Bush Administration: Climate Change Affecting Polar Bears

It's a round-about concession, but the Bush Administration agreed that climate change is really happening as it moved to put polar bears on the endangered species list because of melting sea ice.

"We are making this proposal because a scientific review of the species by the Fish and Wildlife Service found that populations may be threatened by receding sea ice, which polar bears use as a platform for many activities essential to their life cycle, including hunting for their main prey, Arctic seals," Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said in a telephone a news conference.

Dale Hall, director of the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), said that the ice "is melting." However, officials were adamant that their review will deal with habitat only, not with global climate conditions.

The federal action is the result of a lawsuit by three environmental groups: the Center for Biological Diversity, Greenpeace and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). The Center petitioned USFWS for protection almost two years ago. When USFWS missed a 2006 deadline, the groups sued.

In a statement, the NRDC said:

The polar bear population in Western Hudson Bay, the most-studied of all populations, has declined from approximately 1,200 bears in 1987, to 1,100 bears in 1995, and then to fewer than 950 bears in 2004 due to ice loss. And in April 2006, the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center reported that winter sea ice -- defined as the area with sea ice concentrations of 15 percent or greater -- has shrunk in the past year by over 115,000 square miles, an area about the size of the Arizona, reaching a new record low of 5.60 million square miles (14.5 million square kilometers).

On December 12, scientists from the National Center for Atmospheric Research said that the Arctic could be ice-free in summer as early as 2040, and in the next 20 years the extent of Arctic sea ice will be reduced by 80 percent. The U.S. Minerals Management Service documented the drowning of at least four polar bears in September 2004, when the sea ice retreated a record 160 miles off the northern coast.

USFWS will accept comments on the ESA proposal (pdf) over the next 90 days. A final decision is 12 months down the line.

Congress weighed in on polar bear protection this summer:

In July, the House approved a U.S.-Russia treaty to help protect polar bears from overhunting and other threats to their survival.

That vote put into effect a 2000 treaty that sets quotas on polar bear hunting by native populations in the two countries and establishes a bilateral commission to analyze how best to sustain sea ice. It also approved spending $2 million a year through 2010 for the polar bear program.

Also, see The Truth About Global Warming, Business Ads On Global Warming: Disinformation, Not For The Faint Of Heart, Britain Says Climate Change Real, Cause For Prompt Action, Kyoto Protocol: Overview

Related information: Longer seasons without ice may cause polar bear cannibalism, from the Seattle Times (13 June 2006); Oil drilling alters landscape, life for tiny Inupiat village, from the Seattle Times (Part 2 of 2, 2 January 2006); Sweeping Change Reshapes The Arctic, from the Seattle Times (part 1 of 2, 1 January 2006); Polar science mission takes Arctic temperature, from the Seattle Times (20 April 2004 ); Shrinking sea ice, from the National Snow and Ice Data Center, University of Colorado; Arctic Sea-Ice, Climate and Oceanography, from The Polar Science Center, University of Washington; Impact of melting ice on rate of climate change (pdf), from the Polar Science Center, University of Washington.