16 May 2008
Polar Bears to Be Listed as “Threatened,” Interior Secretary Says
Environmental groups, politicians say protection measures will be too weak
Washington -- A battle waged from the Arctic to the courts led U.S. Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne to accept U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) recommendations and pleas of environmental groups to list the polar bear as a threatened species.
Kempthorne, citing strong evidence of continuing polar ice melt and its negative effect on bear habitat detailed in nine recent studies by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), acknowledged the precarious status of the polar bear. But he focused on the need to protect “the society and economy of the United States” from detrimental limitations on developing Arctic oil resources.
“We know Earth is warming. We know man is a factor in that. But we cannot tell you to what extent,” Kempthorne said May 14. “The habitat for the polar bear is declining. That’s what triggered this. But the Endangered Species Act is not the vehicle to deal with global climate change.”
With the Arctic Sea ice loss exceeding all previous measures, Kempthorne said the bears “are likely to become endangered in the foreseeable future.”
The Fish and Wildlife Service will be issuing a final rule and administrative guidance to “ensure the protection of the bear while allowing us to continue to develop our natural resources in the Arctic region in an environmentally sound way.” The rulemaking will take effect as soon as it is published in the Federal Register, an official publication of the U.S. government.
USGS studies indicate two-thirds of the polar bear population could disappear in the next 45 years. USGS scientist Steve Armstrup, who has studied polar bears in their habitat for three decades, told America.gov in 2007 that melting ice hinders the bears’ ability to obtain food. “[G]lobal warming affects polar bears because they cannot adapt.”
“Polar bears are entirely dependent upon the sea ice because it is only from that platform that they are able to harvest the bounty from the sea,” Armstrup said. They do not thrive on land.
“Today’s decision is a tremendous victory for one of the world’s most iconic and charismatic animals,” World Wildlife Fund (WWF)-US President Carter Roberts said. “The other big winner today is sound science, which has clearly trumped politics.” But he voiced concerns about the “numerous caveats” in the listing.
The decision on listing the polar bears legally was required to be made by January 9, but the Department of the Interior failed to meet that deadline. A U.S. District Court on April 28 ordered the USFWS to issue a decision on the polar bear listing by May 15.
“The delay in listing has opened the door to accelerated oil and gas exploration in the Arctic,” said WWF Alaska office Managing Director Margaret Williams. WWF is a plaintiff in a case challenging a lease-sale made in polar bear habitat in the Chukchi Sea. The leases were sold after January 9.
Earthjustice lawyer Clayton Jernigan maintained the nature of the listing limits protection for the bears and their shrinking ice habitat, giving them “no greater protection from oil and gas development than they previously had under the Marine Mammal Protection Act.”
“By listing the bear as threatened, instead of endangered, and adopting weaker protections for polar bears and their habitat, the administration is attempting to make it easier for oil and gas development to proceed on a fast track,” Jernigan said.
By legal definition, an endangered species is one judged likely to become extinct, while a threatened species is one at less-dire risk but that may become endangered in the foreseeable future unless steps are taken to protect it.
Polar bear populations have doubled since the 1960s, but USFWS projects that ice melt will reverse that trend. Armstrup reported increases in undernourished polar bears and bears drowned because they are unable to swim the ever-greater distances between ice floes.
National Wildlife Federation’s John Kostyack said claims that there are insufficient data to make “a causal connection” between harm to listed species or their habitats and emissions from specific industrial activity are “avoiding the gravity of the global warming crisis” and its effect on biodiversity. “The listing highlights the critical need for U.S. leadership in capping global warming pollution,” he said.
Kempthorne emphasized the listing of the polar bear as threatened “should not open the door to use of the ESA to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. … The ESA is not the right tool to set U.S. climate policy.” Legislation is, he said.
Prominent Democrats like Senator Barbara Boxer and Representative Edward Markey have called for stronger action to cut pollution and mitigate the effects of climate change.
Business groups and industry advocates have promised to fight the listing in court. With environmental groups that question both the rulemaking and administrative guidance lining up to do the same, the last word on the polar bear is yet to come.
