Climate change is not just about polar bears

The adoption of the polar bears into the ESA has put a “charismatic face” on the campaign for climate change - polar bears, said Jonathan Adler, law professor at Case Western Reserve University. Adler and others spoke of the negative and positive effects of listing polar bears as a threatened species due to climate change and the shrinking of the sea ice.

Adler said that the main purpose of listing polar bears as threatened animals is merely for informational purposes, so people are aware of what is going on. From a legal standpoint the consequences of this action is that the legislation is not discretionary and that citizens will have the ability to create change through litigation. In the end, the threatened animal listing probably won’t help polar bears, Adler said, but it may work to change the ESA through legal action.

On May 14, 2008, Dirk Kempthorne, interior secretary announced that the Department of the Interior classified polar bears as a threatened species, giving them protection under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). This was the first listing of a species under the ESA where a threat was identified as anthropogenic climate change. In the discussion today, experts discussed the ramifications of this new classification of polar bears.

Bryan Arroyo, assistant director for the Endangered Species program at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said that people can no longer dispute the validity of climate change. It has been proven with the best of our scientific abilities, with a 90 percent probability, that climate change is influenced by the human release of green house gases. While the science is not final or perfect, it is the best that is available right now and must be acted upon, Arroyo said.

Arroyo said that climate change is not an issue for the United States, but a global challenge that needed to be dealt with. He said that climate change is “not just about polar bears” but that it affects every aspect of human life. There is a documented lessening of sea ice, a 39 percent reduction from 1999-2000 and the prediction is that ice will recede further. Arroyo called for a comprehensive review of the ESA, which hasn’t been reviewed in 16 years.

Senators spar over listing polar bears as endangered

The Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works held a hearing to investigate the delay on listing of the polar bear on the Endangered Species Act. Also present were ranking member Jim Inhofe (R-OK) and Sen. John Barraso (R-WY). Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne was invited, but sent a letter to the committee declining to appear because he is a named defendant in a court case on the subject of the delayed listing.

Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-CA) made a strong opening statement saying that the Bush administration has not followed the law by delaying the listing of polar bears under the Endangered Species Act. "The Bush administration does not have the right or the discretion to not carry out the law," she said. She said that the Bush administration was foot dragging on this listing while at the same time authorizing new oil and gas drilling in the Chukchi Sea where 20 percent of the world's polar bears live.

Boxer and her Republican colleagues had a bit of a back-and-forth before the witnesses were able to testify. Both quoting from the Bible, Boxer and Inhofe sparred over the concept of protecting "God's creation" Inhofe quoted Romans saying that false gods should not be made out of creation to be praised over the creator. Boxer responded, "You're correct, liars should not be praised."



Two out of the three witnesses testified that the administration has delayed and held up litigation about listing the polar bear. Dr. Douglas Inkley, senior scientist for the National Wildlife Federation testified that global warming is indeed negatively affecting polar bears and that his research indicates that two-thirds of the world's polar bears will disappear by 2050 due to ice loss caused by global warming trends.

William Horn, a lobbyist who lobbied Congress in the 80s to open parts of Alaska for drilling testified that listing polar bears as endangered opens up a "Pandora's box" of other unwarranted listings and that putting the polar bear on the list would make the Endangered Species Act into a "regulatory monster" which would negatively affect U.S. energy-sector business development. Horn emphasized that the fact that polar bear endangerment could be foreseen for the future does not merit an endangered listing now, saying that he viewed the species as healthy

Kassie Siegel from the Center for Biological Diversity said that the administration has rushed to allow oil and natural gas development in areas of polar bear habitat, but only delay on the listing of polar bears as an endangered species. Siegel said that the listing was intentionally delayed in order to facilitate the sale of parts of the Chukchi Sea for new oil and gas development, another threat to polar bears and their habitat.