil,” Amstrup said. “They tend to groom themselves, they ingest the oil and the spills, basically, are most likely fatal.”
Editing by Frances Kerry
© 2008 Reuters
i think we know what’s going to happen don’t we? same thing that happened with the navy’s sonar and the whales……….
Polar bear liver is so loaded with vitiman A, that if you eat any, it will kill you CoCo. Therefore, they are not good for anything. They kill small whales too. Mean buggers they are.
Did you know that polar bears are all left pawed? When they toss a small chunk of meat to their side kick arctic fox, they always use their left paw. The foxes are their watch dogs, you will often see a bear and his or her little white fox travelling together on the tundra. __ Animal Buddies.
Gee wiz and gosh- I guess the treasury is flat so leaving no stone unturned the boys are going to be divying up the very last remnants of our national pristine trust that somehow have avoided being raped since the beginning of time. In the spirit of unfettered goverment give aways to oil corporations and tax abatements to the industry based on oil at $10 a barrel- the polar bear will be asked to make certain sacrifices so we can keep those humvees full. Feb 6 huh- plenty of time to stop the 4 corprate megamobs railroad from fast tracking the gloming of just few more hundreds of billions from the benumbed public’s tragic commons.
Oil companies are going to decide the fate of polar bears.
KEM PATRICK,
Uh….are you being sarcastic again, or are you serious?
Are your judgements on polar bears reason to hurry their extinction? Gosh, I hope not! Many animals are mean looking to us, but are innocent of malice and guile. They have every right to live their lives in their habitats with little interference from man. I know, not a perfect world, but it is long overdue that people consider being stewards of this lovely , pale blue dot in the heavens instead just consumers.
PAX Marianne
I was writng to COCO, we’re friends an she’s a vegitarian. The only things I was serious about, is they are all left pawed, often do travel with a fox and will kill a young beluga or narwhal. BTW most intelligent adults know the difference between sarcasm and humor, even though sarcasm can be humerous. You seem to be aware of my posts and should know by now that I’m a rabid enviromentalist.
Kem Patrick, you are wrong. The polar bear liver is poisonous to humans, but it’s meat is not, and it’s fur has provided crucial warmth to indigenous arctic peoples for centuries. In Alaska the Inuit people hunt polar bears for non-commercial purposes — for fur and meat – to this day. The United States and Canada allow indigenous people to engage in subsistence hunting of polar bears. If they are ‘good for nothing’ why would indigenous people risk life and limb to hunt them?
Furthermore, polar bears are an Apex predator. These are species at the end of long food chains, where they have a crucial role in maintaining the health of ecosystems.
Your tale of the arctic fox as side kick to the polar bear sounds like it came out of a children’s book. The bears’ biology is specialized to digest fat from marine mammals and cannot derive much nutrition from terrestrial food. Most animals can easily outrun a polar bear on the open land or in the open water, and polar bears overheat quickly: thus *the polar bear subsists almost entirely on live seals and walrus calves taken at the edge of sea-ice in the winter and spring, or on the carcasses of dead adult walruses or whales*. They live off of their fat reserves through the late summer and early fall when the sea-ice is at a minimum. They rarely hunt on land, but when they do the arctic fox is more likely to be a meal than a sidekick. The polar bear is the most carnivorous member of the bear family. It feeds mainly on seals, especially ringed seals that poke holes in the ice to breathe, *but will eat anything it can kill*: birds, eggs, rodents, shellfish, crabs, beluga whales, walrus calves, muskox, reindeer, and other polar bears.
Look it up!
I never said the meat was poisonous, I said the liver was and I was JOKING with COCO.
Read Jacques Costeau’s book, “The Ocean World” and you will find that he too tells about polar bears and Arctic foxes bumming together, it’s quite common. They are always left pawed too. I’ve read several books about Arctic life and lived in Alaska for three years. I also am very familiar with whale information. Polar bears are omnivorious and they eat shrubbery, berries etc and travel long distances from the ocean across the tundra, ___ often closely trailed by an Arctic fox. Foxes have even have been seen snuggled up with a polar bear sleeping. __ Look it up.
During the short summer, polar bears consume large numbers of lemmings, bird eggs and salmon, grass, shrubs and berries. This period allows their claws to grow longer for the coming winter months, so they can more easily snag seals and other ocean mammals. Always with their left paw. Interesting triva. They are the rulers of the Arctic and it would be a unforgiven shame to see them or their home destroyed by mankind.
Kem Patrick: Yes, sarcasm can certainly be humourous (I’m Canadian - we use Brit.spelling), i.e., humorous; but I don’t know about “humerous,” in any country. Your humerus (correct spelling in any Eng.-speaking country) is your upper arm, which might have something to do with your elbow being your funny-bone; and believe me, I’m not just pulling your leg.
i not gud spelur
I loce polur bars tu, yum yum
“Your tale of the arctic fox as side kick to the polar bear sounds like it came out of a children’s book.” (Nonna)
Growing Up with Dick and George: Learning and Living the American Dream
Come, Dick.
Come and see.
Come and see impeachment.
And tender and loving with their cubs.
KEM,
Pardon me! Polar bears are a sensitive subject these days for many of us. Just needed to be clear. Surprised that the bear doesn’t eat the fox….it’s nice to have friends when your life is on the line.
Destroying the world for 1% of the world’s insatiable greed…
Fuck White Corporate AmeriKKKa
Stop arguing with Kem ! If you haven’t read any posts on this site you are excused. This seems to be article about a little bit of hope that the see the last of the arctic is preserved and an option to see if its easier the pencil in solar and wind instead of plastic and useless western medicine producing oil products for the bears life who should eat dick n bush as a offering to its wellbeing. Has anyone read “WE” by Eugene Zamatian? If any of you would let go of the keyboard for long enough, you would see how many different animals live off of you and your kind, harmoniously, with out your knowledge. I’m not even talking cellularly. Crows, rats, mice, coons, squirrels, robins, starlings, worms that wouldn’t be in the US with out whitey, dogs, cats, sparrows, ducks, geese, and all the other animals that might live next to you in your region of the country. Fairy tale readers! Get a grip on your outdoors! Dave Rabbitt - You are on it!
The 15 billion barrels will be gone before the polar bears. The fabled North Sea reserves are rapidly declining, and the UK is about to become an energy importer again. Prudhoe bay is rapidly declining. The ANWR find isn’t all that big, either. We are finishing off these minor reserves in a few decades. That’s why the neocons grabbed Iraq. The party is over.
I bet the bears will love the oil drillers kitchen scraps, and will hate to see them go in 20 years or so.
Who was responsible for the postponement for 30 days?
jungleboy,
Oh…seems you’re not above ranting either…we ALL have serious emotional streaks when it comes to viewing and experiencing the decline of Nature in its various forms, animal life being one of them.
And, sincerely, thanks for the book referal. May I refer you to one? The Celestine Prophecy by Redfield…vital information and illumination concerning Man’s current “condition” and the change of mind-set and heart-set that is needed. Of special interest to me was the 4th chapter on Struggle for Power.
PAX
oh…and bbr-001,
I bet the bears will love the oil drillers kitchen scraps, and will hate to see them go in 20 years or so.
This is not healthy for the bears and is dangerous for the drillers to boot. Not a good arguement to oil spill and death. The melting of the ice is already killing the bears.
To not halt oil drilling, to not pursuing alternate, renewable energy sources post haste, is securing the status quo, which is destructive in SO many ways. Money doesn’t talk, it screams!
Excellent reasoning there MAS. It’s not just the polar bears we are harming, it’s the entire eco system in the Arctic. The rodents are the bottom of the food chain there and the bears are the top. The Arctic animals are ALL very important.
Another good book is, “I lived With the Wolves”. The Arctic wolf is just as vital to that eco system as the polar bear. Without them, we’d be overrun with mice, rats and lemmings, actually, the rodents are a major food source for the wolf year round, and for the polar bear in the summer season.
KEM PATRICK
i can’t leave you alone for 2 minutes can i? and no, i didn’t know that about the fox and the polar bear. what does the fox do when the polar bear goes swimming? does he have a dinghy?
COCO
I laughed out loud at your comment. Very good, thanks.
KEM…love wolves, beautiful creatures. Thanks for the book referal.
No COCO. __ When her bear takes off in the water, or goes sailing off on a big ice flo, the little fox is left standing alone on the shore, the love affair and close companionship ends. The fox stares at the Northern Lights for a long time that cold and lonely night, and finally like a small gray spectre, slips away into the darnknes, it’s tears frozen on the cold and barren, wind swept ice.
“Steal a little and they throw you in jail- steal a lot and they make you a king” -Bob Dylan
Fear not! help is in progress-organized action to actually move to solve this disaster- tell your ma tell your pa oowah- do tell your friends and your congressfolk-
http://www.commondreams.org/news2008/0109-05.htm
KEM PATRICK
how poetic and sad…………
MAS1946
i read that book the ‘celestine prophecy’ and nearly made it to the end. i gave up on about the 9th sign. it just all got a bit silly in the end. in fact the beginning wasn’t much better……….. i’m glad i made you laugh though.
Sad? __ Yeah, shit happens CoCo. Polar bears have been seen swimming over a hundred miles from any shore, and several hundred miles, stranded on a melting ice flo.
Sometimes the Orca get them. __ Karma rules.
KEM PATRICK
did you see the other day, i think it was germany. anyway, in a zoo they had to take the newly born polar bear from its mother as she kept dropping it. there was a video on bbc.co.uk and it was very sad to see this polar bear trying to care for her infant and seemingly not knowing how. (or at least not carefully) i wondered if it was a case of her not being in her natural habitat that was causing her apparent lack of co-ordination. the poor baby kept being dropped onto the rock in the enclosure. that was REALLY sad……………and now she has no baby either……….
There are certain animals that zoos should not attempt to house, polar bears are one. The polar bears are very intelligent animals and become disturbed and angry with the confinement. A keeper was killed by one in the Tucson zoo, where they have a constant, high and very noisy waterfall in their enclosure. Polar bears in the wild are in a deathly quiet enviroment most of the time. The polar bears in zoos hate humans and it is subtly evident, in spite of their often playful actions and outward appearance.
Years ago, about 1960, we were traveling through the Black Hills area of South Dakota. We stopped for a picnic lunch at an almost deserted area in a state park, there was no one else in the area. There were six gray wolves there, caged in small seperate steel cages. They were obvioulsy distraught and I wanted so badly to release them, but I refrained.
All of a sudden some guy drove up, went over to the cages and cut the locks with a bolt cutter and let them loose, the wolves all bounded off together and it was great to see it. I’m sure they were later probably tracked down and killed however. The man didn’t say a word, just got into his pickup truck and drove off. It made my month though, hope they got away for good.
With enough drillers and buildings And kitchen scraps, there will be a nice population of rodents, foxes and bears, maybe they won’t have to part so often in the future. I haven’t seen an old Yogi and Boo Boo cartoon in a while.
The ANWR drilling was stopped. Why not this project, too? The real oil is in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran and Venezuela anyway. We can stop these projects for now, but when oil gets really expensive and scarce, people won’t play nice with environmentalists. (It will even get worse.)
When stalking a seal or other prey, a polar bear will cover it’s black nose with snow to hide it while slowly creeping and sliding it’s body over the snow and ice. From a distance, the bear’s eyes look like two small black holes burned into the ice. They are very intelligent animals.
Hey guys there is a reason that environmental groups are sueing the repubs over the damage in the Chuci Sea oil lease give away Feb.6- it’s not beceuse the polar bear’s liver and black nose are not delicious food in an endandered species banquet. It’s because the Bushies have gutted every environmental law on the books dating back to the Nixon administration.
BABALOUIE
yeah, that too……………..
Hey COCO, one night in Alaska, I went out to the garage and as I turned the corner, there was a polar bear, about 50 feet from the side garage door. It stood up on it’s hind legs and snarled at me. It was at least nine feet tall. Luckily, I was very close to the door and got in, slammed it shut before the bear hit it. I was chased around the pumps at a gas station in Caribou Maine, by a female moose once too. It slipped on the icy blacktop and fell down. I was able to get into my car and drive off. __ I still love all animals. Love women much more though.
Just remember oil junkies: Polar Bears cannot speak on their own behalf. How would homo sapiens like it if they didn’t have speech, and a superior species was deciding their fate for the sake of oil consumption.
KEM PATRICK
were you wearing ‘chanel’ perfume when the moose chased you?
Nope, but some say my face resembles that of a male moose.
KEM PATRICK
check this site out: www.bluecommunities.org