Protecting Polar Bears Must Include Mitigating Global Warming, Group Argues
Wednesday, May 21, 2008 - 16:21
in Earth & Climate
Following a three-year legal battle to protect the polar bear from extinction due to global warming, three environmental groups won protection for the species with the announcement May 14 that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is listing the polar bear as a federally "threatened" species. While the polar bear listing is one of the administration's clearest acknowledgments to date of the urgent threat posed by global warming, the administration is simultaneously attempting to reduce the protections the bear will receive under the Act.