December, 03 2010, 12:55pm EDT
Two Arctic Ice Seals Threatened by Climate Change Proposed for Endangered Species Act Protection
Seals Would Be First Alaskan Species Since Polar Bear to Be Listed Due to Climate Change
ANCHORAGE, Alaska
Responding to a petition from the Center for Biological Diversity, the
Obama administration today proposed Endangered Species Act protection for
two ice-dependent Arctic seals threatened by climate change. The bearded seal and ringed seal will be
the first Alaskan species since the polar bear to be protected primarily
due to threats from climate change.
"Global
warming is rapidly robbing these Arctic seals of the ice they need to
survive," said Rebecca Noblin, the Center's Alaska director. "With this
decision, the Obama administration is improving the odds for these two
struggling species of ice-dependent seals. The Arctic
is warming at twice the rate of the rest of the world, so no animal reliant
on Arctic sea ice is safe."
The
ringed seal, the primary food for polar bears, excavates snow caves on top
of the sea ice to create protected shelters for nursing pups. As the Arctic warms, the sea ice is breaking up earlier, and
rain is falling on snow, causing snow caves to collapse and leading to the
deaths of pups.
Bearded
seals, distinctive for their mustachioed appearance and elaborate courtship
songs, give birth and nurse their pups on pack ice. The rapid loss of pack
ice jeopardizes their ability to rear young and is lowering the abundance
of the seals' food on their shallow foraging grounds in the Bering Sea.
The
seals' winter sea-ice habitat in the Bering, Okhotsk and Barents seas
is projected to decline by at least 40 percent by 2050, while summer sea
ice across the Arctic has been projected
to disappear in the next 20 years. These seals also face threats from
proposed offshore oil and gas development off Alaska, where an oil spill in icy waters
would be impossible to clean up. The Obama administration recently
announced plans to move forward with a Bush-era plan to drill in the
seals' habitat off Alaska.
"Endangered
Species Act protection provides time-tested tools to save species from
extinction," said Noblin. "Reducing the world's carbon
dioxide level - which is driving global warming - to less than
350 parts per million can restore Arctic sea ice and preserve a planet that
still contains wonders such as polar bears, walruses and ice seals."
In
May 2008, the Center filed a petition to protect ringed, bearded and
spotted seals under the Endangered Species Act. The administration has one
year to finalize today's decision to list bearded and ringed seals.
The listing would not affect Alaska
natives' subsistence harvest, which is exempted generally from the
Act's prohibitions.
Under
today's decision, all populations of ringed seals would receive
Endangered Species Act protection, while only the Pacific subspecies of
bearded seals, which includes those in Alaska
and Russia,
would receive protection. Today's proposal to protect the ice seals
comes from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, an agency
within the Department of Commerce. A separate federal agency, the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service, within the Department of the Interior, is under court
order to decide by Dec. 23 whether polar bears should
receive a higher level of protection as "endangered" rather
than their current "threatened" status. The Fish and Wildlife
Service must also decide by Jan. 31, 2011, whether the Pacific walrus
warrants protection under the Act.
At the Center for Biological Diversity, we believe that the welfare of human beings is deeply linked to nature — to the existence in our world of a vast diversity of wild animals and plants. Because diversity has intrinsic value, and because its loss impoverishes society, we work to secure a future for all species, great and small, hovering on the brink of extinction. We do so through science, law and creative media, with a focus on protecting the lands, waters and climate that species need to survive.
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Critics Blast 'Reckless and Impossible' Bid to Start Operating Mountain Valley Pipeline
"The time to build more dirty and dangerous pipelines is over," said one environmental campaigner.
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Mountain Valley Pipeline LLC sent a letter Monday to Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Acting Secretary Debbie-Anne Reese seeking final permission to begin operation on the MVP next month, even while acknowledging that much of the Virginia portion of the pipeline route remains unfinished and developers have yet to fully comply with safety requirements.
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U.S. workers' rights advocates and groups celebrated on Tuesday after the Federal Trade Commission voted 3-2 along party lines to approve a ban on most noncompete clauses, which Democratic FTC Chair Lina Khansaid "keep wages low, suppress new ideas, and rob the American economy of dynamism."
"The FTC's final rule to ban noncompetes will ensure Americans have the freedom to pursue a new job, start a new business, or bring a new idea to market," Khan added, pointing to the commission's estimates that the policy could mean another $524 for the average worker, over 8,500 new startups, and 17,000 to 29,000 more patents each year.
As Economic Policy Institute (EPI) president Heidi Shierholz explained, "Noncompete agreements are employment provisions that ban workers at one company from working for, or starting, a competing business within a certain period of time after leaving a job."
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The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has suggested it plans to file a lawsuit that, as The American Prospectdetailed, "could more broadly threaten the rulemaking authority the FTC cited when proposing to ban noncompetes."
Already, the tax services and software provider Ryan has filed a legal challenge in federal court in Texas, arguing that the FTC is unconstitutionally structured.
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Morgan Harper, director of policy and advocacy at the American Economic Liberties Project, praised the FTC for "listening to the comments of thousands of entrepreneurs and workers of all income levels across industries" and finalizing a rule that "is a clear-cut win."
Demand Progress' Emily Peterson-Cassin similarly commended the commission "for taking a strong stance against this egregious use of corporate power, thereby empowering workers to switch jobs and launch new ventures, and unlocking billions of dollars in worker earnings."
While such agreements are common across various industries, Teófilo Reyes, chief of staff at the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, said that "many restaurant workers have been stuck at their job, earning as low as $2.13 per hour, because of the noncompete clause that they agreed to have in their contract."
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One plaintiffs' attorney said the ruling "makes our democracy better and ensures that North Carolina is not able to unjustly criminalize innocent individuals with felony convictions who are valued members of our society."
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Democracy defenders on Tuesday hailed a ruling from a U.S. federal judge striking down a 19th-century North Carolina law criminalizing people who vote while on parole, probation, or post-release supervision due to a felony conviction.
In Monday's decision, U.S. District Judge Loretta C. Biggs—an appointee of former Democratic President Barack Obama—sided with the North Carolina A. Philip Randolph Institute and Action NC, who argued that the 1877 law discriminated against Black people.
"The challenged statute was enacted with discriminatory intent, has not been cleansed of its discriminatory taint, and continues to disproportionately impact Black voters," Biggs wrote in her 25-page ruling.
Therefore, according to the judge, the 1877 law violates the U.S. Constitution's equal protection clause.
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Voting rights tracker Democracy Docket noted that Monday's ruling "does not have any bearing on North Carolina's strict felony disenfranchisement law, which denies the right to vote for those with felony convictions who remain on probation, parole, or a suspended sentence—often leaving individuals without voting rights for many years after release from incarceration."
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As similar battles play out in other states, Democratic U.S. lawmakers led by Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Sen. Peter Welch of Vermont in December introduced legislation to end former felon disenfranchisement in federal elections and guarantee incarcerated people the right to vote.
Currently, only Maine, Vermont, and the District of Columbia allow all incarcerated people to vote behind bars.
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