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Alaska sues to overturn polar bear protection

Scarecrow Akhbar

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Alaska sues to overturn polar bear protectionANCHORAGE, Alaska | Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell says he has the best interest of polar bears at heart, but he doesn't intend to let the federal government's expanded protection of bears get in the way of the state's continued prosperity.

Like his predecessor, Sarah Palin, the governor is suing the federal government to overturn the listing of the iconic symbol of the Arctic as a threatened species, a move made last year that he thinks could threaten Alaska's lifeblood: petroleum development.

"Currently some are attempting to improperly use the Endangered Species Act to shut down resource development," Mr. Parnell says. "I'm not going to let this happen on my watch."

As Alaska North Slope wells dry up, the state is turning to potential offshore discoveries to refill the trans-Alaska pipeline and ensure the long-term prospects of a $26 billion proposed natural-gas pipeline. Protections for polar bears under the Endangered Species Act could thwart that, Mr. Parnell says, adding that they're not needed.

So polar bears are being used to lose America jobs and energy independence and revenues.

Nuke the polar bears.
 
The polar bear population is increasing. How is it that they are "endangered"?
 
The polar bear population is increasing. How is it that they are "endangered"?

They're not.

The socialists are merely abusing the Endangered Species Act to wreak more harm on America.

That's always been their goal.
 
The polar bear population is increasing. How is it that they are "endangered"?

Last year there were reports that the Bears were not in jeopardy. Oh look a story about it; .: U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works :: Press Room :.

Report Released on January 30, 2008
U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee


The United States Fish and Wildlife Service is considering listing the polar bear a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. This report details the scientists debunking polar bear endangerment fears and features a sampling of the latest peer-reviewed science detailing the natural causes of recent Arctic ice changes.

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service estimates that the polar bear population is currently at 20,000 to 25,000 bears, up from as low as 5,000-10,000 bears in the 1950s and 1960s. A 2002 U.S. Geological Survey of wildlife in the Arctic Refuge Coastal Plain noted that the polar bear populations “may now be near historic highs.” The alarm about the future of polar bear decline is based on speculative computer model predictions many decades in the future. And the methodology of these computer models is being challenged by many scientists and forecasting experts.

I kind of like to look at more than one source. This is and official one.
Anecdotal evidence in the form of stories from northern Europe last year said the numbers were such that the bears were becoming a nuisance.
 
So polar bears are being used to lose America jobs and energy independence and revenues.

Nuke the polar bears.

Removing an animal from the Endangered Species Protection Act is something to be proud of. It means we have successfully revived that species, we won that battle.

Now as the left only rewards failure, it makes sense that they would frown upon polar bears graduating the evolutionary equivalent of AA; especially since doing so harms Al'Gore's claim that the polar bears are at risk from global warming.

If you're temporally disabled, you get the parking permit and special access. When you're healed, you loose you handicap permit and special access.

As polar bears are no longer in danger, they loose the special privileges associated with protecting them. Our need for oil now supersedes their privilege to live on a few secluded acres.

They can have the rest of the state.
 
I'm all for protecting endangered species, but even after reading the article, I'm still not sure how offshore oil drilling is supposed to threaten them. The article suggested they were threatened because they live on the ice, and there's less ice now than there used to be (and predictions say there will be even less in the future.) But it doesn't really explain the link between offshore oil drilling and less ice. Does offshore drilling make the ice melt faster somehow? I just don't get it.
 
I'm all for protecting endangered species, but even after reading the article, I'm still not sure how offshore oil drilling is supposed to threaten them. The article suggested they were threatened because they live on the ice, and there's less ice now than there used to be (and predictions say there will be even less in the future.) But it doesn't really explain the link between offshore oil drilling and less ice. Does offshore drilling make the ice melt faster somehow? I just don't get it.

There is not less ice.

That is a leftist lie.

Al'Gore used pictures taken in winter and compared them to pictures taken in the summer. It's deception, nothing more.

Global warming is not an issue.
 
Global warming is not an issue.

I'm not saying it is. I'm not saying it isn't either, though. I don't think we know enough to prove anything conclusively at this point. That's why I think taking drastic action to try to 'correct' it is a foolhardy idea.

However, my point was that the article was saying that melting ice is the reason the polar bears are threatened, but did nothing to explain how offshore drilling would further threaten them. I still don't get it.
 
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