| Nov 12, 2008 @ 2:03 PM |
Do you care about extinction?
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Loreli
Posts: 25,418
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It's been brought up a few times...no real answers.
May 14, 2008
Hinchey, Inslee Introduce Legislation To Help Protect Polar Bears
Measures Seeks to Block Bush Administration Efforts to
Drill for Oil Without Any Safeguards for Polar Bear Habitat
Washington, DC - In an effort to protect polar bears from becoming extinct due to global warming and oil drilling in their natural habitat, Congressman Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) joined Congressman Jay Inslee (D-WA) today in the House to introduce the Polar Bear Seas Protection Act. The bill's introduction comes on the same day that the Bush administration listed the polar bear as a threatened species, but included loopholes in the listing that will almost certainly enable more unnecessary oil drilling to take place in the middle of the polar bears' habitat.
"The Bush administration continues to ignore the very serious consequences of its addiction to drilling for oil in environmentally sensitive areas," Hinchey said. "While listing the polar bear as a threatened species is better than nothing, it is far too little and comes far too late. Given this administration's infatuation with giving away public land for unnecessary oil development, I am convinced that the Interior Department will in fact use the loophole it established today to exempt oil development from the list of prohibited activities, making the bill we are introducing today as important as ever."
Hinchey and Inslee's Polar Bear Seas Protection Act requires that oil spill prevention and cleanup standards be in place before any drilling can take place in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas. The bill would direct the National Research Council to gather information and report on how climate change is impacting the ecology of living marine resources in the so-called Polar Bear Seas, and how oil and gas-related activities could affect plant and animal species, marine and coastal environments, and Alaskan Native communities and their subsistence activities. It would also direct the Interior Department to designate critical habitat areas for the polar bear, and require vastly improved oil spill response technologies prior to embarking on massive new oil and gas operations in these pristine waters.
There is overwhelming evidence that polar bears are imperiled in the face of global warming. In 2007, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) released a series of reports that concluded shrinking sea ice caused by global warming could eliminate two-thirds of the world’s polar bears - and all of those in Alaska - in the next 50 years.
"The fact of the matter is that listing the polar bear as threatened is nice, but things won't get better for the bear or for that matter humans, until we stop leasing off acres of polar bear habitat for drilling and finally shift our emphasis away from oil and other fossil fuels and towards solar and other forms of renewable power," Hinchey said.
In the wake of delays by the Fish and Wildlife Service in determining whether to list the polar bear as a threatened species, the Bush administration's Minerals Management Service (MMS) has already finalized decisions to open areas for oil and gas development in the Chukchi Sea. Lease Sale Area 193 is an area that is prime habitat for these mammals.
Hinchey and Inslee argued that it makes no sense to add to the threat global warming poses to polar bears with massive oil and gas development in their habitat, development which will put the species at further risk from potential spills, onshore infrastructure and further disturbance from major industrial activities. Ironically, because of MMS's premature action, the oil and gas produced from these leases will increase the very emissions of greenhouse gases responsible for melting the Arctic sea ice far into the future, further jeopardizing polar bear habitat.
Hunters take full advantage of "thinning the herds" when appropriate....so what are we doing about this?
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| Nov 12, 2008 @ 3:51 PM |
Do you care about extinction? |
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Haban3ro
Posts: 1,197
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Nothing. We can't afford it.
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| Nov 12, 2008 @ 4:25 PM |
Do you care about extinction?
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sealacamp
Posts: 3,681
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Lets all just quit working, driving or any other modern anything. Go back to farming by hand and make sure that we don't use any electricity. We don't want to do anything to change the planet at all. Bad humans go away!
S
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| Nov 12, 2008 @ 4:43 PM |
Do you care about extinction? |
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Loreli
Posts: 25,418
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You may have a point, Seal.
When I was growing up, the Amish grew and baked all their food, sold their goods to others for "necessities", did a lot of work by candlelight, didn't have tv's or (yikes!) computers.
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| Nov 12, 2008 @ 4:46 PM |
Do you care about extinction?
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vinnytmd
Posts: 6,004
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loreli - I think these two elected officials are whack jobs. The fact is that the Polar Bear population is growing. In Alaska near the pipeline they are thriving. Palin asked that they not be classified as endangered.
I think that these two Congressmen should be given a Drug test immediately.
(CNSNews.com) - Just weeks before Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R.) was tapped by Sen. John McCain (R.-Ariz.) to be his vice presidential running mate, her administration filed suit against the federal government challenging the Interior Department’s listing of the polar bear as “threatened.
According to literature published by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), scientists estimated in the late 1950s through mid-1960s that there were anywhere from 5,000 to 19,000 polar bears. The latest survey from the IUCN, conducted in 2005, said: “The total number of polar bears worldwide is estimated to be 20,000-25,000.”
In May, when the Interior Department listed the polar bear as “threatened,” the Interior secretary said the bear’s population had in fact been growing in recent decades, although the department believed it could become endangered in the future due to projected declines in polar ice.
The suit Palin’s administration filed against the Interior Department, which was sharply criticized by environmentalist groups, was the latest salvo in a running battle she has waged with the department over listing the polar bear under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA).
When Palin was inaugurated Alaska’s governor in December 2006, Interior was preparing to announce that it intended to list the polar bear as “threatened” under the terms of the ESA, a move that could prevent economic development deemed as putting the bear’s habitat at risk.
Days after she took office, Palin wrote and telephoned Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne to register her opposition to listing the polar bear.
Protecting the polar bear population was a good thing, she argued, but she counseled that the state and federal government should work together to find a “realistic” approach that was based on sound science.
“He assured me of his abiding commitment to work with the state to take actions to conserve polar bears, protect their habitat, and manage sustainable uses," Palin later said in a statement describing her conversation with Kempthorne. “Alaska is home to a healthy population of polar bears. We intend to keep it that way.”
Shortly after this conversation, Kempthorne did in fact announce that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was proposing to list the polar bear as “threatened.”
In late March 2007, the Alaska state house and senate backed Palin’s position, voting for a resolution opposing the federal proposal to list the polar bear as threatened.
Palin then submitted to the Interior Department a set of reports making Alaska’s case for not listing the bear. She wrote Kempthorne again.
"I am concerned that the determination made by the [U.S. Fish and Wildlife] Service is based on incomplete information," Palin said in a statement released at that time. “I want Secretary Kempthorne to have all the facts at his disposal before he makes a final decision. The consequences of listing the polar bear will have widespread social and economic impacts without providing any more protection for the bears.”
In October 2007, Palin’s administration issued a response to a set of studies that had been released by the U.S. Geological Survey that attempted to predict future melting of the Arctic ice cap and its effect on polar bear population.
“The State recognizes that a recent warming trend in portions of the Arctic is occurring, but the causes and effects are more diverse, complex and scientifically debated than is recognized in the USGS reports,” her office said in a statement. “As a result, the link between projected warming and the polar bear population in 50 years is highly speculative and questionable. Polar bears survived prior warming periods greater than the current one. The State notes that numerous respected scientists around the world question the forecasting methodologies used to project impacts to polar bears.”
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| Nov 12, 2008 @ 4:53 PM |
Do you care about extinction? |
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Nightowl001
Posts: 7,511
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Unfortunately for the naysayers, the "data" on polar bear populations in the 1950s has been shown to be misleading. The technology wasn't developed yet to do a meaningful survey of species populations in the Arctic.
Answer from Dr. Derocher: The various presentations of biased reporting ignore, or are ignorant of, the different reasons for changes in populations. If I thought that there were more bears now than 50 years ago and a reasonable basis to assume this would not change, then no worries. This is not the case.
The bottom line here is that it is an apples and oranges issue. The early estimates of polar bear abundance are a guess. There is no data at all for the 1950-60s. Nothing but guesses. We are sure the populations were being negatively affected by excess harvest (e.g., aircraft hunting, ship hunting,self-killing guns, traps, and no harvest limits). The harvest levels were huge and growing. The resulting low numbers of bears were due only to excess harvest but, again, it was simply a guess as to the number of bears. http://www.polarbearsinternational.org/ask-the-experts/population/
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| Nov 12, 2008 @ 5:01 PM |
Do you care about extinction?
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vinnytmd
Posts: 6,004
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No - it has not been shown to be misleading. No one can say it is valid.
The fact is that around the pipeline animal population is thriving. There is no proof that drilling in a barren area like ANWR will harm any Polar Bears.
If the Congress wastes any time on crap like this with all that is going on in our country we should gather arms and oust the idiots.
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| Nov 12, 2008 @ 6:40 PM |
Do you care about extinction? |
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sealacamp
Posts: 3,681
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Come on Vinny don't you want to pull your water up from the well by hand? Or dig with a shovel so you can plant your seeds? Or spend 9 months out of the year weeding and cultivating just so you can eat?
Of course if we do that the government can forget about property taxes, income taxes, or just about any other kind of taxes, no more cars, no more lights, tv's, forget music except for what you can make yourself, oh and that animal fat soap will leave you feeling spring fresh and clean too. Don't you want to play?
S
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| Nov 12, 2008 @ 7:44 PM |
Do you care about extinction?
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Haban3ro
Posts: 1,197
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Seal, by the time this economy finishes melting down, that'll be the ONLY thing any of us can do.
Forget global warming. I predict that the US carbon footprint will be a lot smaller in 12 months, and Congress won't have to pass a single law.
I've got an engraved portait of Andrew Jackson to back that up. A year from now, you'll be glad to have it to use as TP.
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| Nov 12, 2008 @ 8:01 PM |
Do you care about extinction? |
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Nightowl001
Posts: 7,511
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The fact is that around the pipeline animal population is thriving. There is no proof that drilling in a barren area like ANWR will harm any Polar Bears. Talk about apples and oranges. A pipeline is not a wellhead operation. It's very misleading to talk about how the animals have adapted well to a pipeline running through the country to how drilling operations disrupt local habitat.
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| Nov 12, 2008 @ 8:33 PM |
Do you care about extinction?
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24knots
Posts: 22
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Reading the posts here I would so say much for the USA educational system 
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| Nov 12, 2008 @ 8:43 PM |
Do you care about extinction? |
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redhairNfreckles
Posts: 4,698
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I've also thought along the lines like you have seal. Around here, many folks do grow their own produce and preserve it for later use. But it's the older folks that are making the effort, the young people are too busy working one or two jobs just to make ends meet. With the economy like it is, and the future not exactly hopeful, we all may be back to living off the land.
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| Nov 12, 2008 @ 9:00 PM |
Do you care about extinction?
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lefthandedluckie
Posts: 6,386
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Once the environment of animals disappears....the human race will disappear, as well! 
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| Nov 12, 2008 @ 9:04 PM |
Do you care about extinction? |
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redhairNfreckles
Posts: 4,698
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Once the environment of animals disappears....the human race will disappear, as well! Proverbs 6:19 KJV
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| Nov 12, 2008 @ 9:22 PM |
Do you care about extinction?
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24knots
Posts: 22
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 Oh the edukatiun
...sorry i should elaborate more often. If anyone actually understood the problem of the Polar Bears then some of these crazy statemnts would be brushed aside and someone might discuss the topic with heart and not cold, cruel, religious based ethics which under the present circumstance suck!
[Edited on 11/12/2008 9:28 PM]
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| Nov 12, 2008 @ 10:16 PM |
Do you care about extinction? |
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redhairNfreckles
Posts: 4,698
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24Knots (running out of "Knots" aren't ya?), the atheist, I was only spoofing with duck, I don't have a clue what that particular scripture says. But of course you wouldn't have known it either since I'm sure a bible isn't in your reading forte.
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| Nov 12, 2008 @ 10:18 PM |
Do you care about extinction?
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Gallows_Humor
Posts: 13,679
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Lets all just quit working, driving or any other modern anything. Go back to farming by hand and make sure that we don't use any electricity. We don't want to do anything to change the planet at all. Bad humans go away!
probably stating the obvious.. but I think he was being sarcastic here..... 
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| Nov 12, 2008 @ 10:21 PM |
Do you care about extinction? |
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redhairNfreckles
Posts: 4,698
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Probably was, but I could live like that and like it (at least for awhile)..... 
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| Nov 12, 2008 @ 10:25 PM |
Do you care about extinction?
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Gallows_Humor
Posts: 13,679
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all I know is..I hate cold showers.... 
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| Nov 12, 2008 @ 10:30 PM |
Do you care about extinction? |
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redhairNfreckles
Posts: 4,698
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Hey, at least you have a shower! I'm having the bathroom remodeled and will be without a shower (it's back ordered) for 2 more weeks.....ugh.
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