US Fish & Wildlife Service Taking Comments on Polar Bear Status
by Jeff McIntire-Strasburg, St. Louis, MO on 01.12.07
Two weeks ago, we applauded the US Department of the Interior's decision to propose that the polar bear be listed as an endangered species. Everything went as planned, apparently, and now the Fish & Wildlife Service (a division of Interior) has opened the required sixty-day period for public comments on the listing. If you'd like to comment (and we encourage you to do so), Environmental Defense, Environmental Action, and Defenders of Wildlife have all created action pages to make the process of submitting your thoughts quick and easy. You may use their pre-written letters, or compose your own. Either way, make sure to take action soon, as the polar bear's listing isn't important only for its own survival: it also means that the US government is on record as recognizing the threat climate change poses to ecosystem stability.
While you're taking action, remember that you have less than sixty days to enter the Treehugger and Seventh Generation Convenient Truths video contest: the entry period closes on February 28.
This doesn't sound like a good idea. In the 1950s the population estimate was 5,000, due to hunting, and the current estimate is 20,000 - 25,000. This doesn't sound endangered to me. If they're getting thin and starving, it sounds like they may be overpopulated. The dire projections sound alarmist.
A proposal to monitor the population more closely would be a more logical step.
Um, no Sean...
I'm pretty sure the 20,000 they're at now still puts them in 'Vulnerable' status. The sudden appearance of more thin and starving polar bears, I would believe, has less to do with over population and more to do with the lack of food thanks to the unavailability of sea ice.
Polar Bears rarely hunt in water since seals, the staple of their diet, tend to be able to swim faster than them. They rely on breaking through sea ice when seals come up to breathe. So less sea ice (because of global warming), less food for polar bears.
Besides, should it get overcrowded, polar bears are known to be cannabalistic. They'd probably eat some of the young.
You forgot the word "bear" in the first sentence.
_________________________
Writer's note: I did! Thanks, Ruthie!