Margaret Williams, WWF’s Director of the Bering Sea ecoregion program, called for urgent action to save polar bears at the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works hearing entitled “Examining Threats and Protections for the Polar Bear” on Wednesday, January 30, 2008. The hearing was convened to examine the status of and legal protections for the polar bear, including the Endangered Species Act (ESA), and the status of listing the species under the act.
“Listing polar bears under the ESA is a last resort, and in essence, signifies a failure of policy and management to date,” said Williams. “We have known for some time of the dangers of global warming, and should have acted more expeditiously to address them. We need to closely scrutinize and prevent all actions that may add further stress to the polar bear, including conducting oil and gas leasing in prime polar bear habitat.”
While WWF and Alaska Wilderness League applaud congressional interest in the plight of the polar bears, we join the conservation community in urging for the immediate listing of the polar bear and calling for a dramatic decrease in green house gases, the source of global warming that is melting polar bear habitat and transforming the Arctic...
...Analyses recently published by the US Geological Survey show that by mid-21st century, two-thirds of the world's polar bear population could be lost, mainly due to loss of sea ice. As this sea ice habitat decreases, the entire food chain will be affected – from the tiniest plankton to the forage fish, the ringed seal, and the king of the north, the polar bear.
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