Polar Bears Won't be Protected from Global Warming
Tom Brakefield / Getty Images
Ken Salazar, Obama's Secretary of the Interior, has failed to overturn a Bush-era rule that weakens the Endangered Species Act and jeopardizes the survival of polar bears. While threats to habitat are usually considered under the Endangered Species Act, the special rule means that the ESA cannot be used to restrict activities that contribute to global warming, even though global warming is a major threat to polar bears. In order to overturn the rule, Salazar had a May 9 deadline by which to act.
Salazar's inaction comes less than two weeks after Salazar and Commerce Secretary Gary Locke decided to restore the scientific consultation requirement to the ESA.
This is yet another disappointing move from the Obama administration on animal issues, but not a surprising one from Salazar, who we did not expect to be animal-friendly.
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It doesn’t take much brainpower to realize that if polar bears are protected, and hunted less, the population will increase. There’s precedence stories like this for many rebounding animal populations that are now protected.
And by the way, Dr Mitchell Taylor, one of the world’s leading experts on polar bears, believes that numbers are much higher than they were 30 years ago.
This view, of course, runs counter to what alarmists want you to believe, so much so, in fact, that Dr. Taylor has been barred from a meeting of the Polar Bear Specialist Group, set up under the International Union for the Conservation of Nature/Species Survival Commission.