Polar bear S.O.S!

http://www.savebiogems.org/polar/

Over the past three decades, the Arctic ice cap has shrunk by a size equivalent to six Californias. This is a major problem, because the polar bears live on sea ice. If we, as a people, don't take action now, the polar bear will b e extinct by 2050, in Alaska. Under the Bush administration, polar bears were given limited protection. Now under the Obama administration "Interior Secretary Salazar cut the polar bear's lifeline by adopting a Bush era policy that prevents the government from using vital Endangered Species Act protections to save the polar bear from the two deadliest threats it faces: global warming and Arctic oil development." (stated in article)
The NRDC is litigating to stop this illegal act that is detrimental to the polar bears.

Obama's Plan for Extinction

http://www.examiner.com/x-37619-Environmental-Policy-Examiner~y2010m3d31-Obamas-offshore-drilling-plans-will-drive-polar-bears-closer-to-extinction
On March 31, President Obama made it public that a new oil drilling plan in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas off the coast of Alaska, would “greatly expand, oil leasing beyond what was ever authorized by the Bush administration.” The Beaufort and Chukchi Seas are the locations of all the population of all American polar bears. People(conservationist groups) are concerned of this because of the lack of technology to clean oil spills in icy water conditions. This could lead to polar bear deaths, in the court of appeals (DC circuit) put the plans away because of the lack of assessment of environmental impacts. “Short of sending Sarah Palin back to Alaska to personally club polar bear cubs to death, the Obama administration could not have come up with a more efficient extinction plan for the polar bear,” said Cummings.

Summary of article

The article begins off by saying that the polar bear has been added as “threatened species” under the Endangered Species Act of 1973. It was added to the list because of the melting ice due to global warming, this is why the polar bear was listed as “threatened”. It has the chance to become extinct, because the ice is a vital part of a polar bears life. The decision to add them to the endangered list was presented by a computer model that states that if nothing is done, 30% of the sea ice will be gone, in 2050. The U.S. Department of the Interior’s secretary, Dirk Kempthorne, stated during a press conference “the ESA will not be used as a tool for trying to regulate the greenhouse gas emissions blamed for creating climate change.”

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=polar-bears-threatened