Bush vs. the polar bear

February 1st, 2008 · 1 Comment

Does the Bush administration hate the polar bear?

Rumors abound that the inordinate delay in listing the polar bear as an endangered species may be coming straight from the White House, according to a story broken in an editorial last week on Salon.com. The polar bear, the theory goes, occupies some very prime real estate in Alaska that would become unavailable if the polar bears was placed on the endangered species list - cold, barren land that happens to sit above a treasure trove of oil. While much of the hubbub over the proposal to drill in ANWR (the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge)

You may remember that the polar bear became something of a poster child for the perils of global warming after the revelation that polar bears were drowning because their native ice flows had melted, and their subsequent inclusion in Al Gore’s “Inconvenient Truth.” The reality is that the polar bears are not finding enough ice in the water for hunting or on land for digging their dens and are in real peril.

However, as you might imagine, there are those out there who would prefer not to acknowledge that there is a species dying off as a result of climate change, much less one that is so recognizable and appealing to the public. It took a lawsuit to even get the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to consider the bear’s status, and that was two years ago - an exceptionally long time for such a process.

Speculation has turned to the approaching end of the Bush presidency, and the infamous “11th Hour,” notorious for last-minute pardons and land grants. The regulatory agencies’ unprecedented stalling has raised fears among many that we need only wait for January 19th, and that the polar bear may be on its own.

My question was unfair - I cannot imagine that the President hates polar bears - but for 10.4 billion barrels of oil, I think he’d happily let them fall by the wayside.

Source: http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/01/17/endangered_polar_bears

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