RSS
Home
Palin, politics and polar bears
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
When Sarah Palin resigned as Governor of Alaska recently, one group of voters handed an unexpected boon were leaders of various environmental and wildlife organizations who had fixed their eyes on Governor Palin long before she made her debut on the national stage. Governor Palin—both in her legislative record and in her every public utterance—had demonstrated a breathless indifference to the very things for which her state is often exalted: spectacular natural beauty and an abundance of wildlife unique to the region. Not coincidentally, and more ominously, she showed an unseemly willingness to acquiesce to oil and gas companies eager to drill their way through fragile habitat of species already compromised and headed for certain demise.
PITY THE POLAR BEAR
The convergence of science, business, politics and the fate of a species is painfully illustrated in the increasingly bleak outlook for the future of the polar bear, one of the many mythic creatures whose identity is inseparable from that of Alaska.
According to the World Conservation Union, polar bears number somewhere between 20,000 – 25,000 worldwide, with approximately one fifth of them inhabiting Alaska and its immediate region.
The single element that lies at the heart of the polar bear’s survival is ice. It lives because of ice, and will die without it. The entire life cycle of the polar bear is inextricably linked to Arctic sea ice and its seasonal changes. Polar bears will travel 3,000 miles a year, moving from land to ice floes (expanses of floating ice), as the arctic ice moves northward in summer, and returns south in winter. They are uniquely adapted to living in brutal, seemingly hostile, conditions. Their dense, uniquely structured fur is designed to insulate against cold water and frigid Arctic weather. They are expert swimmers, able to navigate the icy waters and floating expanses of the Arctic with great skill. And they subsist primarily on ringed seals, another arctic species which they must hunt while moving from ice floe to ice floe as the seals poke their noses through holes in the ice.
ARCTIC FRAGILITY
According to the National Wildlife Federation, “Arctic sea ice is especially vulnerable to changes in climate because, unlike the continent of Antarctica, which is largely covered in ice that is more than a mile thick in some places, the Arctic is a sea covered by a relatively thin layer of ice. While ice has long been present year round, and expands during the winters and recedes during the summer, climate change threatens to change the Arctic to an essentially ice-free environment during the summer.”
This will prove fatal to the polar bear, which when on land, will live off its fat reserves, but needs ice to feed on its staple, the ringed seal. The receding of ice from the shores will require it to swim longer distances to find sustenance, and will endanger young cubs emerging from their dens to begin their life on ice.
Adding to the polar bear’s woes is a low reproductive rate. Females typically mate at the age of five, and will commonly have two cubs per litter. Females nurse their cubs in dens during the long winter, until their young are about 10 to 20 pounds, and ready to emerge from the den in late March or early April. The cubs will head out toward the sea ice to begin their transient life, moving further and further from shore from May through August, and then back again in October. But cubs will remain with their mothers until they are around 3 years old. Only then, will the female be ready to mate again.
MELTING ICE
In 2007, a report by the U.S. Geological Survey had projected that two-thirds of polar bears will disappear by 2050 as a result of warming temperatures that are precipitating ice melting. With Arctic sea ice already at an all-time low, USGS scientist Steven Amstrup, said “There is a definite link between changes in the sea ice and the welfare of polar bears. As the sea ice goes, so goes the polar bear.”
Environmental groups have been lobbying for some years to place the polar bear on the “threatened” species list, under the Endangered Species Act. Enacted in 1973, the Endangered Species Act is the U.S.’s primary tool for conserving animals and plants that are deemed by the scientific community to be in peril for one reason or another. “Threatened” status would acknowledge that there is a body of evidence suggesting that the polar bear, if not protected, would disappear altogether at some imminent date.
LEGISLATION, LEFT AND RIGHT
May 14, 2008 – Polar Bear designated “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act
A major victory for environmentalists, the designation of “threatened” by the Department of Interior acknowledges that the polar bear is under threat of extinction, and will, in fact, become extinct if immediate measures are not taken to compensate for this threat.
August 4, 2008 - State of Alaska files lawsuit against U.S. Department of Interior
Seeking to overturn U.S. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne’s decision to list the polar bear as threatened, Governor Sarah Palin announces that the State of Alaska is filing a lawsuit.
“We believe that the Service’s decision to list the polar bear was not based on the best scientific and commercial data available,” Governor Palin said.
“Alaska is also responsible for the welfare of its citizens, who are concerned that the unwarranted listing of the polar bear as a threatened species will have a significant adverse impact on Alaska by deterring activities such as commercial fisheries, oil and gas exploration and development, transportation, and tourism within and off-shore of Alaska.”
December 11, 2009 - Bush Administration announces two rule changes to Endangered Species Act that guts protection for polar bears.
In the waning days of the Bush Administration, two substantial rule changes are introduced, which undermine the original “threatened” status for the polar bear. The rules essentially remove previously mandated review procedures overseen by government biologists prior to the onset of oil and gas exploration and development.
The World Wildlife Federation WWF opposes both rule changes:
“These rules are the parting shots of an Administration that has consistently ignored or undermined the protections of our nation’s threatened and endangered species,” said Jason Patlis, WWF vice president for US government relations. “With these rule changes, the oil industry will be able to proceed full-bore with exploration, drilling and extraction activities without a thorough review of their potential environmental impact. We call on President-elect Obama to move swiftly in taking steps to reverse the irresponsible decisions that have been made today.”
May 8, 2009 - Obama Administration upholds Bush polar bear rule changes
Saying the Endangered Species Act is not the right tool to control global warming, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announces that he will leave in place the Bush administration rule changes.
"To see the polar bear's habitat melting and an iconic species threatened is an environmental tragedy of the modern age," Salazar said. "This administration is fully committed to the protection and recovery of the polar bear. The Endangered Species Act is not the proper tool to deal with a global issue - global warming. We need to move forward with a comprehensive climate change and energy plan we can be proud of."
American Petroleum Institute President Jack Gerard was delighted. "We welcome the administration's decision …this decision serves to protect the polar bear while providing greater regulatory certainty not only to the oil and natural gas industry but also to all U.S. manufacturers," said Gerard.
ICE and DEATH
Environmental and animal rights advocates have much to celebrate with the departure of Sarah Palin, whose own relationship with animals seemed to be limited to hunting them, fishing them, racing them, or cooking them in a pot of stew. But if an administration that made environmental stewardship a cornerstone of its platform continues to show as little backbone as it has thus far, the polar bear may yet end up being just one of many species swimming for its life, further and further away from shore--into oblivion.
More About:
Endangered Species
Related Articles:
Comments
The image of Mother & Child is a culturally potent one. From Renaissance paintings to 21st Century TV ads, the emotional power of that …
At the midway point of the film, Gone with the Wind, a bone-weary and food-deprived Scarlett O’Hara raises her fist defiantly to the evening …
