Our World and Everything in It

From my e-mail, I read that Earthjustice attorneys filed a case to stop the wolf slaughter in the northern Rockies. A coalition of environmental and animal rights groups like the NRDC, the Sierra Club, Defenders of Wildlife and the Humane Society urged Earthjustice to use its legal expertise to stop the killing immediately and “compel the federal government to reinstate Endangered Species Act protections for wolves until true recovery is achieved.

This didn’t come out of the blue. Earthjustice filed intent to challenge the decision to take wolves off the endangered list, but the USFWS didn’t answer. So now they go to court because as Earthjustice charges: “The USFWS failed to take into account basic principles of conservation biology, disregarded its own policies, and departed from past practice in delisting the wolf.” And Earthjustice will argue in court that the USFWS

used an outdated and biologically inadequate standard for determining the number of wolves that must be protected in order to maintain a genetically viable population;

ignored the agency’s own requirement that wolves in the northern Rockies’ core recovery populations must be connected and interbreed before they can be deemed recovered; and

failed to take into account that state laws that currently govern the fate of the wolves in the absence of federal protections allow unregulated wolf killing.

What angers me most about this is the time and expense that goes into something like this that shouldn’t have happened in the first place in the U.S. of America. You know from my postings that petitions with signatures in the thousands hit the USFWS before the delisting, as well as, thousands of phone calls. Washington went ahead anyway, a total disregard for their responsibility to us—again. And none of this will bring Limpy or the other 19 wolves back.

I just wrote about Colorado’s forests being decimated by beetles whose populations are out of control due to global warming. They are killing lodge pole pines with other evergreen trees at risk also, while the Bush administration pushes to end the Roadless Rule that will decimate one of the largest forested areas in the country, which is in Idaho to the mining, oil, and lumber industry.  The big picture for the wolf kill, buffalo kill, and mustang roundups is getting clearer isn’t it? Alaska, Wyoming, and Idaho are some of the states with huge forests at risk without this rule, and the same states that are home to the slaughter of these animals. If these animals remained protected, their habitat couldn’t be touched. They must be removed for the next phase of this unethical, and unscrupulous plan to take place! So now we should see clearly we’ve been lied to again about the reasons for the slaughter.

The intelligence and ethics level of this administration has hit an all time low by destroying the very trees that help remove CO2 from the air and protect us from baking at a time when many of our trees have been destroyed already by fires and floods over the past two years, and on the heels of the Colorado lodge pole blight. We need more trees, not less. Do we see Europe attacking their landscapes as we do? http://www.15years.gov.si/backround-information/biodiversity/.

We cannot afford to let this happen in the interest of big money because once our forests are gone, they are gone forever. And don’t think that once oil, lumber, and mining interests move in they will simply stop with a new president in office. This is the march of the wealthy destroying our country in their last ditch effort to get a stronghold before this administration is through. The sad thing is we haven’t even begun to practice conservation. We haven’t unleashed the alternative energy innovation we already have. This is the same type of unintelligent, quick-triggered decision-making that ignored any and all alternatives that got us into a war, which is costing us dearly. We must unite to keep this type of movement from advancing until we see this administration exit. 

The Heritage Forest Campaign explains:

Spanning 58.5 million acres in 38 states, America’s national forest roadless areas contain some of our nation’s last pristine forests. From the expansive wilds of the American Southwest and Northern Rockies to the colorful deciduous woods of New England and the Appalachians, these last tracts of unspoiled backcountry provide habitat for wildlife, headwaters to rivers, and unparalleled recreational opportunities for millions of Americans.

The state of Idaho contains over 9.3 million acres of National Forest roadless areas - the most of any state outside of Alaska.  Idaho’s roadless backcountry makes up the core of the last intact forest ecosystem in the lower 48 states - the last place where all of the native plants, fish and wildlife - from the smallest plant to the largest predator - can still be found.

In 2001, the U.S. Forest Service issued the Roadless Area Conservation Rule, which protects Idaho’s and all of the country’s national forest roadless areas from most logging and new roads being built for mining, coal, gas, logging and other development. The rule was the result of almost three years of deliberation that included 600 public hearings and more than 1.5 million written comments submitted with the overwhelming majority supporting the complete protection of all remaining roadless areas.

The American public has continued to support this policy, and has repeatedly opposed proposals to reverse or weaken it.

Please join forces for OUR heritage, OUR land, OUR wildlife, and OUR vision for the future not the powerful big money interests that seek to take every last pristine piece of God’s country we have left.

Sign a petition to Chief Gail Kimble to save our forests. There is an April 7th deadline so please sign on for a unified voice: http://actionnetwork.org/campaign/idaho_roadless/i3u8iui227b7jnew?
 

Does anyone else think someone should check on Alaska more often? First there was a multi-million dollar bridge to an island with no sizeable amount of citizens. With a new governor Palin there is a new onslaught against wolves and even more maneuvering to block votes to sway results that would outlaw aerial hunting of wolves. Meanwhile Bush/Cheney are busy auctioning off drilling rights to the highest bidders in Alaska in prime polar bear habitat, while Bush stalls putting polar bears on the endangered list.

And now according to Defenders of Wildlife, “Alaska Senators Ted Stevens and Lisa Murkowski — who have taken more than $618,000 in campaign contributions from the oil and gas industry,” as per the Center for Responsive Politics http://www.opensecrets.org/, launched yet another cynical ploy to line their pockets, introducing legislation that would sacrifice the Arctic Refuge to Big Oil’s drills.”

Geez, I thought the strategy to raise gas prices to $4.00 and $5.00 per gallon was enough motivation to get people to scream for more oil, and therefore new drilling. But, Canada’s CBC news showed Canada’s cash, along with gold, and oil dropping in price. Demand for oil is slightly down. So how does that transfer to higher prices at the pump? I think we’re being manipulated for no good reason, you know the same way we went to war, and the wolves are being attacked now. None of these things seem to be happening for the universal good of all. The push is on to drill in irreplaceable Alaskan habitat, while any movement toward alternatives and conservation appears to be stifled. You just read about the real contributions big oil claims to make for alternative resources. It’s laughable compared to their profit.
 
Defenders said, “Since Tuesday, more than 31,000 Defenders supporters from across the country have urged their Senators to pass the Arctic Wilderness Protection Act, legislation to permanently protect the Arctic Refuge. We’re not stopping now.” There is world protest over this also. On the CBS website an article stated that Senator Barbara Boxer argued Tuesday night that “The United States could save more oil than the refuge will produce “by just getting the SUVs to have the same fuel economy as autos.” No one really knows how much oil is there either. Without assurances, the article said “Major oil companies, in fact, have begun to lose interest in the refuge.”

Please contact your senators to vote the ARCTIC WILDERNESS PROTECTION ACT into law as quickly as possible to stop the destruction of our last pristine areas of earth without knowing how much oil is really there or without fully exploring all other possibilities. We haven’t practiced conservation across the country yet!

Contact info for all senators at:

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/03/12/politics/main543691.shtml

I’m back on about wolves because I see 56 wolves were recently aerial hunted and killed in Alaska where there is an all out onslaught against them by Governor Sarah Palin. It’s not just the wolves she’s attacking. Defenders of Wildlife revealed that Palin:

· Introduced legislation that could deny more than 50,000 Alaskans the right to vote on aerial killing of wolves and bears.
· Has condoned a $400,000 state-funded propaganda campaign to convince Alaskans to support the state’s shooting of wolves and bears from airplanes — even though wildlife biologists from around the world say that it is scientifically unfounded.
· Nominated her high school basketball coach a man with no wildlife management experience to sit on the state’s powerful Board of Game.
· Proposed a $150 bounty to spur wolf killing in specified management zones.

Palin’s high school basketball coach? The frightening thing is her name has come up as a possible pick for McCain’s vice president. Obstructing democracy in America is especially bad. Using state funds to sway citizens doesn’t sound right either. Alaskans voted down wolf hunting two times already. I found this website with an interesting video about the sport hunting going on in Alaska:
http://current.com/items/88811075_end_aerial_wolf_hunting.

The wolf reduction program in Alaska relies on the premise that wolf numbers must be kept down because wolves are rivals for food, and there are people in Alaska who hunt for food. Considering the wolves in Idaho and Wyoming haven’t made a dent on elk and deer populations there, I can’t imagine that wolves threaten the vast Alaskan bounty. According to current.com, “sport and trophy hunters take up to 73% of prey in areas where aerial wolf hunting has taken place.” And what about oil drilling? It threatens wildlife far worse, yet the $4 per gallon gasoline threat we’re hearing about will propel the oil industry to drill in Alaska. Due to oil drilling there will be loss of habitat for the food animals that sustain the subsistence hunters everyone is worried about and are therefore killing wolves. This is a contrived program. If Gov. Palin is so concerned for the citizens that need to hunt for food, why is she ignoring the majority of citizens that voted wolf hunting down?

It gets worse. Alaska is the model for Idaho and Wyoming. Over 200,000 people in the U.S. petitioned against Bush’s plan to take wolves off the endangered list. Now Bush attempts to strip wolves of federal protection. Secy. of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne, whose department oversees the action against wolves, was formerly Governor of Idaho where he pushed to get state control over wolves. And now Butch Otter, another wolf-hater is governor there. Interesting how that works isn’t it? Kempthorne goes from Idaho to head a Federal Agency and now there is a greater and growing interest in killing   wolves. When Kempthorne moved up, did he bring his agenda, or did he move up because of his agenda?

This is the worst. According to NRDC in the March/April issue of “Nature’s Voice,” the federal government spent “taxpayer dollars to purchase two planes for the express purpose of gunning down wolves and other animals from the air in Wyoming.” Seventy five percent of Wyoming residents objected to Wyoming’s wolf hunting plan

It’s pretty clear that the maneuvering against wolves began quite a while ago and is just now coming to fruition. The wolves are innocent. I can’t believe the current onslaught taking place against all types of animals. It’s really noticeable. If we simply sit back and wait until this administration is out of office, it will be too late for too many species. So far Defenders of Wildlife, NRDC, Earthjustice, and many more organizations have been avidly defending wolves in court, in ads, and in education.  Support this fight by contacting your rep. The slaughter is totally unnecessary, we’re being lied to again, and our money is being used in support of it. Tell your rep that.

I’m sorry to read that Michigan persists with pollution policy instead of sound environmental policy. We need to get the corporate friendly senate moving in a cleaner direction. We have an obligation in this state to at very least try to keep the water clean. If we keep goofing off, someone might decide we are poor stewards and should share the wealth and management of our water. Does adding more coalburners to the list of 19, including the country’s second largest in Monroe, sound like anyone here pays attention to health issues, future problems with water shortages, or the earth? The latest out of MI senate is a push to alter abortion issues in Michigan. That’s the big priority? People need jobs; we need a decent and moral economy. By moral, I mean we do our utmost not to disturb life in the process of living and producing.  A green economy can offer plenty of jobs but that ride is being held up either on a state or federal level and benefits the oil industry.

We know for instance about oil leases that have been sold in pristine areas and/or habitat for polar bears, seals and all types of birds. Drilling there is pending and the oil industry wants to get moving. It’s becoming obvious that placing the polar bear on the endangered list is purposely being stalled. All that is needed is a great motivator. Bingo, gas will go up beyond $4.00 per gallon shortly. We’re already being taunted by that forecast. People are expected to cry drill, drill, drill and to hell with the animals. And we’ll probably do that, instead of seeing the big picture and how we’re being manipulated by the utilities. Even Warren Buffet commented that we’ve been sticking straws into the earth and sorry but it’s a finite practice. We will eventually run out. We collectively had over 500,000 wells. Our demand is ridiculous, and growing and it all revolves around the same fossil sources.

Heaven forbid we advance in technology and perfect wind and solar power for the individual home, and make it cheap. Houses would stand-alone without need for utilities. It’s almost laughable isn’t it? We are street smart enough to know the powers that be won’t let that happen. Anyway, our airwaves will be controlled shortly. Can’t even get free air anymore, besides there is that ever lovin entertainment/sports world that’s always going to charge too.

We could practice conservation. We could develop an RPS for Michigan, (more on that in another blog), which would entice green developers to come here. I’ve been saying this for quite awhile. What green industry is going to plant themselves next to a bunch of pollution? We’ll never get away from polluting industries once they are established without paying for it dearly. The buck will pass on to us for corporation’s stubborn business sense if and when in the future a big conservation effort needs to be enacted because, gee, we really are polluting ourselves to death. 

I was reading the Sierra Club’s “The Mackinac” and it states what I’ve been reading elsewhere, that many places in this country are not giving permits to more coalburners. The front-page article said 44 proposed coal-fired plants were either denied or withdrawn in 2007 thanks to The Sierra Club. So what happened here? 

There were five more coalburners looking for environmental permits in Michigan, with three more new plants under discussion the article said. It also stated that the challenge to put a moratorium on coal-fired plants in Michigan is daunting. Well I guess, especially with a corporation friendly senate. It said, “The state has refused to regulate the CO2 from coal plants that contribute to global warming (so long as the applicants address other pollutants, the state will let them be built). So that’s why the rush to install scrubbers? The scrubbers address other pollutants that are breathing irritants, but not the mercury that is permeating through the water to the fish, to the birds, and eventually anyone who drinks the water—one of the world’s largest freshwater supplies that is no longer so fresh. Or the CO2, that’s warming us up and causing some really bad weather—almost tornado season. What’s the sense of the Great Lakes Legacy Act?  What a tail chase, and meanwhile the water and Michigan loses, while the polar bears, seals, fish, and birds, the entire earth, take a back seat to our excess.

 Take a stand and participate. Read: http://michigan.sierraclub.org/.

Currently, I’m getting all kinds of e-mail about slaughtering animals our country took careful issue to propagate not long ago. First wolves, now buffalo/bison. USFWS wants to kill off buffalo because of a bison disease that could spread to cattle. Here we have the cattle issue again. Except there are no cattle nearby. What is with all the slaughter lately?  I don’t recall such an unleashed fury to kill wildlife like we’re seeing lately. We’re moving so slowly on environmental issues relative to animals that we’re soon to kill them off anyway.

Then I saw this comment that is well worth printing here about wolves from Dr. Dr D. Vreugdenhil . He says: “Wolves most certainly are not dangerous and finally they are on the increase again worldwide, expanding their territories in Europe and in some countries in the middle east. However, to fully integrate them into society, we must deal with the most pressing issue in nature conservation:
The most limiting factor in conservation world wide is the shortage of rangers: estimated at over 100,000 in developing countries. Currently no government or conservation organization in the world addresses this problem. That is why the Adopt A Ranger Foundation has been created:  http://www.adopt-a-ranger.org/.

I didn’t know there was a shortage of rangers anywhere but Asia or Africa? Adopt-a-ranger website says there is a need for 140,000 rangers worldwide, but evidently not enough funding. You know this looks like one of those places where funding is also cut to the bone.  It is also a very good lead as to why all the slaughter of wildlife is taking place, at least in this country. With no one to watch over our parks, it’s economical to just get rid of the critters.

I’m looking into adopting a ranger. Now I know the reason the mountain gorillas are disappearing, there is a large bushmeat trade, and all types of illegal use of animals is happening. It’s due to this shortage. Even elephants are being shot out of their sanctuary over coffee plants because no one watches over them. 

If you like nature websites, Dr. Vreugdenhil offered this one with a very dire outlook that says with a good scenario only 40% of all species on earth will disappear in this century, worst scenario we will see 70% of all species DIE.   http://naturalplaces.blogspot.com/2007/02/earths-largest-upcoming-species.html#links.  Yet we’re aerial hunting wolves, killing bison, cyanide poisoning coyotes, and fox in this most civilized country. There’s something horribly wrong with this picture.

To quote from “Sunday Morning,” a poem by Wallace Stevens: “Death is the mother of beauty; hence from her, alone, shall come fulfillment to our dreams.”  It means death enhances the beauty of life.  We’ll cherish it all when it’s gone.

I just received this e-mail by Defenders of Wildlife. Do you believe it? The government is planning on killing wolves, which control coyote populations. Instead the EPA, uses these deadly poisons out in the open in nature. What is wrong with this picture? The Environmental PROTECTION Agency should really get a new name. Their decisions for dealing with wildlife is outright archaic and dangerous, especially when:  According to government reports, Wildlife Services is unable to account for stockpiles of theses toxins, increasing the risk of theft and misuse that threatens homeland security and the safety of humans and animals. Please take action today to ban these deadly poisons.

Each year, more than 10,000 wild animals are poisoned to death with sodium cyanide and sodium fluoroacetate, experiencing horrific deaths that can take hours. These deadly poisons are designed to kill coyotes but they also have killed swift foxes, wolves and other imperiled wildlife… as well as family dogs and people.

We have little more than 36 hours to convince the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to ban these poisons — two of the world’s deadliest. Please take action right now!

Sodium cyanide and sodium fluoroacetate (commonly called Compound 1080) are considered by the EPA to be some of the deadliest toxins known to humanity. Yet, for decades, Wildlife Services, a program of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), has routinely relied on these two poisons to kill coyotes and other carnivores.

But these poisons don’t just threaten their intended targets. They can also poison any threatened or endangered species, people and pets.

How bad are they?

Sodium cyanide is used in M-44s, spring-loaded devices topped with bait lures that can attract swift foxes, wolves and other endangered carnivores. When an animal tugs on the bait, a spring shoots a capsule of sodium cyanide powder into the animal’s mouth. A victim of an M-44 device may die after less than two minutes of exposure to the poison, but deaths have been documented to take eight hours.

Based on data from Wildlife Services, more than 10,000 animals are killed by M-44s each year, including domesticated dogs, and a whole host of other non-target species including rare kit foxes, ringtails, javelinas, and swift foxes. M-44s have also killed California condors and wolves.

Compound 1080 is classified as a chemical weapon in several countries. It can be deployed in poison collars placed on sheep and goats and is highly toxic to birds and mammals. It has been used to illegally to kill wolves, and carcasses with Compound 1080 must be handled as hazardous waste. If consumed, these carcasses can kill wolves and other animals.

There are effective alternatives to these poisons, including a wide range of proactive, nonlethal methods such as fencing, guard animals, fladry, non-lethal ammunition and improved animal husbandry. And yet, Wildlife Services continues to rely heavily on the use of sodium cyanide and Compound 1080 to address predation on livestock. I’m sick and tired of this excuse for using poison, or killing off wolves.  Most ranchers are reimbursed for losses to their livestock anyway. Wildlife organizations pay out thousands of dollars a year for loss of cattle, which the Dept. of Agriculture’s study about predator wolves shows is just not the case.  I’d like to know who we are supposed to believe.

Help end the use of these deadly poisons. Send your personalized message to the EPA now.

We only have a short time to make a big difference for swift foxes, wolves and other wildlife. The official comment period on the ban of these toxins officially ends this Wednesday (March 5th), so please take action before noon Eastern Time on Wednesday, so we have time to compile and deliver your messages to the EPA.
PLEASE RESPOND HERE IMMEDIATELY: http://action.defenders.org/site/MessageViewer?em_id=30461.0&dlv_id=52121.

It’s really weird how getting sick can break a person’s momentum. I was used to writing about 5 blogs per week, writing an essay or two along with that, and working on a book of all things. I get sick and bam, I’m perfectly contented to lay around in my jammies and watch reruns of “Cheers, Frazier, Just Shoot Me, Three’s Company, Reba…” and makeover programs for houses and people. I can see how America slips right into a comfort zone by not listening to one iota of news, not turning on any intelligent programs, not picking up Time Magazine, U.S. News and World Report, or Rolling Stone, or any of the myriad of environmental stuff like I get daily in the mail. It’s really pretty easy to be blind and numb to the world. But I did check my e-mail and that served as a pretty big tell all. I saw that the wolves were de-listed from the protected list. I immediately read about the backlash from doing that. Anywhere from 5,000 to 20,000 phone calls lit up the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and big organizations like Earthjustice have already moved to take that decision to court. Gotta love all those organizations I’ve listed as links. They are on it immediately. I got e-mails that said “the fight has just begun!” I hope Earthjustic ties that decision up until Bush/Cheney are out of office.  

I got an e-mail back from Representative Dingell about the wolves too. Both he and Carl Levin don’t just e-mail back, they usually e-mail back some pretty good information about new bills that just hit the house or senate floor that pertain to whatever subject I’ve written about. For instance: Representative Dingell is one of the authors of the Endangered Species Act, and he’s very concerned over the decision to de-list wolves. He went on to say that on March 9, 2007, Rep. Tom Udall (D-NM) introduced H.R. 1464, the Great Cats and Rare Canids Act of 2007, which would assist in the conservation of rare felids and rare canids, including gray wolves, by supporting and providing financial resources for conservation programs. H.R. 1464 has been referred to the House Natural Resources Committee. He assured me that while he did not sit on this Committee, he would take my comments into consideration should the bill come before him. Boy it takes a long time for a bill to move.  

As I went on through my e-mail I found that Senator Debbie Stabenow is one of a handful of legislators that is working out the details of our new Farm Bill. Defenders of Wildlife wanted their members to call her about protecting habitat for the Swift Fox and other endangered species with the Farm Bill. Well since she’s a Michigan Senator and I found out she’s on the Farm Bill committee, sick or not, I called Lansing. This Farm Bill is so important to finally put a moratorium on those stinking CAFO’s, diversify our crops more, to quit putting high fructose corn syrup in all of our food, to reward farmers for good stewardship of their land like crop rotation, organic farming, and give subsidies to farmer’s to use part of their land for wind or solar energy so that if their crops suffer due to poor weather they still have income from alternative energy sources. Yep I spouted off all of it. Hey they want to hear from us. Well maybe not Bush/Cheney, or Kempthorne, Secy. of the Interior because so far they’ve paid little to no attention to petitions or phone calls about the wolves or aerial hunting. Some of the petitions I signed were for over 25,000 signatures, yet they turned a blind eye and ear to us anyway. Figures.  

All in all I got quite a lot of news just reading my e-mail. I see that Arctic drilling is still threatening the polar bear habitat and that conservation groups are arming for that battle while Bush continues to stall on whether or not to list the polar bear as an endangered species. Like I said before oil vs. polar bear, guess who’s going to die, unless we can keep the oil men at bay until they’re out of office. It’s going to be quite a year of fighting for the environment since the last leg of this administration is still 10 months long. 

The last e-mail I read today got me off my duff to start blogging again. I was reading Motley Fool about investments and there is a new kind of nuclear plant that is being built. I’ve never heard much about this type of plant and it peaked my interest. It seems there are plans for over 20 of these across the country. I’m going to read up on it and blog about it tomorrow. “They,” whoever they are, claim that these plants don’t use as much uranium fuel and there is less spent fuel in the end. My husband said that he read “they,” whoever they are, are digging out areas in the Nevada desert to dump the spent fuel from nuclear reactors “they” plan on building. Just something else I’ve got to know about, along with that deep well “they” are digging somewhere in Michigan to inject CO2 into. You know, I’m starting to feel better already.  There is a bunch of new stuff happening I just have to know about. A little vacation from the news is kind of nice, but I guess I’m just too curious, and a whole lot mistrustful of things that happen when I’m not paying attention to ever give up my interest in our world and just about everything in it.

The three countries of Rwanda, Uganda, and the Republic of the Congo have come together to beef up the security of Virunga National Park home to half of the world’s population of mountain gorillas, which is down to a dismal 700 in number. The parks habitat is being destroyed looking for coal, lumber, and even things like bee keeping.

These countries are impoverished and war torn, which doesn’t help the matter any. Educating the people about extinction when they look to stay alive themselves is troubling. The African nations near the park suffer from political turmoil also, making matters worse for those that seek to preserve the gorillas. An article at BBC.com said that “rebel forces loyal to the dissident Congolese general Laurent Nkunda, took over large areas of the park, forcing out the rangers and leaving the gorillas vulnerable to poachers.” And poachers will move in quickly. Just last summer 5 gorillas were shot dead like the article said: “execution style.” What would possess someone to look at something that majestic and shoot it dead? But then again humans suffering in those countries don’t fare much better. 

The article went on to say that the “10-year conservation project, which was launched in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, is to focus on greater security and ways of discouraging local communities from destroying the region’s forests.” It also said that the Dutch government is funding the first 4 years at a cost of 6 million dollars.

I think it’s smart to get other governments involved since there is so much unrest in African nations, and many times so little value for life.  The moral issues are great. Save people, or save the animals. This is a choice that we’re going to have to make more and more in the future if we don’t stop human sprawl and the resulting pollution, and don’t do something about ignorance and poverty in nations with some of the world’s most diverse wildlife.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7254357.stm
  

“We were in fully open ocean, dozens of miles from the ice pack, in a sort of half-fog at what passes for dusk around here, when a 10 foot wide chunk of ice flowed past. It was visible for maybe 15 seconds - the only ice we’d seen for days. On it: a polar bear, just drifting wherever the ocean wanted to take him” http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/feb2008/2008-02-11-01.asp.

I quoted that to say this. As the polar bear waits to get on the Endangered Species List, a decision that comes from the Department of the Interior, the polar bear’s habitat continues to disintegrate. It is practically wide-open seas according to the same article, and “the polar ice cap has reached its lowest extent in recorded history.” The summer Arctic may be ice-free as soon as 2040 and polar bear populations will decrease by two thirds. Out of an estimated 22,000 bears, that means over 14,500 polar bears will die. The one that floated by the Coast Guard Cutter is just one example that they won’t be afforded a quick death.

Many animals are at the mercy of the Department of the Interior lately, the wolves, and now the polar bears. The polar bear’s biggest and most volatile habitat is in the Chukchi Sea. Despite an outcry from native Eskimos, environmental groups, animal welfare organizations, a lawsuit, and citizens from around the world, the Chukchi Oil leases are going through as per the Dept. of the Interior. Royal Dutch Shell, and Conoco Phillips, you know the oil company that is supposedly investing in a green future like BP, plan to bid on the leases.
 
According to a Wall Street Journal Article Conoco Phillips said that “listing the polar bear as threatened ‘is not warranted’ based on the bears’ current population numbers. Listing them as threatened ‘will have an adverse impact on the oil and gas industry and people that live in the Arctic.’ Well I feel real sorry for the oil and gas industry, don’t you? Exxon Mobil netted $75000 per minute in 2006 and we should feel for the oil and gas industry and the heck with the polar bears? We’ll be on that soon-to-be extinct list too if ignoring ethics in favor of money, money, money keeps up.
 
The idea here is prevention. There are 22,000 bears, the Arctic is already open water so bear numbers will soon be declining rapidly without frozen land to walk and hunt. The Dept. of the Interior should put the bear on the list immediately to stop a catastrophic loss of most of that population, but waits instead using the bear’s current numbers to validate the delay. Meanwhile, the Dept. of Interior rushes to OK the auction of some 30 million acres in one the most pristine parts of the sea, a major polar bear habitat, for oil drilling?

I’m sorry but in a business situation the Department of the Interior’s single authority in both the protection of a clearly endangered species of animal like the polar bear and the very lucrative sale of the polar bear’s habitat for the purpose of drilling for oil presents a conflict of interest. And the delay in adding the polar bear to the Endangered List is an obvious morally unethical decision by a dubious Secy. of Interior, Dirk Kempthorne.

For Kempthorne, Conoco Phillips, and anyone else like President Bush that doesn’t appear to understand the English language, the word endangered means: exposed to danger, in peril. ENDANGERED DOES NOT MEAN ALREADY DEAD! The polar bear is in danger, and definitely in peril with a ruthless administration like this one.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120208255421639257.html?mod=googlenews_wsj.
http://world-wire.com/news/0802060002.html