No More Polar Bears?

Kassie Siegel wrote an article for the LA Times that basically said, "Global Warming=No Polar Bears." You see, a proposal to put the bears on the endangered species list was created because their natural habitat (The bear is entirely dependent on sea ice) is heating up. The good news, however, is that the proposal is urging George W. Bush and his gang to actually care about the global warming issue. "The significance of the polar bear decision," she wrote, "has not been missed by those who stand to benefit from a continuation of the administration's head-in-the-sand approach to global warming. Once protection for the polar bear is finalized, federal agencies and other large greenhouse gas emitters will be required by law to ensure that their emissions do not jeopardize the species. And the only way to avoid jeopardizing the polar bear is to reduce emissions."

Of course, some people don't buy the whole "Polar bears will be no more" thing and are saying that there isn't a polar bear shortage. "Wrong," says Siegel. She wrote, "A study by NASA and Canadian Wildlife Service scientists published in September 2006 in the journal Arctic demonstrated that more polar bears were indeed being seen on land — not because the species was 'overly abundant' but because the bears had nowhere else to go. They should be out on the ice hunting seals, but earlier breakup of sea ice means the bears are stuck on land, where they are more likely to be spotted."

Siegel ends her op-ed peace by saying:

(James) Hansen, the NASA climate scientist, has repeatedly warned that merely keeping up the current pace of emissions for 10 more years will irreversibly alter the Earth's climate. If sea levels rise 18 feet or more, a large proportion of the world's human population will be displaced — or worse. Polar bears are not the only species threatened by global warming. Absent political action from the United States and the world, the rest of us may be as well.

Want to follow Siegel's lead? Here are some stop global warming links...

US EPA Global Warming Site

StopGlobalWarming.org

Sierra Club