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Polar Bears on Thin Ice

Posted on: Sunday, 2 April 2006, 06:00 CDT

By Whiteman, Lisa

Polar bears struggle to find food as Arctic ice disappears.

Polar bears may soon be the first mammal listed as a threatened species as a direct result of global warming. The bears rely on sea ice to locate prey, migrate to mating grounds, and raise their young, but as the Arctic ice vanishes, the bears' chances for survival are rapidly diminishing. To protect the species from extinction, NRDC and other environmental groups petitioned the secretary of the Interior to have the polar bear listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act

. The request was ignored, so in December the groups filed suit against the federal government. As a result, last month the Fish and Wildlife Service agreed to study whether the polar bear should be given endangered species protection. The agency is expected to announce its decision within a year. If polar bears are listed, the Endangered Species Act will prohibit federal agencies from taking any action that adversely changes the bears' critical habitat or otherwise undermines their ability to recover-such as allowing the emission of greenhouse gases. The implications for future government policy could potentially be huge and a great boon to the wildlife threatened by the Arctic's climatic deterioration. -Lisa Whiteman Copyright Natural Resources Council Spring 2006

Source: Onearth

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