Posted on 01/02/2007 1:38:53 PM PST by jazusamo
T he big, strong and beloved polar bear may at last achieve what thousands of scientists, economists, diplomats, conservationists and others have failed to accomplish: Persuade the Bush administration to respond to global warming.
Bush's U.S. Interior Department announced Dec. 27 that it is proposing to add polar bears to the list of threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. By acknowledging that the polar bear literally is on thin ice, the Bush administration has at last been required to make a completely scientific pronouncement on global warming.
For six years now the Bush administration has feinted and dodged from its responsibilities on climate change. It withdrew President Clinton's approval of the Kyoto Accord, secretly watered down research on global warming and deliberately sowed doubt about minor uncertainties in the science to undermine states' and other nations' responses to climate change.
The administration also has consistently refused to require the auto and trucking industries to curtail the greenhouse gas emissions that an overwhelming number of scientists assert are the major cause of global warming. The White House has actively tried to stop the states, including Oregon, from adopting stricter tailpipe standards to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
But not even the Bush administration can ignore the melting of the Arctic sea ice, or stomach the awful image of polar bears drowning in the open ocean, far from the nearest pack ice.
Polar bears are clearly in trouble, and so are other species, such as penguins, that depend on the same habitat. Experts on polar bears say that the adults they see are noticeably thinner, the mortality of cubs is much higher, and a few starving bears have even resorted to killing and eating other bears.
It will be at least a year before all the public hearings and environmental analyses are done and the federal government may formally add the polar bear to the Endangered Species List. But if and when that happens, there should be no more hiding from the responsibility to address global warming.
The Endangered Species Act requires decisions to be made "solely on the best available scientific information." The Bush administration never yet has been willing to make any global-warming decision on that basis.
But now it will have no choice. If the polar bear is listed as threatened, the government is bound by law to protect the bears -- and the polar ice they require to survive.
Let's see, polar bears live in the Northern Hemisphere and penguins live in the Southern hemisphere. Polar bears live on ice, apparently, and penguins, being birds, live on land. How are these the same habitats?
Looks like the ice will be okay for one more day.
January 2, 2007 weather report for
RESOLUTE, NUNAVUT, CANADA
Weather report as of 20 minutes ago (22:00 UTC):
The wind was blowing at a speed of 2.6 meters per second (5.8 miles per hour) from North/Northwest in Resolute, Canada. The temperature was -32 degrees Celsius (-26 degrees Fahrenheit).
That's okay for the polar bears but what about the poor penguins? The Arctic penguin should be on the top of the endangered list immediately. They're already incredibly difficult to locate. It may already be too late. Oh, the penguin-ity!
I am soooooooo sick of disingenuous, liberal morons.
The Senate vote on the protocol was 95-0.
That means that the treaty was so lop-sided and unreasonably shitty that not one democrat was willing to grandstand and vote "Yes"
Not even one.
How bad does something have to be before no one in the Senate will grandstand for it? Seriously, the only other resolution I could think of that would garner 100% opposition is a resolution calling for the execution of 100 puppies on the capitol steps.
Out of the 95 senators and 2 presidents that had a say in this treaty, every single person opposed it except one: Bill Clinton.
That Arctic penguin is really what all those explorers were looking for while attempting to find the North pole, I understand. Do you know if they were successful? :-)
I was just wondering where in our Constitution it notes the Federal governments responsibility in the polar arctic?
Here`s another experts take on it.
"The claims of an Australian ecologist notwithstanding, Canada's leading polar bear biologist says that, while climate change poses a serious threat to the iconic Arctic mammals, they are under no threat of extinction in the next 25 years."
"A week ago, Tim Flannery, a well-known writer and environmentalist, warned that global warming poses a serious threat to the species."
"The projections of the polar bear specialists are that by about 2030, around that date, the species will be extinct," he told CBC Radio. Flannery was in Canada to promote his best-selling new book, The Weather Makers.
"But Ian Stirling, the country's foremost expert on polar bears, said the bears are in no imminent danger of disappearing, and such claims add dangerous hyperbole to a serious debate."
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=855f9f02-de4c-442f-94a2-e372e71703e3
Does`nt matter, though, because their views will be ignored in the mounting hysteria. Polar bears are headed for extinction,,,end of discussion. No opposing views will be permitted.
I saw a special on the History Channel the other night pointing to climate change as the greatest threat to civilization. It had Al Gore on and the segment completely bashed FoxNews, comparing people who don't accept that point of view as being equivalent to holocaust deniers.
Not only did he not approve it, it wasn't his to approve--it was Congress', which didn't approve it either.
I think it's possible they fed the entire population to their sled dogs and failed to mention the fact.
The Senate, 95-0, instructed Clinton not to bring the Kyoto Treaty before them for ratification, citing, for one stopper, the fact that China and certain other "developing" nations, were not to be made subject to the Kyoto's demands.
That aside, in this polar bear fiasco the Bushies have once again rolled over rather than stand firm, thereby setting us up for more trouble from the now-encouraged enviros
"the Bush administration has at last been required to make a completely scientific pronouncement on global warming."
The enviro-whacko's seem to think that if the climate's changing, the inescapable conclusion is that it's man caused; like it's never happened before!
LOL! That's got to be it, they must have been tasty too, they ate 'em all.
Most people in the lower 48 have no concept of what the annual sea ice cycle is like in the Arctic. Do note that the MSM never show any footage of it during Winter or Spring. They do not want the sheeple to know that there is nothing but solid ice from the Arctic shores of North America clear across the pole to Siberia. Even Hudson's Bay is currently solid ice all the way across, as is the Bering Strait.
http://www.ecoenquirer.com/polar-bear-heat.htm
Hunter Jeremiah Johnson comforts a polar bear that had collapsed from heat exhaustion before he could shoot it.
Old Jeremiah is a kind hearted soul, isn't he? :-)
"Old Jeremiah is a kind hearted... "
That story always brings a tear to my eye.
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