Liberty Belle
Well-known member
That bad boy Bush refuses to stop global warming so the liberal activist groups, Greenpeace, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Natural Resources Defense Council are gonna sue US to save the polar bears. Why don't you all park those tractors, trucks and pickups so the poor bears can breath again? And quit heating your houses, driving your cars and using all those petrolem products...
Environmental groups aim to sue the U.S. government over polar bears
By VERENA DOBNIK
Associated Press Writer
October 12, 2005, 6:19 PM EDT
NEW YORK -- Gus and Ina, a pair of polar bears in Manhattan, don't need ice to cross the Arctic wilderness in search of food. They're well fed in a landscaped Central Park zoo.
But their furry white counterparts thousands of miles to the north face a meltdown of the frigid surface that serves as their path to food.
Representatives of three environmental groups on Wednesday charged that the U.S. government is failing to curb the global warming that is slowly destroying the bears' habitat, possibly leading to their extinction. The environmental groups made their announcement at a news conference in the Central Park Zoo.
"The Bush administration has refused to act," said Kert Davies, the Washington-based research director for Greenpeace.
The groups filed a petition last February to have the polar bear formally declared a threatened species - a step they said would require the government to try and cut down the toxic industrial byproducts that are causing global warming, and the polar meltdown.
Under the federal Endangered Species Act, the Department of the Interior must respond, but the petition has yet to be processed, Davies said.
Greenpeace, the Arizona-based Center for Biological Diversity and the New York-based Natural Resources Defense Council this week sent a notice of intent to sue to the Department of the Interior. The government has 60 days to respond before a suit is filed in federal court.
"We'll address the petition as soon as time and resources allow. We have a tremendous workload and we have to prioritize," said Chris Tollefson, spokesman for the Fish and Wildlife Service, the department bureau that administers the act.
The Manhattan zoo, just off Fifth Avenue, keeps Gus and Ida in a habitat that resembles their natural Arctic turf _ minus the ice, but filled with water and rocks. In the wild, ice supports the formidable predators of the Arctic marine ecosystem while they hunt for the seals they eat and as a home where they raise their cubs and roam to find mates.
But the Arctic ice is disappearing. This year, the meltdown accelerated, eliminating a surface the size of Colorado, according to The National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colo., which based its findings on satellite images. Since 1979, the Arctic ice cap has shrunk a total of 20 percent, according to the center.
"The polar bears' habitat is melting right out from under them as Arctic temperatures rise," said Kassie Siegel of the Center for Biological Diversity. "If things continue as they are, these majestic animals will be driven out of existence."
That could happen as soon as within the next 50 years, said Davies.
There are about 22,000 polar bears in the Arctic. In Canada's Western Hudson Bay, where the ice season has been shortened by three weeks in recent years, the bear population has declined about 14 percent since 1995, the groups said.
Meanwhile, researchers have noticed that some bears are not growing well for lack of food, while others drowned crossing thin ice.
Three hundred scientists who contributed the 2004 Arctic Climate Impact Assessment concluded that global warming is behind the polar meltdown. Heat-trapping pollution from such sources as vehicle tailpipes, industrial smoke stacks and power plants accumulates in the atmosphere, preventing the sun's heat from escaping. The United States accounts for about one-quarter of the world's greenhouse gases.
The 2004 assessment was commissioned by the Arctic Council, an intergovernmental body that regulates the Arctic environment. The eight-nation council includes the United States, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia and Sweden.
Davies said the United States is the only nation not taking action to help protect the polar bear, suggesting that the Bush administration has favored the mining and logging industries over endangered species.
"We can fix this problem, but we need leadership from the U.S. government," he said. "Our addiction to dirty energy sources will exact its price."
Environmental groups aim to sue the U.S. government over polar bears
By VERENA DOBNIK
Associated Press Writer
October 12, 2005, 6:19 PM EDT
NEW YORK -- Gus and Ina, a pair of polar bears in Manhattan, don't need ice to cross the Arctic wilderness in search of food. They're well fed in a landscaped Central Park zoo.
But their furry white counterparts thousands of miles to the north face a meltdown of the frigid surface that serves as their path to food.
Representatives of three environmental groups on Wednesday charged that the U.S. government is failing to curb the global warming that is slowly destroying the bears' habitat, possibly leading to their extinction. The environmental groups made their announcement at a news conference in the Central Park Zoo.
"The Bush administration has refused to act," said Kert Davies, the Washington-based research director for Greenpeace.
The groups filed a petition last February to have the polar bear formally declared a threatened species - a step they said would require the government to try and cut down the toxic industrial byproducts that are causing global warming, and the polar meltdown.
Under the federal Endangered Species Act, the Department of the Interior must respond, but the petition has yet to be processed, Davies said.
Greenpeace, the Arizona-based Center for Biological Diversity and the New York-based Natural Resources Defense Council this week sent a notice of intent to sue to the Department of the Interior. The government has 60 days to respond before a suit is filed in federal court.
"We'll address the petition as soon as time and resources allow. We have a tremendous workload and we have to prioritize," said Chris Tollefson, spokesman for the Fish and Wildlife Service, the department bureau that administers the act.
The Manhattan zoo, just off Fifth Avenue, keeps Gus and Ida in a habitat that resembles their natural Arctic turf _ minus the ice, but filled with water and rocks. In the wild, ice supports the formidable predators of the Arctic marine ecosystem while they hunt for the seals they eat and as a home where they raise their cubs and roam to find mates.
But the Arctic ice is disappearing. This year, the meltdown accelerated, eliminating a surface the size of Colorado, according to The National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colo., which based its findings on satellite images. Since 1979, the Arctic ice cap has shrunk a total of 20 percent, according to the center.
"The polar bears' habitat is melting right out from under them as Arctic temperatures rise," said Kassie Siegel of the Center for Biological Diversity. "If things continue as they are, these majestic animals will be driven out of existence."
That could happen as soon as within the next 50 years, said Davies.
There are about 22,000 polar bears in the Arctic. In Canada's Western Hudson Bay, where the ice season has been shortened by three weeks in recent years, the bear population has declined about 14 percent since 1995, the groups said.
Meanwhile, researchers have noticed that some bears are not growing well for lack of food, while others drowned crossing thin ice.
Three hundred scientists who contributed the 2004 Arctic Climate Impact Assessment concluded that global warming is behind the polar meltdown. Heat-trapping pollution from such sources as vehicle tailpipes, industrial smoke stacks and power plants accumulates in the atmosphere, preventing the sun's heat from escaping. The United States accounts for about one-quarter of the world's greenhouse gases.
The 2004 assessment was commissioned by the Arctic Council, an intergovernmental body that regulates the Arctic environment. The eight-nation council includes the United States, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia and Sweden.
Davies said the United States is the only nation not taking action to help protect the polar bear, suggesting that the Bush administration has favored the mining and logging industries over endangered species.
"We can fix this problem, but we need leadership from the U.S. government," he said. "Our addiction to dirty energy sources will exact its price."
