December, 30 2009, 03:15pm EDT
New Federal Studies: Alaskan Polar Bear and Walrus in Trouble
Stock Assessments Indicate Tenuous Future for Arctic Icons
ANCHORAGE, Alaska
Today, responding to a court-ordered deadline, the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service finalized long-overdue reports documenting
the status of polar bears and Pacific walrus
in Alaska. The reports confirm that polar bear populations in Alaska
are declining and that Pacific walrus are under threat. Both species
are being hurt by the loss of their sea-ice habitat due to global
warming, oil and gas development, and unsustainable harvest.
"Polar bears and walrus are losing their sea-ice home to global warming
at an alarming rate," said Rebecca Noblin, in the Anchorage office of
the Center for Biological Diversity. "Unless we act fast to reduce
greenhouse pollution and protect their habitat from oil development, we
stand to lose both of these icons of the Arctic."
Two polar bear populations occur in Alaska: a southern Beaufort Sea
stock that is shared with Canada and a Chukchi/Bering Sea stock that is
shared with Russia. The Pacific walrus occurs in the Bering and Chukchi
seas and is shared with Russia.
According to the assessment, both the southern Beaufort Sea polar bear
stock, estimated at 1,397 bears, and the Chukchi/Bering Sea polar bear
stock, estimated at 2,000 bears, are declining. The report also found
that the human harvest of both polar bear populations exceeds
sustainable harvest levels. The annual harvest of 54 bears from the
southern Beaufort Sea population exceeds the sustainable harvest level
of 22 bears per year, while the annual harvest from the Bering/Chukchi
Sea population of 37 bears from Alaska and 120 to 250 bears from Russia
greatly exceeds the sustainable harvest level of 30 bears per year.
According to the assessment, the Bering/Chukchi Sea population is
"reduced based on harvest levels that were demonstrated to be
unsustainable."
For the Pacific
walrus, the Service estimated a minimum population of 129,000 animals.
The annual human-caused mortality of between 4,963 and 5,460 animals
greatly exceeded the sustainable harvest rate of 2,580 animals per year.
Of the three population estimates, only the estimate for the
well-studied southern Beaufort Sea polar bears is considered reliable.
The estimate for the Chukchi/Bering Sea polar bear population is based
on incomplete data and could be an overestimate, while the walrus
number is an underestimate as it only represents surveys in about half
of the walrus habitat and does not account for walrus that were in the
water rather than hauled out on ice during counting. However, despite
the unknowns, the Wildlife Service considers both of Alaska's polar
bear populations to be in decline.
"The science is in, and it shows that Alaska's polar bears and walrus
are in big trouble," added Noblin. "There is no longer any excuse to
delay action to protect these great Arctic mammals. Without their
sea-ice habitat, America's polar bears and walrus are doomed."
In
addition to threats caused by global warming, polar bears and walrus
face increased oil drilling and industrialization in their Arctic home.
In the past two months, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has approved
oil-company plans to drill in both the Beaufort and Chukchi seas in
2010, both without adequate environmental review.
"If this administration is serious about saving these last great icons
of the North, it must bid farewell to harmful Bush-era drilling plans
for the Arctic," said Noblin. "A rational approach to polar bear and
walrus conservation does not include turning their habitat into a
polluted industrial zone."
The Marine
Mammal Protection Act requires that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
and the National Marine Fisheries Service prepare stock assessments for
marine mammals. To ensure that decision-makers have the most accurate
information, stock assessments are supposed to be revised every year
for imperiled marine mammals and every three years for other species.
While the National Marine Fisheries Service -- the agency responsible
for whales, dolphins, and seals -- has largely complied with this
requirement, the Fish and Wildlife Service, responsible for polar
bears, walrus, sea otters, and manatees, had completely ignored it.
In 2007 the Center for Biological Diversity sued the Wildlife Service
and obtained a court order requiring the release of updated reports.
Stock assessments for the Florida manatee were released today, and sea
otter reports were issued last year.
The polar bear is currently listed as threatened under the Endangered
Species Act as a result of a petition and litigation by the Center. In
September the Wildlife Service found that listing the Pacific walrus
under the Endangered Species Act may be warranted. Pursuant to a
settlement of a Center lawsuit, the Wildlife Service must make a final
decision on whether to list the Pacific walrus by September 10, 2010.
A copy of the stock assessments released today can be found at https://alaska.fws.gov/fisheries/mmm/stock/stock.htm.
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.
(520) 623-5252LATEST NEWS
Amid Spying Fight, House Passes Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act
"As FANFSA and the 702 reauthorization move to the Senate, lawmakers in that chamber need to take a stand for the rights of people in the United States," said one advocate.
Apr 17, 2024
While applauding the U.S. House of Representatives' bipartisan passage of a bill to ensure that "law enforcement and intelligence agencies can't do an end-run around the Constitution by buying information from data brokers" on Wednesday, privacy advocates highlighted that Congress is trying to extend and expand a long-abused government spying program.
The House voted 219-199 for Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act (FANFSA), which won support from 96 Democrats and 123 Republicans, including the lead sponsor, Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio). Named for the constitutional amendment that protects against unreasonable searches and seizures, H.R. 4639 would close what campaigners call the data broker loophole.
"The privacy violations that flow from law enforcement entities circumventing the Fourth Amendment undermine civil liberties, free expression, and our ability to control what happens to our data," said Free Press Action policy counsel Jenna Ruddock. "These impacts affect everyone who uses digital platforms that extract our personal information any time we open a browser or visit social media and other websites—even when we go to events like demonstrations and other places with our phones revealing our locations."
"We're grateful that the House passed these vital and popular protections," she added. "The bill would prevent flagrant abuses of our privacy by government authorities in league with unscrupulous third-party data brokers. Making this legislation into law with Senate passage too would be a decisive and long-overdue action against government misuse of this clandestine business sector that traffics in our personal data for profit."
Wednesday's vote followed the House sending the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act to the Senate. H.R. 7888 would reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which allows for warrantless spying on noncitizens abroad but also sweeps up Americans' data.
The House notably included an amendment forcing a wide range of individuals and businesses to cooperate with government spying operations but rejected an amendment that would have added a warrant requirement to the bill, which the Senate could vote on as soon as Thursday.
Noting those decisions on the FISA reauthorization legislation, Ruddock stressed that "today's vote is a victory but follows a recent loss and ongoing threat as that Section 702 bill moves to the Senate this week too."
"As FANFSA and the 702 reauthorization move to the Senate, lawmakers in that chamber need to take a stand for the rights of people in the United States," she argued. "That means passing FANFSA and reforming Section 702 authority—and prioritizing everyone's First and Fourth Amendment rights."
Jeramie Scott, senior counsel and director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center's Project on Surveillance Oversight, also praised the House's FANFSA passage on Wednesday.
"The passage of the Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale underscores the extent to which reining in abusive warrantless surveillance is a bipartisan issue," Scott said. "We urge the Senate to take up this measure and close the data broker loophole."
Kia Hamadanchy, senior policy counsel at ACLU, similarly said Wednesday that "the bipartisan passage of this bill is a flashing warning sign to the government that if it wants our data, it must get a warrant."
Hamadanchy added that "we hope this vote puts a fire under the Senate to protect their constituents and rein in the government's warrantless surveillance of Americans, once and for all."
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), a critic of the pending 702 bill and FANFSA's lead sponsor in the upper chamber, called the the House's Wednesday vote "a huge win for privacy" and said that "now it's time for the Senate to follow suit."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Leaked Cables Show Biden Pressuring Nations to Oppose Palestine's UN Membership
"This is the evidence that President Biden's talk about a two-state solution is nothing but idle talk," said one former Lebanese diplomat.
Apr 17, 2024
As the United Nations Security Council prepares to vote Thursday on Palestine's bid to become a full U.N. member, the Biden administration—which claims to support Palestinian statehood—is lobbying UNSC nations in an effort to wrangle enough "no" votes so that the United States can avoid resorting to a veto.
Leaked cables obtained by The Intercept show U.S. pressure on Security Council members including Malta—which currently presides over the body—and Ecuador.
While claiming that President Joe Biden backs "Palestinian aspirations for statehood," one of the cables asserts that "it remains the U.S. view that the most expeditious path toward a political horizon for the Palestinian people is in the context of a normalization agreement between Israel and its neighbors."
"We therefore urge you not to support any potential Security Council resolution recommending the admission of 'Palestine' as a U.N. member state, should such a resolution be presented to the Security Council for a decision in the coming days and weeks," the document advises.
The U.S. argument essentially is that the U.N. should not create an independent Palestinian state by fiat—even though that's precisely how the world body voted in 1947 to establish the modern state of Israel.
The renewed push for Palestine's U.N. membership comes as Israel wages a genocidal war on the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian Authority, which hasn't controlled Gaza for nearly two decades, rejected the Biden administration's requests to hold off on seeking full membership.
"We wanted the U.S. to provide a substantive alternative to U.N. recognition. They didn't," one unnamed Palestinian official toldAxios on Wednesday. "We believe full membership in the U.N. for Palestine is way overdue. We have waited more than 12 years since our initial request."
As The Intercept's Ken Klippenstein and Daniel Boguslaw noted:
Since 2011, the U.N. Security Council has rejected the Palestinian Authority's request for full member status. On April 2, the Palestinian Observer Mission to the U.N. requested that the council once again take up consideration of its membership application. According to the first State Department cable, U.N. meetings since the beginning of April suggest that Algeria, China, Guyana, Mozambique, Russia, Slovenia, Sierra Leone, and Malta support granting Palestine full membership to the U.N. It also says that France, Japan, and Korea are undecided, while the United Kingdom will likely abstain from a vote.
Along with the United States, China, France, Russia, and the United Kingdom are permanent members of the UNSC, so they also have veto power.
Ahead of Thursday's planned vote, Spain has been doing its own lobbying in Europe to build greater support for Palestinian statehood. At a joint Tuesday press conference with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob said the question is "when, not if, but when is the best moment to recognize Palestine."
Belgium—which is seeking economic sanctions against Israel in response to its genocidal war on Gaza—is expected to join Spain's push for Palestinian statehood after the country's European Union presidency expires in June.
Currently, 139 of the U.N.'s 193 member states recognize Palestine as an independent state.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—who has also claimed to support a so-called "two-state solution"—has alternately boasted about thwarting Palestinian statehood.
Critics pointed to the leaked cables as more proof of U.S. duplicity and double standards on the Israel-Palestine issue.
"This is the evidence that President Biden's talk about a two-state solution is nothing but idle talk," Massoud Maalouf, a former Lebanese ambassador to Canada, Chile, and Poland, said on social media.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Database Exposes 'Illicit Network Undermining Democracy Around the World'
Yanis Varoufakis hailed the effort as "a treasure chest of well-researched reports on how the reactionaries of the world unite."
Apr 17, 2024
"Coups. Assassinations. Riots. Detentions. Disinformation. We know the tactics that have been deployed to undermine our democracies. But who is behind them?"
Progressive International (PI) asks and answers this and other questions with an extensive new database published Wednesday that connects the dots in what the leftist group calls the "Reactionary International"—a loose global network of right-wing leaders and organizations working to subvert democratic institutions.
PI calls it an "illicit network undermining democracy around the world."
"Today is a mask-off moment for the Reactionary International and the parties, politicians, judges, journalists, foundations, think tanks, tech platforms, NGOs, activists, financiers, and entrepreneurs that comprise it," PI said.
"After a year of preparation, we finally open the doors to our new research consortium, exposing the global network of reactionary forces that corrode our democracies, destroy our planet, and drive us closer to world war," the group added.
"The twin insurrections at the U.S. Capitol in 2021 and BrasÃlia's Three Powers Plaza in 2023 left no doubt about the international coordination of reactionary forces," PI argued. "Yet far too little is known about the entities of this network, their sources of financing, and their institutional allies operating inside our political systems."
Ultimately, PI aims to "support democratic systems to become more resilient to their insidious tactics."
From leaders like Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and former U.S. President Donald Trump—the presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee—to evangelical Christian groups influencing laws in African countries criminalizing LGBTQ+ people and tech companies empowering ubiquitous state surveillance, Reactionary International is a who's-who of the world's right-wing forces.
A cursory search of the database's contents shows users can:
- Learn about Israel's NSO, Rayzone, and Team Jorge, and how a team of Tel Aviv tech entrepreneurs fuel unrest in Latin America;
- Meet the Grey Wolves, Turkey's roving death squad with links to President Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan and the ethno-nationalists in his governing coalition; and
- Explore the global network of the Falun Gong, its Trump-connected media outlet The Epoch Times, and its traveling dance troupe known as Shen Yun.
Yanis Varoufakis, a PI member and secretary-general of the left-wing Democracy in Europe Movement 2025, called the database "a treasure chest of well-researched reports on how the reactionaries of the world unite."
PI invites the public to contribute to the database.
"Together, we will not only name, shame, and expose the forces of the far right—but also dismantle their network of complicity," the group said.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular