BREAKING NEWS
IN FOCUS
Environmental Groups Win Protection for Polar Bear
Faced with Scientific Evidence on Global Warming, Court Order, and
Public Pressure, Government Grants Polar Bear Endangered Species Act Listing
Due to Global Warming
WASHINGTON— 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 today that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is listing the polar bear as a federally “threatened” species.
The decision was issued in response to a 2005 scientific petition from the Center for Biological Diversity, Greenpeace and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), and was required by a Court order in a lawsuit brought by the groups to end the administration's delay in issuing a final Endangered Species Act listing decision.
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 Endangered Species Act. It claims in the listing decision that federal agencies need not consider the impact of global warming pollution on the polar bear, and has also proposed a separate regulation reducing the protections the polar bear would otherwise receive.
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Contact: Kassie Siegel
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